This week we had an influx of pink-footed geese and whooper swans making their noisy entrance from Greenland and Iceland.

Photo: Paul Ashcroft (rspb-images.com)

Red squirrels have been seen every day foraging for food to stash away. The new leafy loop path, the larches and woodland trail are the best places to catch them. 

Photo: Alan Brown (rspb-images.com)

Other sightings this week include: flocks of curlews…

This week saw the first true signs of autumn, leaves have just started turning and the wetlands are becoming more and more exciting. Osprey numbers are down to the odd sighting, meaning they have journeyed south on their way to central Africa. Thank you Thomas Jolliffe for sending in this osprey photo, they are hard to capture way out on the fence posts!

Another great photo sent in this week is a marsh harrier…

Ospreys! The final osprey count for the day is nine, slightly less than our impressive twelve seen yesterday. We're very lucky to be the choice osprey migration route and based on previous years we expect to see them for another week, so drop by if you haven't had a chance to see them yet. We are hearing rumors that the first pink-footed geese are on the way, watch this space!

Osprey -  Chris Gomersall (rspb…

Another exciting week for sightings here at RSPB Loch Leven as we creep into September and the heather and blaeberry look lovely.

Hundreds of Pintails have arrived from their breeding grounds in Iceland and northern Europe. A nice reminder of RSPB's first connection to Loch Leven when in 1901 special "watchers" were positioned to protect them from shooters who were keen on making them into hats. There are…

With our 50 year anniversary just around the corner we’ve been doing some digging around the RSPB Scotland Loch Leven archives and have found some brilliant photos of our various nature education programmes including these ones of our former field teachers , Bridget Gray, in action.

 

Then....

And now...

 

As we’ve just been nominated for the “best conservation charity for families” award…

Here is our sightings board for the week and it's pretty exciting:

 

It's not every week that we can say we've seen ospreys every day at RSPB Loch Leven. The record for the week is six ospreys but we're hoping we may beat last year's record of thirteen in the coming days and weeks. The last osprey reported here last year was on September 21 so hopefully we'll have plenty more opportunities to see these brilliant…

It's been quite a week for wildlife sightings at RSPB Scotland Loch Leven so far. On the loch we've had 541 tufted duck, 54 barnacle geese, little grebes with chicks, great crested grebes with chicks, a kingfisher, over 50 linnets, curlews, wheatears, a kestrel, a water rail, meadow pipits, pochards, gadwalls, 3 ospreys next to the carden hide and also willow warblers and a young red squirrel in the wildlife garden this…

We're really excited that RSPB Scotland Loch Leven has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence on TripAdvisor! 

We are really grateful to everyone who takes the time to give us feedback and really pleased to read all your nice comments and your tips for how we can make things better. We're sorry that the listing still has the old name if it makes it harder to find it - we're working on changing it.

We…

Spring is in the air and summer certainly feels like it's around the corner, even after the snowy cover we experienced last week at RSPB Loch Leven. It's also another great week for wildlife sightings with swallows starting to build their nests in the courtyard, sixteen goslings were spotted in one goose family and a pied wagtail has been working hard on it's nest under the solar panel.

We're on the look…

With lapwings displaying, frogs in the ponds and blossom on the trees it’s high time for a sightings update and a look forward to the season ahead.

March began with the skylarks singing on the wetland trail and frequent sightings of short-eared owls. Throughout the month bramblings have been joining large flocks of chaffinches at the cafe bird feeders and almost managing to blend in.

The first frogs arrived…

With over a hundred bird boxes on site, it’s always interesting to see the results of the annual survey and this time we have exciting news. Ten years ago there were no tree sparrows nesting at RSPB Loch Leven and this year we had 15 nest boxes being used by tree sparrows, a great result.

In the past we had been aware of tree sparrows nesting nearby at Levenmouth but there were no known records of them nesting…

 

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…

Looking to get some quality experience with Europe’s largest conservation charity, engaging with young people and delivering environmental education? 

RSPB Scotland Loch Leven is pleased to offer a Volunteer Learning Assistant Internship from March - September 2016 for teaching and engagement staff.

We are looking for an intern to deliver clearly defined sessions to groups of up to 30 young people of all ages.…

December is a brilliant time for birds on the wetland and there have been some unusual and exciting visitors recently. Two short eared owls were the first excitement of the week. Kingfishers, a female smew (known as a redhead), a green-winged teal, a stonechat, peregrines, goosanders and thousands of pink footed geese about continue to keep things interesting.

Now the leaves have fallen it's also a lovely time to appreciate…

The Eagles are back!

The short cold snap this weekend saw the return of White-tailed Eagles to Loch Leven, making it the 3rd year running that the birds have shown up in November; checking back, previous dates were the 28th November in 2013, and the 30th November in 2014. A single bird with a turquoise tag was seen on Reed Bower on the 21st, and was joined on the 22nd by a second bird spotted on St Serfs. These are likely…

For an English person on a visit north of the boarder, Loch Leven holds all kinds of amazing sights that frequent visitors might take for granted. 

On my first day I was on a walk up Vane Hill with Uwe (the Tayside area manager). Even the sight, smell and taste of bilberries (sorry blaeberries) was a novelty for my southern acclimatised senses, but when three plump birds erupted from the heather and flew into the distance…

Despite being the "quiet" time for birds, in late June into early July, a situation not helped by the poor weather we've just had, its been an interesting time around the reserve recently.

A pair of Garganey have been skulking around the Carden Flood since the 13th of the month. An elegant little duck in breeding plumage, as can be seen below

                         Male and female Garganey   -    Roger Wilmshurst…

Ever wondered what people used to use in Scotland to colour their fabrics? We have been working with horticultural student Julia Herzog in search of traditional dye plants of Scotland with an aim to create a native dye garden of our own here at RSPB Loch Leven. This week we began installing the garden which will be used for education in the future; I’m excited to see what we make. Many plants which we may think of…

If there's one species that marks April on the reserve, it's the Lapwing. Mating, nesting, displaying, calling; they seem to be everywhere, though by far the best place to see them is from the Waterston Hide. This year is already looking good, with 13 nests identified so far, 9 up on the same time last year.

Another prominent group just now are the Black-headed Gulls. These birds are hard to miss, especially…

The work to improve the rear entrance area of the Visitor Centre is progressing well, however, at some time next week, it will be necessary to close  the ramp access to the upstairs cafe while work is being carried out. Access via the internal stairway will not be affected.

For this reason, If you're visiting the centre next week, we'd recommend that you phone and check with the staff beforehand. Please phone 01577 862355…

The work in the back car park is continuing and progressing well. So far some of the woodland has been removed to create more space for seating and repositioning of the storage container and next week work will begin on the existing path.

The path improvements will temporarily limit access to the ramp leading up to the café, it is likely that wheelchairs and prams will be unable to use the ramp for a couple of…

We are making some layout and landscaping improvements to the rear entrance of the visitor centre and back car park. Work began in early February and runs until the end of March. Visitors can still access the wetland hides and Heritage Trail as normal, but please be aware of on-going work and stick to designated routes. As part of this work, the access ramp to the cafe will be unavailable for a couple of days. Exact…

This week saw the return of the White-tailed Eagles, spotted on Reed Bower last Sunday, together with colder more wintery conditions. 

The frozen pools meant fewer birds around on the wetland area, however Vane Bay remained unfrozen.  

On the 26th, two female and three male Scaup were in the bay.

A female Smew has been a persistent visitor over the past few weeks, but was joined on Friday (30th) by a male. Several pairs…

As I sit here with the rain bucketing down outside, I'm thinking that it was only three weeks ago, I was in the Waterston hide with the door and windows open, a balmy 19°C in the bright sunshine, listening to Skylarks singing away, whilst watching Meadow Pipets, Pied Wagtails, Linnets and a family of Stonechats.

It's been a quiet time on the reserve over the last few weeks. Despite the strong westerlies, bringing…

Exciting news at Loch Leven over the weekend - the first sighting of bearded tits on the NNR.

First spotted on Saturday morning, the birds were seen in a patch of reedbed on the north of the loch. The birds were subsequently seen again this morning.

It's thought that the birds may have originated from the population on the Tay. Other bearded tit sightings over the weekend indicate wider movement of the birds, as beardies…