The last few days at the reserve have been lovely.
Watching for starlings the on Tuesday evening was the perfect way to unwind after a busy day. I arrived just after 7pm and caught a glimpse of an osprey leaving the reserve. It was carrying something, but I'm not convinced it was a fish, the youngsters seem to be having trouble this year, but they are going to have to learn quickly, they should be starting their trip to Africa soon, and they need to be well fed to have enough energy to make it.
I settled in the swamp hide, listening to the lapwing calling to each other on the far side of the lochan. They were a little upset when the marsh harrier appeared, but I was delighted to see it was a female. She has yellow and green wingtags, so I am fairly confident this is the same bird that was at Kinnordy for so long earlier in the season. She has moulted while she has been away, so now has a beautiful golden head. She didn't stay over the swamp lochan long, and judging by the 21 wigeon that flew in to join the mallard and gadwall, she headed up over the main loch.
When I saw the Common gulls start to move over the reserve en route to their roosting site, and the rooks coming into the pines I knew the starlings wouldn't be long, and within a few minutes I saw them over the marsh. They quickly started to gather on the electric wires on the north side of the reserve, and every now nad then a few more would fly in and join them. I sat in quiet anticipation until about 8.15pm, when some of the birds took off from the wires and started to swirl, it wasn't very impressive, but they soon settled back on the wires, and waited for the rest to be ready. 10 minutes or so later my patience was rewarded as the whole flock took off and headed over the loch. I quickly realised I had picked the wrong hide, so headed up to the gullery hide hoping that I wasn't going to miss all the action - I didn't. They kept swirling for a few minutes before they all picked a reed stem and carfully landed on it. There are only a couple of hundred birds at the moment, but they are still impressive, and hopefully over the coming weeks this number will grow.
Another fantastic moment that I missed, but was caught on camera yesterday, was both the young marsh harriers displaying over the reedbed. The male which has been around for much of the summer has also now moulted, so his colour is much more defined, and he is a very handsome bird. It would seem that this may be a pairing, so I am hopeful that both birds will return to the reserve next year.