It's not even halloween yet and we already have a Water Witch

(Photo Derek Dixon)

Water Witch you might ask.....well it's another name for one of the birds we have on the reserve at the moment.....more about that later!

Down on the reserve today the wind was blowing and the clouds were threatening some down pours. Black combe was cloaked in mist but it managed to stay dry as I walked around to the hide to see what the work party had been up to yesterday. I was able to attend but Stephen and Dave with volunteers looked like they had done a fair bit. The main focus had been on everything floating! Getting the second floating fence ready in place to be set up and also floating some more of our islands. It has been a bit of a learning curve with both projects but it looks like we are making progress. I met a nice group of people on the reserve today who asked what the mess was on the island. The mess is all of the wood and materials ready to be put into place........so this is what it is and it hopefully won't be a mess after we get everything up and running!

I recieved and email from Derek Dixon with some good shots of the Slavonian Grebe, or water witch as it's also know to some, which has been on the reserve for the last week. First seen last Saturday by myself it has been visible throughout the week. I thought I had two grebes on Monday but couldn't find the second one after a fleeting view. I though I must have been dreaming it until Derek confirmed and today I saw the two together. They like to hang out in the bay near to the stone light house in with the Red-breasted mergansers which we have had a good number of lately. We had a Slavonian Grebe thoughout last winter which even turned to summer plumage before it left in the spring. Could this be the same one and will it stay the winter like last year?

Others about are large numbers of Redshank with Turnstone in amongst the action. Snipe are loving the island at the moment and are nice to pick out. There is also a few large flocks of smaller birds including long-tailed tits, great tits, blue tits, goldfinches knocking about all over the place - they are very noisy and I could get quite close.

As usual if you have any sightings let me know on here or send us an email.

Cheers

Mhairi