Although it’s not part of the reserve Ardnave is a mere 3 miles up the road from the Loch Gruinart visitor centre and is a fantastic place to do a bit of wildlife spotting. There’s a circular route that leads from the loch around the rocky coastline, though the dunes and back again and we regularly nip up there to do the winter thrush and the Ardnave loch and coastal survey. During the last few visits I’ve seen teal, ringed plover, dunlin, turnstone, curlew, barnacle geese, red breasted merganser, shelduck, oystercatcher, great northern and red throated diver, shag, rock pipit, redwing, raven, hen harrier, atlantic grey seal, hare…the list could go on. Chough are also a regular sighting as well as otter and at the moment a flock of snow bunting, although I’m still waiting to see them. They seem to know when I’m coming! So if you’re coming to visit us here at Loch Gruinart why not also try your luck up at Ardnave.