We managed to condense our three day Health and Safety inspection down to two days. These inspections are always useful but can be quite stress full to say the least. This time round it was more of the former than the latter. Getting a fresh perspective on how we carry out our normal management is always helpful as you can slip into bad habits. This time I am pleased to say that thanks to the hard work of the team everything was excellent. There are always a few minor points to be picked up on but there was nothing that gave our H & S officer or myself any cause for concern!
With that out the way I was able this morning to have a quick look round the reserve something I have not really done since christmas. With the increasing northerly winds I was really hopeful that there might be something of note lurking out on the beach or the Loch but unfortunately this was not the case.
That said there are still plenty of good birds around; we currently have up to three snow geese roosting with the pinkies (a white phase and two blue phase) and good numbers of waterfowl and waders across the whole reserve.
Off shore there were small numbers of duck with groups of long tailed duck, common scoter, eider, red breasted merganser and goldeneye scattered along the coast. The incrreasingly choppy seas made it hard to count divers but there were at least three great northerns off shore.
Ralf continues to intimidate the ducks on the Loch. I think they now realise that he is getting quite adept at catching them and they all panic whn he flies over. In the past only those closest to hime would half heartedly move out the way but not now! When he flies over everything gets up off the Loch.
The forecast for the next couple of days is for more snow and northerly winds so hopefully a few birds will be pushed along in front of the weather!
Will let you know when we find them!
Dom