Hi all,
The reserve has indeed been a busy place over the past week, with lots of young birds now leaving their nests into the big wide world, including our own great tit family that visitors have enjoyed watching on the webcam. We've had lots of warblers about including sedge, garden, blackcap, willow, chiffchaff and common whitethroats. The swifts and swallows have been delighting us with spectacularly low displays over the meadow. I was out there today and one flew so low I thought it would hit us!
It's not just birds though, the warmer evenings have been bringing some great moths into our trap. Last night alone we had 2 elephant hawk moths, 5 poplar hawk moths, 2 buff tips, 2 beautiful golden y, 3 drinkers (the caterpillar for which we saw on our bat and moth night) 1 white ermine and the first large yellow underwing of the year - in previous years we've had almost 100 individuals of this moth in the trap!
Damselflies are starting to make an appearance too, with common blue and azure blue both being seen around the Barr Loch. Large red has also been found.
It won't be long now before all of the young toads and frogs emerge from the pond, and our Fantastic Frogs event makes the most of their arrival, as kids go out on a great frog hunt to try to find the tiny amphibians around the reserve. More details about this event can be found on the RSPB Lochwinnoch webpages: www.rspb.org.uk/lochwinnoch
We've had a very hard working work party from Royal Sun Alliance helping us out today, clearing the view to the two main pond by the visitor centre, so next time you come in and can see the ducks in the pond, be thankful to them as they've all been working super hard.
Last but not least, the planning application for the proposed Lochwinnoch habitats project is now live on Renfrewshire Council website. Should you wish to find out more about our plans, and support our proposals, you can do so by visiting
http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/publishing.nsf/Content/pt-sw-planning-application-search and typing in 11/0259/PP into the search bar. You can also pop in to see us at the visitor centre any time or call us on 01505 842663 for more information.
We hope to see you soon!
Paula