This week, thankfully, the sun is out along with a variety of very interesting birds. In the car park you are surrounded by the lovely song of willow warblers in an atempt to find a mate. On the flood there are wigeon , mallard, two pairs of shellduck, shoveler, gadwall, tufted ducks and a pair little grebes. Though the majority of the pink footed geese have headed further north we still have some pink footed and barnacle geese on the island and greylag geese with adorable goslings on the reserve. After a whole day of trying to see some gull eggs on St Serfs, we did not, though the gulls seem to be a lot more protective over their nest.
Our celebrity robins on our CCTV now have four giant chicks which are flapping and preening all day long. One of our nesting swans can also be seen, but unfortunately with no chicks yet.
Check the blog next week to see if our swans have laid eggs and if our robins have fledged!
The Red Breasted goose was back once again on the reserve seen in amongst a flock of pink-foots and 1 barnacle goose. Let's hope he doesn't follow the pinkies North!
A couple of visitors also reported hearing a wood warbler today, close to the reserve car park. Cut and paste this address into your browser to familiarise yourself with it's call: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/w/woodwarbler/index.aspx
6 little moorhen chicks also joined the growing list of new arrivals at Vane Farm seen splashing around the first hide and its pools.
As I am typing this blog the rain is pouring from the sky, as it has been doing all day. When the flood can be seen through the thick mist there are a few pairs shoveler, some wigeon, a pair of great crested grebes and a large flock of tufted duck with the occasional pochard mixed in. Towards the loch shore a group of around 40 pink footed geese are grazing along with one barnacle goose .On the loch there is very little with only 5 coots and a few mallard, though on St. Serfs there are plenty of gulls nearly ready to lay eggs.
At the visitor center this morning a stunning spotted flycatcher could easily be seen after its long distance migration probably from the south of the equator (very exciting as it is a first for me).
Lets hope that the weather will improve by next weekend and perhaps the gulls of St Serfs may be incubating eggs.
Spotted Flycatcher Richard Brooks (rspb-images.com)
David Norton (rspb-images.com)
A pair of bullfinches have been visiting the feeding stations this morning. There is a good variety of duck on the flood, including shoveler, pochard, wigeon and tufted. Four young robins have hatched and can be viewed from our cafe webcam.
Ernie Janes (rspb-images.com)
Reserve visitors were treated to the stunning sight of an osprey scooping a trout from the loch this morning. Large numbers of wigeon and some shelduck are foraging around the scrapes from where a snipe was flushed.