The refurbishment works continue, and we're pleased to say that we're very nearly finished!

Colin & the retail team are delighted to be opening the new-look shop to the public today, and it looks great. The team seem to have magically created more space, with the shop looking much brighter & lighter than before.  They now have 2 till points, so there should be no more long queues and best of all, they…

It's spring again on the reserve with all of our garden birds in search of a site for a nest and great crested grebes displaying on the loch. The wonderful dance of the great crested grebe has begun and it won't now be long until their fluffy chicks are sitting on their backs. With the cafe now up an running, we can again use the cameras which today showed brilliant images of a male and female red breasted merganser behind…

We were lucky enough to have a whole flock of whooper swans very close in to the first hide today, offering great views. One of our visitors today got some great pictures of a peregrine, flying near the last hide with what looked like coot in it's claws. There are also plenty of goldeneye, tufted duck and teal on the loch. I never had much time for birdwatching today as I was in the cafe all day cleaning and preparing…

Apologies for the late blog. The weather condition on Saturday were weird to say the least, with mixtures of snow and sunshine. This didn't seem to put of the birds as many of them were still singing as I walked up the paths. We were making nest boxes on Saturday and as we did so a blue tit was looking for a suitable nesting place under the roof of the visitor centre. There were a few geese around the reserve along with…

 Today Vane once again welcomed the Edinburgh Members Group for a session of (fun) manual labour as we set about improving the area previously known as 'the wee pond beside Little Vane'. The group, along with local volunteer David, began by removing the debris in and around the pond in a bid to create a more welcoming and useful area and open up the overgrown site. The plan was to clear the pond and its surroundings to allow…

I'm sorry to have to share the bad news that our cafe closure is going to be longer than we first thought. We now aim to reopen the cafe and the viewing area fully for the last weekend of the month. I know, I know, we're just as disappointed as you are bound to be, especially Dougie who is keen to get into his new kitchen and get cooking again!

The good news is that we can really start to see the cafe coming…

As part of our ongoing visitor centre refurbishment, our cafe will be closed completely from today (Monday 13 Feb) until Friday 17 Feb.  We aim to reopen in our newly refurbished space this Saturday (18th Feb).

Works are progressing well, Dougie & team in the cafe are going to benefit from a much larger preparation & kitchen area when they move back upstairs, which means that you will benefit from a shorter wait and more…

The loch still has some ice on it, though it has definitely been a lot milder today. When I arrived this morning the birds were calling loudly and the feeders where as busy as ever, there were also a few blue tits beginning to investigate our array of nest boxes. On the loch there are loads of pochard, tufted duck and goldeneye feeding, it won't be long now until the goldeneye begin perform there magnificent display dance…

Above are some of the great pictures taken at yesterday's fantastic ringing demonstration. The event was a great success and we caught 83 birds, two greater spotted woodpecker, a treecreeper, gold and green finches, a variety of tits, blackbirds, dunnocks and robins. All of the birds caught have been added to the information that the BTO have on many bird species, this will continue to help us monitor bird populations…

The reserve is full of birds today, especially curlew which have been probing in the damp mud all day. There is also a small flock of teal and mallard feeding close to the first hide, a great opportunity to see the wonderful colours of the teal up close. On the loch there is a variety of ducks including pochard, tufted ducks, goldeneye and wigeon. This afternoon, as I was talking to a visitor, a sparrow hawk came speeding…

After many months of planning for our big visitor centre refurbishment, moving day is finally here! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be making big changes to the visitor centre – making the cafe and shop brighter and better, with some changes out in the courtyard too.

The cafe is first to go under the hammer so Vicky, Uwe and Dougie were in at 7am this morning shifting furniture and fridges. It’s been all…

Unfortunately the two sea eagles have not been seen today, though there are plenty of other birds to hold our attention. There are pochard, teal, mallard.and tufted ducks all grouped together in the bay along with a small group of fishing gooseander. Smaller numbers of whooper swans are still present on the loch with skenes of geeses still flying close to the reserve. The feeders have been particularly busy today with…

 

After a few days absence, a white-tailed eagle made a dramatic return to the reserve this morning, offering some of the closest views in recent weeks. Perched proudly on a fence post within a few hundred metres of the cafe, the bird is far closer than the usual foraging grounds on St Serf's island. Photo: Mark Hamblin (rspb-images.com)

I hope that you have had a great Christmas period and new year! Today the new year has started well with fantastic sightings of the two sea eagle(wing tag H and X), they were preying on a bird this morning and soaring over St Serfs Island. Away from the sea eagles there are plenty of tufted ducks, pochard, teal, goldeneye, mallard, a few pintail and a couple of shoveler. There is a single red-head (female) smew in the…

New Year, New Vane!

Over the next couple of months, there will be lots of work going on here to make the visitor centre, shop & cafe brighter and better!

The cafe is the first area to receive special treatment, with work starting on Monday 16th January. Don't panic though - during the works, Dougie & team will be moving downstairs to run a reduced cafe service for you from the education room. They'll still…

 This morning, at around 9am, I sat down at the telescopes in the cafe to see what birds were around. I scanned over the wetland, seeing whoopers, teal and wigeon happily feeding away, then to the loch where pochard, tufties and goldeneye were diving in the calm waters. Next was St Serfs - were the eagles still around? As they've been doing regularly for the last few weeks, the eagles were sitting out in the open - nice and…

A green-winged teal has been seen again, both in Vane bay and on the flood. Two drake smew and a female have also been spotted on the loch among the usual flocks of teal and wigeon. The white-tailed egales on St Serf's have had their work cut out coping with the strong, gusting winds.

Don't forget, we shall have only a reduced cafe service in operation from Monday as our major refurbishment gets underway.

The two white-tailed eagles have appreared again today on St Serf's. While the weather remains distinctly dreich, the cafe telescopes are offering decent views as the pair strut around the island. Elswhere, there are wigeon and teal on the flood and a flock of curlew is making the best of the thawed wetland.

It's dreich and misty at Loch Leven today, but there's still a few birds emerging from the haze. Teal and mallard are happily swimming by the 2nd hide, while black-headed gulls and curlew continue to feed in front of the 3rd hide.

Hopefully as the mist lifts the 2 white-tailed eagles that were spotted on St Serfs yesterday will appear once again. 2 eagles with turqoise tags, likely to be H (female) and X (male…

After not seeing the sea eagle last week, I was rewarded today by seeing two sea eagles. We had great sightings of them flying and some lucky visitors saw them catching a duck. Staying on the raptor theme we have had a peregrine on St Serfs island, buzzards all over the reserve and a single kestrel hovering. There are a few of the usual suspects in the bay (tufted duck, teal, mallard, goldeneye and gooseander) along with…

We have really got in the Christmas spirit here at Vane farm and the cafe now looks like a winter wonderland with tinsel and stars. After my optimism last week, in request for a sea eagle, we were rewarded with our annual visitor. Though as usual I didn't see the sea eagle today, it was seen on the small island in front of the first hide by one of our keen visitors. The fog was so thick at Vane today that you could barely…

With weather conditions approaching arctic gale proportions, only the keenest eye will be able to spot the green-winged teal (above) taking shelter with wigeon, pintail and mallard in the bay. Easier to spot will be the return of female white-tailed eagle 'H', but she is keeping well hidden in the teeth of the wind.

The icy chill and snowfall of the last 48 hours has seen most of the pools on the reserve freeze over and a white blanket cover the ground. Not ideal conditions but great for seeing birds.

Yesterdays highlights include the return of a previous winter visitor - an east-coast reintroduction white-tailed eagle (turquoise H). The eagle was seen early this morning to the west of the reserve and has since been spotted standing…

We have had a real "seal of approval" for the work that was carried out on the reserve as many whooper swans, teal, wigeon, mallard and some pink-footed geese have taken up residence on our new reserve. On my first trip down to the 3rd hide today I was totally amazed with how at one you were with nature, it is really good to be out in the water with the wildfowl you are watching.  A single whooper swan, on the…

Hundreds of teal and wigeon dropped into our new flood this morning. First time since the large habitat project that we had this many birds right in front of the hide. The hide is now much closer to the water, so I managed to take this picture with just a standard camera and lense.

Uwe