Despite the chilly conditions we've had an excellent spate of sightings over the last few days, with today being classed as "bird of prey heaven" by Colin Ross (he's very excitable). So far today we've had 6 different species spied on the reserve and over the loch - all looking glorious in the winter sunshine. A white-tailed eagle has been seen regularly around the loch since Saturday, it's likely to be a 2009 bird (turquoise H) as it was tracked in the area yesterday. 2 male hen harriers have been hunting over the reserve (1 today), dropping down into the rushes to catch a quick snack. Our regular kestrel sighting was great, but a sparrowhawk was seen zooming past as the kestrel hovered over the wetland. Buzzards have been perching and hunting, with regulars seen in the main car park. And up in the crags above the centre a peregrine was checking out the views.
An NNR goose count took place on Monday morning and the results are a little surprising - about 17300 pinkies and over 600 greylags were recorded roosting on the loch - up from the previous count. It's likely that as smaller water bodies have frozen over, with the cold spell, that more geese have been forced from their regular sites and have come to join the Loch Leven flocks - all the better for us.