Our first proper snow of the winter arrived this week, and although we've only had a light covering on the reserve it's been pretty heavy inland and down towards Aberdeen. Typically, as soon as travelling becomes difficult we've all suddenly found lots of things we need to do away from the reserve.
Today, Richard and I are braving buses, trains and automobiles to get to Stirling ready for tomorrow's interviews for our new BTCV Natural Communities Community Ranger position- my first time on an interview panel which is a bit unnerving. Yesterday we all headed into Aberdeen to meet up with staff from Orkney, Shetland, Perth and Loch Leven for our regular regional meeting. We also got to hear a couple of great talks from the marine and seabird department about FAME, seabird tracking, Marine Protected Areas, comb jellyfish and what you can learn from Kittiwake vomit (quite a lot, apparently). We tend to imagine seabirds living on cliff ledges (and we spend most of our time in the spring at Troup Head and Fowlsheugh watching them do just that) and it's easy to forget that for most of the year they're out in the middle of the North Sea or the Atlantic looking at nothing but waves and a few passing boats...
There's a bit more about how we're trying to protect our seabirds when they're out at sea on the RSPB website http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/sealife/ and it's well worth a read if you've got time.
Picture of a Kittiwake not vomiting on anyone.
Iain and Andrew are probably having the best trip of the week and have taken the truck into the very snowy Cairngorms for their 4x4 off-road driving course. Myself, Ed and Ben had a fantastic time on the course in the spring and all we had to deal with was a lot of mud and a swollen river crossing. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope that they make it through without any damage to the truck.
The Desert Wheatear seems to be coping with its sudden relocation relatively well and has been seen on the beach every morning since it arrived, although it can spend a lot of the time tucked up in the sand dunes and out of the wind. It's been quite photogenic at times and one of our regular visitors and posters to the gallery has uploaded a nice video of it fluttering across the beach which you can see here. It is a fair bit colder here than its usual North African wintering site but they do spend a lot of their time in central Europe and can cope with quite cold temperatures. Hopefully as soon as the weather clears it'll be on its way south and make it safely to somewhere a bit warmer for the winter. Unlike us, who are just having to wear an extra pair of gloves in the office and sit it out until the thaw!