I must say it’s been a refreshing start to 2016 at Loch Leven, with frosty mornings and trees bare the list of wildlife spotted is looking good.
Flocks of bullfinches, curlews, lapwings, goosanders and barnacle geese have been around all week. Today we’ve had over sixty cormorants and fifty coots swimming in the bay, a kingfisher spotted from the first hide along with a sparrowhawk and a kestrel sitting next to the bird feeders waiting for an unlucky small bird to drop in. Daily red squirrel sightings (or even two if you are lucky) next to the visitor centre have also been great fun. Don’t forget to let us know what you see around, it’s great to spread the word.
Our winter visiting white tailed sea eagle has been around regularly on St Serfs Island and this weekend was joined by another eagle, thought to be from the west coast reintroduction programme. Watch this space.
Coming up this month we have our first Nature Tots event where we'll be investigating footprints, Scott Paterson is running his highly recommended introduction to birdwatching course on Wed 20 (just a few spaces left) and we'll be nest box building and bird ringing with BTO as part of the Big Garden Birdwatch on Satursday 30 Jan. See our events listings for more details.
If you are interested in helping out during this year’s breeding season at Loch Leven we’ll soon be advertising for a volunteer lapwing assistant to help monitor nests, get in touch for more information. We are also offering an outdoor learning internship position, for details visit http://www.rspb.org.uk/joinandhelp/volunteering/details.aspx?id=7754
Here’s to a great 2016!