End of week update

The latest update from the reserve is that we had a lovely
little Wood Sandpiper drop in on Thursday! There are a small number of birds that breed in the highlands each year (estimated 4-8 pairs)  but in England it is only seen as a passage bird on migration. It was a very wet morning and the
bird was sheltering in the bogbean on the islands infront of Gullery hide.
There were also three juvenile redhsanks skulking around in the vegetation too.
 Our eagle eyed volunteer Bruce got a
glimpse of them in the morning, then Jon Cook identified the wood sandpiper
when he popped in to visit later on. A big thank you to Jon for the pictures.

Wood sandpiper.

Wood sandpiper (far right) and juvenile redshanks.

It just goes to show even on a miserable day its worth
popping down to Kinnordy for a visit – you never know what might drop in. We
have also had good views of otter this
week, snipe are still drumming away
on the West end and then there is our star of the week the spotted crake. Who is still being heard in the evenings.  Still quiet on the marsh harrier front but we
are hoping to see some juveniles soon, fingers crossed.  There are plenty of young birds around, lots
of cygnets, ducklings, fledgling great tits. On greyer days the swallows, swifts, house martins and sand martins have put on great displays
from Swamp hide. Not often that you get such great views of all four species
swooping around together at high speed like this.  And the red
squirrels have been more active and visible this week too. Well worth a visit I'd say!