On 7th June on the visitor centre pools, there were 2 spoonbills and 3 Canada geese.
An exciting event last weekend was the birth of another foal! We weren’t sure of the sex, and a couple of days later another was born. A wee trip out to the Lowground proved the suspicion that the first had been a colt, and was therefore named Bilbo Baggins, and the second born was a filly, so she was called Brèagha. Brèagha is pronounced ‘Bree-ah’ and is the feminine Scottish Gaelic word for “handsome”, or, in other words, it means ‘beautiful’. There’s still at least one more foal to come, so keep your eyes peeled on your visit for the extra small body out on the Lowground!
We have black headed gull chicks and oyster catcher chicks on the island in front of the visitor centre, with 60 apparently incubating adults – which is a wonderful site after all the work last winter to make the island more habitable for terns, and safer with the otter fence, which seems to be working for now!
We also have terns settling on the rafts that you can see from the left of Bay hide. There were 10 sitting birds counted on the morning of 10th June, which is equally exciting.
The Bearded tits are still seen and heard at Fen hide, though the author still hasn’t managed to see them on any visits – fingers crossed your own visits give better results!
An exciting discovery on Tuesday the 3rd was that of a snipe nest on Mosstown! There hasn’t been any records of a snipe nest on Mosstown that we could find, so are treating it as a first!
The tree sparrow nest box checks have produced a goodly number of tree sparrow eggs and chicks, along with the odd blue tit and great tit for variety. Although it’s probably a stressful experience for the chicks, it is very charming to be able to see them up close.
A Savi’s warbler has been seen and heard a number of times from Fen hide, starting from the beginning of June, and has moved from across the loch on the left hand side, to the trees surrounding the board walk along to the hide, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for this wee fellow!
The Little Egret is also back and has been spotted from Tower Pool Hide on Savoch Lowground – only one this time though.
Emma Parker