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Vicky Anderson
Happy new year to all our facebook followers. So,what has been about over Christmas and New Year? Despite the generally dreadful weather it hasn’t been too bad with some great wildlife moments. We haven’t done a goose count since mid December, so no news on pink footed geese numbers, but there is good news on the Snow goose front, 2 (white morphs) were seen on 3rd January on the low ground in front of Tower hide, amongst the pink footed geese. A Greenland white fronted goose was seen on 22nd December but none so far for 2014. Greylag numbers have really tailed off, with just 20 roosting on the reserve at present. As it a new year..it follows that we have to start work on the 2014 reserve bird list so, staff do tend to spend a disproportionate amount of time out and about birdwatching. The new year kicked off in impressive style with 3 snow buntings seen on the dunes on the 1st, along with 2 Jack snipe in the Mosstown marsh and a green winged teal also made it onto the year list on the 1st, seen from Tower Hide. (A teal/green winged teal was also seen on Boxing Day from Fen Hide) Tower Hide is good spot at the moment, with the water levels so high lots of wildfowl are using the low ground area. In addition to the Green winged teal a (the?) American wigeon was seen today for the first time in 2014 . Thanks to Nick Littlewood for the photo. Although its a bit grainy it’s a nice shot comparing American and European wigeon. (it was actually taken on Boxing day from Fen hide). Rarities aside, the low ground has also been providing great habitat for large numbers of mallard, wigeon and teal, plus a few shoveler and pintail. The extremely hardy little egret is still here and is still using the pools in front of the visitor centre on a daily basis. A little grebe was seen from the visitor centre on the 4th, using the flooded Savoch burn area just beyond Starnafin pools. Fen Hide is still the place to see nice close ups of water rail. This very secretive bird is usually heard more than seen. However, they seem to really benefit when we cut the reeds in front of the fen hide and one of our regulars uploaded a cracking shot of one to our facebook page, seen on the 29th December. The great northern diver which seemed to have taken a liking to the loch was last seen on 28th December, also from Fen hide. There are still a reasonable number of whooper swans using the reserve and I enjoyed a wildlife spectacle yesterday as a flock of 145 flew in rather noisily in front of Fen hide. Amongst them were a few family groups (adults and 2013 juveniles) Birds offshore count for the reserve year list, as long as they are seen from the reserve. So, myself and the new volunteer warden spent a nice half hour or so at the north end of the reserve near St Combs this morning. Highlights were: 3 great northern diver, a single red throated diver, at least 8 long tailed duck, 2 purple sandpiper, 3 turnstone, 17 sanderling, a single red-breasted merganser, a single bar-tailed godwit and a rather stunning flock of goldeneye. Finally, a single bullfinch was in the garden car park area on the 26th December.