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…

Yesterday morning I got out of bed at 5.30am, put on all my thermals, donned my head torch, scraped the ice off my car and set off to the reserve to meet up with Vicky (our warden) before the sun came up. We met up at 6.20am, and made our way under the starry skies to a view point on the southern shore of the loch.

Our task? To count all the pink footed geese on Loch Leven.

But Loch Leven, as you well know, is pretty…

Apologies for the lack of blogging lately, I've been on leave for 3 weeks (inlcuding a spell volunteering for RSPB's international partner, Birdlife, in Malta - but more about that another time).

When I left in mid September, swallow chicks were still squeaking for food in their cosy nests above the toilets, warblers were still in the woodland, and the very first geese were only just beginning to drift in.

Returning…

The loch this morning was picture perfect, with blue skies above and a flat calm loch. The change of season has also brought with it thousands of pink footed geese, that were today feeding on the reserve and the adjacent fields. We now also have some whooper swans at loch Leven with six of them feeding in the bay throughout the day. Along with them were many greylag geese, plenty of great crested grebes, a variety of…

Did you know that this month has been officially declared Organic September? http://www.soilassociation.org/organicseptember 

It is the Soil Association's month long celebration of all things organic, and here at RSPB Loch Leven, we're delighted to join in!

From the beans in our coffee to the flour & butter in our scones, the lentils in our soup to the oil on our salads, and our range of snacks and soft drinks…

What a great day! We were lucky enough to have a marsh harrier on the reserve today, which was seen in flight and feeding regularly throughout the day. There are also osprey, buzzards and a single kestrel on the reserve. The herons on the reserve have been showing well today as they attack the marsh harrier in flight. On the loch there is a large and varied flock of ducks, including gadwall, teal, mallard and some shoveler…

It was a huge surprise to us arriving to work on Friday morning to find a generous donation had been left for us by a mystery visitor - scores of fantastic wildlife books, binoculars and even a telescope.

We are all amazed by the generosity of our mystery donor, and want to take this opportunity, if you're reading, to say thank you. As a charity, we rely on the support of individuals to help us in our work, but this is…

As Olympic fever grips the UK and all eyes turn to London for tonight’s 2012 opening ceremony, this weekend we're launching our own version of the famous Games, the Loch Leven Games! 

 We have some amazing record breakers in the world of wildlife from diving beasties to super fast fliers, so with that in mind we wanted to put our visitors to the test with a nature inspired version of the Games!

For the next two…

Another day, another WeBS count - what did I spy yesterday?

The loch is a little on the quiet side - many of the birds are hiding away while they moult, but good numbers of mute swans are very obvious as they gather on the loch to moult. A large raft of greylag geese remain on on the loch - regularly seen to the north of St Serfs. Good numbers of great-crested grebe were seen on the south shore, dotted in amongst the…

What a wet day! The rain hasn't stopped all day, though that has not put off a lot of the birds. There are plenty of gadwall on the flood, along with large numbers of tufted ducks and some cute little shelduck chicks. Talking about chicks, our goslings are now huge and have formed a huge group on the reserve. There are a couple of redshank around the reserve and plenty of lapwings. We were lucky enough to have a peregrine…

It's a bit of a driech day here, so I thought I would take the time to update you on what's been happening here at Loch Leven while I'm sitting inside keeping warm with a cuppa & one of Hazel's home made cakes..

 

Firstly, thank you to everyone who came along to our very first open day on Sunday, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did! We had nearly 500 visitors, all taking part in everything…

After weeks of planning & preparation, our big day is finally here.. and we would like to invite you to the RSPB Loch Leven Open day, tomorrow!!

At 10am tomorrow we open our gates to celebrate our new look and our new name, and we would love you to join us.

 

After months of work refurbishing the visitor centre and improving the wetland, this is your chance to come along and experience our fantastic new look reserve…

Are you captivated by the Springwatch antics on tv at the moment? Fancy getting close up to nature for yourself? Then we've got the perfect day out for you...

The countdown is on to our very first RSPB Loch Leven Open Day onSunday 10th June..

We'll be celebrating our new look visitor centre, our new name, but most importantly, our amazing wildlife. From the ospreys that fish on the loch, to the tadpoles & toads…

First of all apologies for posting the blog on a Monday, I could not gain access to it over the week end. It seems like ages since I last posted a blog- two weeks ago I was checking gull nests on St Serfs island (they are doing well and now the eggs are beginning to hatch) and last week I was at the hugely successful first Scottish. On Saturday the reserve was full of birds with many ducks with ducklings, such as our…

First of all apologies for posting the blog on a Monday, I could not gain access to it over the week end. It seems like ages since I last posted a blog- two weeks ago I was checking gull nests on St Serfs island (they are doing well and now the eggs are beginning to hatch) and last week I was at the hugely successful first Scottish. On Saturday the reserve was full of birds with many ducks with ducklings, such as our…

Here is the second installment of Brian's work placement blog.  We would like to say a huge thanks to Brian for all his help during his placement in April (and for the chocolates he brought us at the end!). Our volunteers are the lifeblood of the reserve, giving up their time and talents to help us towards our conservation goals. So thanks again Brian, we hope you enjoyed it!

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Brian's Work Placement Blog…

We now have a large crèche of greylag goslings, all feeding with their parents. On the wetland there are plenty of teal, mallard, a surprisingly large number of tufted duck and shelducks everywhere. A single osprey has been seen from the visitor today, though there was also one at burleigh sands this morning. The gulls on st serfs are starting to lay eggs and it won't be long now until the chicks hatch. Our nest boxes…

The reserve today is full of ducks, all feeding in the ponds. There are gadwall, teal, wigeon, tufted ducks and a couple of pairs of shell duck. We also have the first group of greylag goslings on the reserve, with a smaller group also on St Serfs. The lapwings on the reserve are busy nesting along with all of the other garden birds, in our nest boxes. Throughout this week a pair of dunnocks and robins have fledged with…

What a fantastic day, I have seen a new species for myself at the reserve- a tundra bean goose. Also I have seen my first osprey of the year flying over the loch, towards the Kinross pier. The bean goose was mixed in with a flock of pink footed geese, two of which had neck collars on but they were too far away to read, which extended over a large area of the reserve. One of my favourite ducks, the gadwall, were present…

My name is Brian Innes, and I am currently studying NC Conservation and Countryside Recreation at Elmwood College, Cupar.  As part of my college course, I am required to take part in a work placement.  For mine, I chose to work at the RSPB Loch Leven Nature Reserve, from the 9th to the 20th of April.

 

Monday 9th April  

A very interesting first day's work placement.  After working with the reserve volunteers in the…

Well, I'm just back from a fantastic week on the isle of Mull where I was lucky enough to see sea eagles, golden eagles and hen harriers. Though there's no eagles here at loch Leven there are plenty of other great animals to keep us occupied. Again, this morning, a tawny owl flew over the picnic area showing off the beautiful patterns on it's wings. Birds are now well underway with the processes of nest building and chick…

Today has been a stunning day, with the sun shining. To start off a great day when we were up at the picnic area, this morning, a tawny owl flew over. On the flood there are few redshank and a small flock of whooper swans. There are still huge numbers of pink footed geese on the reserve feeding on the reserve and adjacent fields. The loch is full of great crested grebes and goldeneye feeding.

It’s been an exciting day for us on the reserve!  Not only did we launch our brand new name: RSPB Loch Leven nature reserve, but we also welcomed a fantastic class of P7 students from nearby Portmoak primary school.  These students spent the morning trying their hand at running a nature reserve and impressed staff and visitors alike with their knowledge, hard work and dedication.

In a bid to show them more about…

What a beautiful day it has been, the sun is still shining over the whole of the reserve. And with this spring weather many of our spring birds are starting to arrive- the lesser and greater black backed gulls are beginning to arrive on St Serfs, though there are still many pink footed geese on the island. We have been watching a pied wagtail today which has been up very close at the cafe window, we think it was looking…

Our shop refit is now complete and we are happy announce that our shop is now open. The cafe is also open and there is plenty to see from the telescopes up there as usual. The whole visitor centre is now looking great, so it is definetly worth coming to the reserve to see the results of all our hard work.