Today's update comes from Ken, one of our volunteer reserve guides. As well as coming in twice a week to act as a 'guide in the hide', helping visitors to spot wildlife and tell their mallards from their moorhens, he has kindly agreed to help keep our sightings up to date online too. Cheers Ken!

Quite a quiet day today on the reserve, after all the Pink-Footed and Greylag geese flew off this morning (no pun intended).

There were a lot of Lapwing around, when the Sparrowhawk wasn't chasing them off, and up to a dozen Whooper Swans; after last weeks heavy rain, raised water levels on the Carden flood and Loch Leven has meant that the waders and dabbling ducks have temporarily moved to wet pastures new. As a consequence, the numbers of teal and widgeon on the reserve are down on the recent high numbers.

Around 14 Goosander were still present on the loch, together with the resident Great Crested Grebes and a visiting Slavonian Grebe.

Recent sightings also include Snipe and Black-tailed Godwit.

 

Tuesday 23rd October:

We had another goose count on Loch Leven this morning, with pink footed geese numbers now up to a staggering 15,600!