I am extremely proud to present Kinnordy's first ever self led homes for nature activity trail! A joint effort from my brilliant residential volunteers, Simon made all the homes from scratch out of recycled materials and scraps of wood. Kath came up with the signage, created it and helped with installation. Then Mike also helped with the finishing touches, a real team effort. It is not only a fun activity for families visiting the reserve, but hopefully will give visitors inspiration for making wildlife homes in their own gardens. Join in the fun at home and guess who lives in a house like this, there are 5 mystery houses for you to guess:
House number one
House number two
House number three
House number four
House number five
We also took part in a bit of country home restoration by revamping the delapidated mini-beast mansions, hobbitan style!
Kath and Mike renovating the mini-beast mansion
Sightings-wise on the reserve:
We have a juvenile Osprey learning to fish the loch, dad is also seen regularly (probably laughing in the bushes at the young ones attempts to fish). I felt very sorry for the youngster this morning, I could almost see the frustration on the poor birds face every time it missed. I celebrated to myself in the hide when I finally saw the fledgling take its first fish of the day! The female marsh harrier was also not impressed by the young osprey disturbing her from her perch in the reedbed. She flew off in protest after giving the osprey a piece of her mind. Then was the turn of a young buzzard to fall out with the crows in the pine trees, a very entertaining morning! As you walk around to Lilypond on the North of the reserve you will see lots of willow warblers, meadow pipits, reed buntings and a few whitethroats hanging around. We still have plenty of swallows, house martins and sand martins although the swifts may have left for warmer climates already. Our swan families are doing well, one has 7 large cygnets, the other has three small fluffy ones. There is a flock of around 50 lapwing on the reserve and around 10 snipe are seen most days too. The red squirrels and roe deer continue to be regular stars also, showing well daily. I saw my first painted lady butterfly on the reserve yesterday, and plenty of green veined whites, small whites, large whites and small tortoiseshells on the wing too. Definitely worth a trip if you are passing by!
Anyone brave enough to have a guess? I'll give you all a few more days until I reveal the answers!