It’s that time of the year again: the season of new arrivals! Migrants have come back from their winter holidays in Africa and southern Europe and, the breeding season being well underway, chicks have started to appear at the reserve!
The reserve is home to many breeding birds with 48 breeding species in 2011, from lapwing to great spotted woodpecker. Whilst some birds are masters at hiding their nests and protecting their chicks, some are (to our enjoyment) much more comfortable in the limelight.
A pair of blue tits has laid their eggs in our camera-planted nestbox. Live retransmission in the visitor centre allows us to spy on the young family. Seven eggs have been laid and should start to hatch between the 22nd and the 26th of May. Missus looks very cosy on her feathery nest and Mister has been coming back and forth to feed her. I cannot wait to see the wee chicks!
A mute swan has built a nest by the side of the Barr Loch so we can also expect to see lots of lovely cygnets in the weeks to come.
The starlings nesting in the roof of our building have left their nest, but are not quite independent yet. Although they are as big as their parents, they still expect to be fed and make it known very loudly.
Finally, our mallard ducklings have grown up quite a bit and are probably the equivalent of teenagers in duck years. Adult feather are coming through their duckling duvet but they are still very cute. They come regularly to the feeders but can’t quite fit through our pigeon-guard anymore.
Tree pipit and osprey by Mike Langman (rspb-images)
In the meantime, swallows, swifts and warblers have made their way back to the reserve and an osprey was even spotted flying over the reserve on the 7th of May. In other news, a tree pipit was recorded on the reserve on the 3rd of May, exactly sixty years after the last sighting: maybe a nod to the Diamond Jubilee?
It’s now been a month since this blog was last updated, but what a month! Here are a few snapshots of what happened at the reserve for the last 30 days or so.
A load of rubbish: The Song of the Paddle canoe club did an amazing job collecting about two tons of rubbish from the shores of our lochs. Remember take your rubbish away with you when you’re out and about!
The Great Egg Drop: We celebrated Easter in style with our Easter EGGstravaganza: young visitors looked for 25 chicks scattered around the reserve, made some funky decorations and built egg-protection devices, out of paper, plastic cups and string. Not all survived the drop from the viewing tower though.
Not all eggs survived the drop!
One of our "lost" chicks
One hundred and one birds: Our reserve bird list reached 101 species yesterday! Not bad when we consider there were 118 different bird species for the whole of 2011. This was the highest count in ten years and it seems that 2012 might beat it. Highlights in April included a goshawk, a merlin and a hen harrier. Whilst our smew finally left (it was last seen on the 28th of April, which is the latest we’ve ever seen a smew here) summer migrants started to arrive. Swallow, swifts and sand martins are flying over the loch; warblers are singing in the woods and the marshland…
Chicks and ducklings: It’s that time of the year again! Starlings are nesting in our roof (I can hear their chicks chirp frenetically as I type), mallard mums are taking their ducklings to our feeders and our nestbox cam is spying on two blue tits nests (one has six eggs, the other doesn't have any yet but there is loads of home improvement going on).
All in all April has been a pretty great month and I have a feeling May is going to be just as full of excitement, pop along to the reserve to be part of it!
Every season has its perks but spring is without a doubt my favourite. There’s just so much happening, especially in a wildlife haven like Lochwinnoch! Every day brings something new: flowers that weren’t there the previous day; insects you hadn’t seen in months; fresh, bright green leaves; and even some sunshine – if you’re lucky! It is the perfect time to take a walk in the woodland and around the Loch, amongst bird song and woodpecker drumming.
It is obvious that the breeding season is fast approaching: birds are looking for mates and for a nice territory to bring up their brood. The winter truce, with flocks of tits and finches sticking together to keep warm and avoid danger, is over. It’s back to “every bird for himself”. Woodland birds are singing away, both to attract mates and to warn strangers to stay away if they care for their plumage. Goldeneyes and great crested grebes are displaying to charm their mates, and male mallards have been fighting, leaving quite a few feathers behind… Some couples have already paired up and have started building their nests: from the centre, visitors can observe blue tits coming in and out of their next box and rooks carrying mouthfuls of grass in their beaks.
It’s not just about birds, and frogs have been rather busy themselves, as you can see in the photo below. This is just the beginning though, and I am looking forward to some amazing wildlife sightings: adorable chicks and ducklings, and migrants arriving (chiffchaffs are already back and singing and I’ll be watching out for swifts and sand martins flying over the loch, or maybe an osprey…).
below are a few spring-themed pictures that I've taken to illustrate the arrival of spring, sorry the quality is not great!
Dunnock singing
Long-tailed tits building their nest
Blossom
Frog spawn
Actually, this may not be news if you're following our Facebook page or if you've happened to pop down to the reserve in the last month or so. Our male smew has become sort of a local attraction, some would even say star. Since the end of January our Facebook updates have begun to sound a bit like a broken record: “male smew on the Barr Loch...click... male smew on the Aird meadow...click...male smew... click.. smew... click... smew... click... smew”. However, thanks to its good looks and the rarity of his species, Mr. Smew’s popularity never faltered. To this day, visitors and staff still meticulously scan the Loch through their scopes to admire this beautiful rare duck. It’s not all about looks though, so read on if you want to get to know our local celebrity a bit better.
Drake smew at Lochwinnoch, photo by Allan Simpson
Smews breed in the Northern Taiga of Finland and Russia. More precisely, - and somewhat surprisingly- the female smew nests in trees by slow rivers and other bodies of water. They use tree holes, such as old woodpecker nests, or even specially made nestboxes. As winter approaches, they migrate South, mainly towards the Low Countries (Luxembourg, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and Northern Germany), and the Black sea. There, they favour sheltered coastal areas and fishy lakes. In Britain, they are found mostly on the South-Eastern English coast in winter. Only 10 to 60 of them visit Scotland each year.
“Our” smew has only been around since late January tough. This seems to indicate that it spent the winter some place else and decided to enjoy a wee stay at Lochwinnoch on his way back.
Male smews are unmistakable. Their delicate black markings on white plumage give them a gorgeous “cracked ice” appearance. The females and immature males (impossible to distinguish the two- unless you’re a smew) look a bit rougher but also more colourful: their body might be grey but their head is a lovely chestnut colour, which is why they are commonly called “redhead smews”. Both have a short beak with a hooked tip and serrated edges. This “sawbill” makes it easier for them to catch the fish they pursue underwater. In the summer, their diet might also include insects and larvae.
Plate 347 of Birds of America by John James Audubon depicting Smew or White Nun.
By the end of winter, male smews usually start displaying to females by flicking their beak from side to side and raising their crown feathers. Couples then pair off before migrating back to the Taiga. Despite the lack of any female smews in Lochwinnoch, we did witness some courtship behaviour. Whilst we haven’t seen a full display, “our” smew has shown possessive behaviour towards a female goldeneye, fiercely chasing off the competition. Though this might seem strange, smews and goldeneyes have been known to interbreed. They are actually closely related and have similar nesting behaviours (Goldeneyes nest in tree holes too!). Slightly stranger, male goldeneyes were spotted displaying to a male smew in Lochwinnoch last year. I guess such good looks cannot leave anyone cold!
This is not the first year our reserve has been visited by a smew. It is now the third year in a row that a male smew chose to spend the end of winter at Lochwinnoch, sometimes accompanied by a “redhead”, but not this year. In 2010 and 2011, regular smew sightings were recorded between late February and early April, on both occasions for a period of six weeks. With a bit of luck, our smew’s stay will last as long this year, which would leave you a couple of weeks to pop in to the reserve to admire him for yourselves, if you haven’t yet.
So, we haven't quite made the 120 species we were looking for, we did get one more though to make us up to 118 in total (woodcock was the 118 species.) But, I still think 118 is a good number for this year and hope we can do even better in 2012! We have had some excellent additions thanks to our visitors, volunteers, staff and seemingly resident photographers (you know who you are!) and many of these records would not have come about were it not for the passion, enthusiasm and sheer love of birds and wildlife that we have seen over the past 12 months, so thank you!
Highlights for me during November/December have included the family of four otters that we witnessed frolicking on the extremely flooded Aird Meadow on the 29th November. Not only could we see them so very close to the building, for at least an hour they were very visible (although sadly we had very few visitors as the village and road was flooded,) we could hear the mother calling to her cubs, followed by the whole family swimming off together into the distance. I have never seen such a spectacular and intimate view of otter behaviour and felt very lucky to have been a part of it.
December also proved to be a smashing month for hen harriers, with regular sightings over the Aird Meadow and the Barr Loch, at various times of day, giving smashing views and producing some excellent shots from our photographers. The photographs also helped us to recognise that we had seen at least three different male birds over the Aird Meadow, due to the variations in plumage that had been captured by different people throughout the month. This is excellent because, as many of you will already know, hen harriers are suffering a great deal in England, with only four successful breeding pairs this year.
Finally, this week just goes to show that you never know what you'll get on your bird feeder list, as we have had a whooper swan tucking in to all of our left-over fruit and veg at the visitor centre feeders. Normally a resident at Castle Semple Loch, 'Whoopy' has discovered the fruit, veg, seed and fresh grass that our feeding station has to offer and doesn't seem keen to go anywhere else for the time being!
For the most up-to-date information about sightings and interesting goings-on at Lochwinnoch, join our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RSPBLochwinnochNR)
Happy New Year to you all and we hope to see you in 2012!
- Paula