A rather wet and windy start to the day, though it brightened up in the afternoon and we were rewarded with some great birds. The flood has shoveler, gadwall, mallard, coots and a large flock of wigeon grazing on the grass. After much searching finally the wheatears were found ( a new bird for me) and three of them are showing well, running along one of the reserves stone walls. The back edge of the reserve, towards the loch shore, has over twenty whooper swans and large amounts of golden eye. On the feeders the usual goldfinches are fighting along with a male and female redpoll and a selection of garden birds.
My weekly walk up the hill was rather productive today with plenty of small birds preparing for the breeding season and a fantastic view of a peregrine. What more could you ask for in a day?
Who knows next week the reserves swallows may have returned, check in and find out.
Andrew Parkinson (rspb-images.com)