Hello blog land fans,
Another week goes by and ashamedly we haven’t been doing a lot of birding this week with various officey based stuff to do and we all had a konik information day during the week too.
Still, we have had a good week of records even if the more ‘spectacular’ species have not been around...that we know of, anyway...
We have been letting water off the reserve during the week and the exposed mud has produced results already with more waders appearing. Oystercatchers are beginning to spread and being more noisily obvious and the Dunlin numbers, which were hovering around 7-12, are now up to at least 75.
The koniks are producing records too, off sorts. The aim of the koniks is to graze down areas of soft rush to provide feeding areas for waders and timely enough during our konik information day walk about 8 Snipe flew up from that area and another 2 appeared on the walk back.
The white stoat has been back again. Not up the drainpipe when we saw it this time but bouncing about underneath the Visitor Centre windows.
Our Short-eared Owl count is now up to 2, with a non-patchy winged bird spotted over what we would think of as the far part of the reserve and ‘Patch’ still appearing near Starnafin.
Perhaps the highlight of the week came today when Richard found a pair of Long-tailed Duck in full summer plumage very close to the bank of the lagoon.
A good week non the less and here are the birding highlights listed: 10 Snipe, 75 Dunlin, Oystercatchers, 1 Hen Harrier, 2 Short-eared Owl, 1 Barn Owl (cheating a bit but it was close to the reserve!), Pochard, breeding plumaged pair of Long-tailed Duck, Sparrowhawk.