A first for the reserve, and something not seen very often in our area!
photos by Mike Chandler (Thanks!)
Seen this morning from the Visitor Centre, and showing well except when it goes for a snooze in the rushes at the back of Starnafin Pools, our first ever Black Stork has caused some excitement! The bird has a DARVIC ring -White with black letters, F05P - which, we believe, indicates that it is a youngster ringed in France this year. It's been feeding on small fish, frogs and tadpoles and invertebrates, and seems to be finding quite a lot, so we're hoping it might stay around for a while.
Some of our visitors have commented that there's not a lot of water on the Savoch Low Ground at the moment. The reason for this is we've got a ditcher coming in to clear some of the ditches, which will make controlling the water levels easier. It also means the ground is dry enough to allow our new osprey platform to be put up! This will be done in the next two weeks, giving us a chance to raise the levels in time for the geese coming back in September.