Well, that’s it now, it’s the end of the breeding season for the Slavonian Grebes this year. The adults have all changed into their stunning black and white winter plumage, their chicks have grown into fully-fledged juveniles, and they are all starting to make their way to their wintering sites. It is thought that our small population winters off of our coastline, but not enough is known about these majestic birds to be one hundred percent certain. What we do know is that many Slavonian Grebes will be coming all the way from the core of the population in Iceland and Norway to winter off of the British coastline, increasing our numbers from just 29 pairs in the summer months, to hundreds of individuals over the winter. I wish them every success over the winter months, and hope that they all survive their winter at sea, and choose to come back to breed at Loch Ruthven again next year, for all of you to enjoy! They had a brilliant breeding season this year, with the highest number of pairs for several years producing good numbers of chicks. Let’s just hope that they can carry on this trend again next year, so that the population can get to a level where it is stable and self-sustaining. Here at the RSPB we are doing so much for these beautiful little birds, and with your support, we hope that we can continue the work that has been completed this year, so that we can learn more about Slavonian Grebes, and increase the Scottish population once more!
I too am leaving now that we’ve come to the end of the breeding season, but I hope that you have all been entertained by these blog posts, and that you have had the chance to see the grebes and their chicks in all of their breeding season glory. If not, don’t worry! Just keep an eye on the sea just off of the British coastline, and maybe you’ll get to see a Slavonian Grebe or three floating on the water there! Not to mention all of the other interesting seabirds that you might get to see, such as the teeny tiny Little Auk, only the size of a Starling, moving from their breeding grounds in the Arctic all the way down to the North Sea to spend their winters, they are often seen during gales. I have really enjoyed my time spent working with the Slavonian Grebes and all of the other species found at Loch Ruthven, one of the RSPB's smaller reserves, but still so important! I hope that you all continue to visit and enjoy this reserve and its wildlife in the years to come, and that you continue to post your brilliant photos on this website!
Thank you so much to all of the staff in the North Scotland office, you’ve all been so brilliant and so helpful, but special thanks go to the Central Highland Reserves team, it really has been a pleasure to work with you guys, and I hope that we can all keep in touch! I hope that the winter work all goes to plan, and that we get even more grebes coming back next year! A very big thank you goes out to all of the Guide in the Hide volunteers, you were all a big help to me throughout the season, keeping me informed of all that goes on at the reserve when I couldn’t be there, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it as much as I have, and I hope that you can all come back again next year! Another big thank you goes out to my reserve volunteers, who helped me out throughout the season with some of the practical work, as well as with the survey work. I know that some of you have gone on to work and volunteer at other places, and I wish you the best of luck, but to those who haven’t, I hope you stick around and come back again next year! I’ve met so many interesting people whilst working at Loch Ruthven, and the reserve wouldn’t be what it is without all of our lovely visitors! I hope you all enjoyed your visit to Ruthven and that you get the chance to visit some of our other beautiful reserves across the country! I really have enjoyed working with you all, and I hope that you have all enjoyed it too! I will keep checking this blog to see how everything goes over the winter and next year, and I hope that all of my readers will do the same! I’m sure I’ll be back to work for the RSPB again soon, but until then, goodbye everyone!
Sarah West