Today has been such a wonderful day at the reserve, one of those days that just excites me!
The loch is still frozen, although there are some growing areas of open water, but the sun had some warmth today, and you could almost watch the remains of Monday's snow melt away. The loch is quite quiet still, although the Smew is still showing well in front of Swamp hide, and there are a few more mute swans around again. The number of mallard and teal are low, and there are no wigeon around at the moment.
The birds in the woodland certainly think spring is on the way, and as we were working on repairing the path after the winter weather we were encouraged by the singing great tits, coal tits and robins, with an occasional 'chip' from the woodpeckers - beautiful sounds, full of promise of what is still to come.
I believe the red squirrel has been about, consequently I have moved some of the feeders to the carpark area, seems to have been a popular move with many of the birds.
I have also been told of some good sightings of otter at the weekend, and there was a female hen harrier seen yesterday. Unfortunately there has been no sign of the bittern in the last couple of weeks, but I'm sure it must there somewhere.