The reserve, unsurprisingly, is still looking like a Winter Wonderland. That means there is plenty of ice around.

Volunteers have worked exceedingly hard to keep the paths open, however, please be very careful if you choose to drive to the reserve as the carpark is very icy. Compacted snow has turned to sheet ice over the last week, and it will be easy to get stuck. We have cleared space for a couple of cars near to the gate, and will endeavour to maintain a path from here round the edge of the carpark.

As you can probably imagine with the loch almost entirely frozen, there is limited birdlife to be seen on the loch at the moment. There are a few mallards sticking it out, and earlier in the week there were goosander and goldeneye in a patch of open water in the channel between the Swamp lochan and the main loch (left from the Gullery hide).  

We are keeping the feeders topped up as much as possible though, and there are a variety of birds around the hides, including tree sparrow, seen on the feeders at the weekend, bullfinch and of course robins, blue tits and great tits.