With some good spring migrants (ospreys especially) arriving across the rest of the country over the past two days, it was a bit grey and wintery at Strathbeg this morning- especially with the sight of 15 Fieldfare hopping about around the access track as I drove in. It felt more like October than March!
The weather hasn't stopped us finding a few good birds over the weekend. The Greater Yellowlegs is still nicely settled near Tower Pool Hide, and we had a reliable report of a Bittern flying out of the reedbed in front of Fen Hide this afternoon. Tom, Greig and myself spent much of the evening there with no sight of it but I have notoriously bad luck with Bittern, so it'll still be worth a visit over the next couple of days. We did however head a Water Rail which was so loud it must have been practically in the hide.
One of the most interesting birds on the reserve right now is a very small White-Fronted Goose hanging around with the Pink-feet. It was spotted by the RSPB Local Group, who had been doing some conservation work on the Wildlife Garden, yesterday and seen again by Tom and Ben this morning. We've not quite got close enough to be sure but it may be a Lesser White-Fronted Goose. These small geese breed in Sibera with the larger White-Fronted Geese but should head south to Turkey or even India rather than Scotland. We'll keep a close eye on it but it shows that it's still worth giving the goose flock a through check as birds start to fly north from England and new geese arrive on the reserve.