Apologies for the lack of blog posts from Strathbeg recently. With seabird season getting into full swing, we’ve been spending most of our time at either Troup Head or Fowlsheugh- counting seabirds, filming Gannets and recording for BBC radio.
You can read more about what we’ve been doing at our seabird reserves by visiting their blogs or by checking our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RSPBNorthEastScotland where we’ve got lots of photos from the Fowlsheugh colony count and our boat trip out to Troup Head.
Back at Strathbeg we think the Greater Yellowlegs has probably moved on. While it often goes unreported for a day or two, it’s now not been seen for over a week. A possible sighting near Caithness earlier in the week suggests it may have finally decided to do what it should be doing at this time of year and head north to the wader breeding grounds in the Arctic circle. If it survives the summer it’ll be interesting to see if it decides to spend the winter in the UK again next year.
The most exciting sighting of the week has been our first Cuckoo of the year- heard at Fen Hide and then seen just on the outflow of the loch by Emma and Cain. It's great to see a Cuckoo anywhere, but they're very scarce on this area of coast.
Birds of prey have been the main attraction from the visitor centre. A near adult male Marsh Harrier is a regular over the reedbed. We’ve also been seeing Ospreys every day, including a female who has been sitting on the low ground throughout the day for at least the past week. For the past two days at least three have been seen together over the loch, so we’re becoming a bit of an osprey hotspot at the moment.
The other highlight has been the brood of Shelduck ducklings that have been using the visitor centre pools. Shelduck are very protective, attentive parents and have so far managed to keep eight out of ten of their original brood.
We've also been putting the finishing touches to a new project for the visitor centre that will run throughout the summer. Watch this space, Twitter or our Facebook page for more details...