Yesterdays first ever "Marsh Harrier Watch" was a great success.
Lots of people managed to find them time to come and were amazed to see the male marsh harrier when he decided to make an appearence. I've never seen some many people in the Gullery hide, but luckily that didn't put people off! Swamp hide were getting good views of him too. The wind did stopped the male harrier from coming out for long peroids of time, he was really only up for mintues at a time. But everyone managed to see him - and witness a food pass at one point - so we were all very happy. Unfortunately the wind did put off any ospreys from visiting the loch yesterday.
When we were waiting for the harrier to appear there were also lots of other wildlife to see. My favourite sighting of the day was seeing 3 mute swan cygnets out for a swim with mum and dad; one was cheeky enough to be hitching a ride on mum's back! There was also a group of 3 mallard ducklings following mum around the main loch (originally it was a group of 4 but during the afternoon some of us were unfortunate enough to see a rook take off with one). In the morning there was a group of 30 greylag geese seen from swamp hide. And a tufted duck pair and a redshank pair were seen throughout the day. A male reed bunting and a sedge warbler were both seen right out in front of Gullery hide - a great place for photos of them to be taken. The black headed gull numbers have reduced dramatically in the last week - there's only about 15 pairs now. It's likely that the otter has been around and has gotten to the colony again this year as with previous years.
If it's good news about the marsh harriers at the end of the breeding season I'm hoping that "Marsh Harrier Watch" will become an annual event for the reserve. So fingers and toes crossed everyone!