We were starting to think that we'd missed the tail-end of the hurricane up here in Buchan, but it seems that it's finally hit today with some incredibly strong winds over the reserve. Unfortunately (much to Dominic's annoyance) they're continuing to come from the west and are failing to bring us any of the exciting American migrants that are scattered across the west coast. The best bird of the past few days has been a brief sighting of an adult Whiskered Tern flying towards Savoch on Monday. Little Stint (9 on the lagoon over the weekend) and Pectoral Sandpiper are still around as well if you can find them.
Goose numbers continue to climb, with well over 3,000 on the reserve at the moment. Counting is proving a bit tricky as they're still incredibly flighty and it's hard to tell which are new arrivals and which are birds simply moving around. There also seem to be sizeable flocks roosting at the south end of the loch and on the lagoon, where they're very hard to spot from the centre or Tower Pool Hide. We have a WeBS count on Sunday morning, so by then we should be able to give you really accurate goose numbers, as well as counts of all the other wetland birds on the reserve.
Remember you can report your goose sightings on Twitter using #goosewatch or have a look at our new Goosewatch page at http://www.rspb.org.uk/goosewatch. We're taking booking for Goosewatch already and all the dates and times (early mornings, and evenings!) are here http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/l/lochofstrathbeg/events.aspx