We've been in the news a couple of times this week for a couple of very different reasons! Firstly, and most disappointingly, our Robin collection box was stolen and vandalised at the beginning of the week. We think he was stolen on Sunday night, and Emma found him on Tuesday evening dumped in a ditch at the top end of the reserve. The Robin was locked to prevent people opening it, so the thieves had sawn the entire base in half to get out the few pounds of donations inside. We've reported the theft to the police and we'll be following it up. If you've got any idea who may have done this then both ourselves and Grampian Police would be very keen to hear from you.
In the meantime our Puffin is happy to accept any donations, or if you don't want to leave a donation in the centre, then please drop into the office and talk to a member of staff.
You may also have heard that we've put in a planning application for a small wind turbine near to the entrance to the reserve. This will hopefully provide us with the equivalent amount of power which we need to run the office and the visitor centre. If you're interested in finding out more about the wind turbine then there's a list of FAQs on the Scottish Nature Notes blog. We've got a small display in the centre where you can see the exact site of the turbine and find out how we've made sure it will cause as little disturbance as possible to our wildlife. You can, as always, nip into the office at any time from 9am-5pm and chat to one of us if you'd like any more information.
We've now done just over half of our dawn Goosewatches and so far they’ve lived up to expectations. Admittedly the geese slightly misread the script this morning and we saw more come in and land in front of Tower Pool Hide than we saw take off and leave, but we had some hugely impressive numbers up in the sky at one time. We’ve had lots of amazing Whooper Swan flypasts as well. The last two goosewatches have been sold out, and we’ve only got two more dawn watches left this season, so if you’d like to experience a dawn visit to Loch of Strathbeg then book your place early. It’s a slightly more relaxed start for our first dusk Goosewatch on Wednesday and we do have a few places left if you’re more of a night owl than an early bird!