The highlight of the past week at Strathbeg has been the increasing number of waders turning up on the pools and the low ground. Our highest Black-tailed Godwit count is now up to about 75, although there aren't many around in the heat of the day (not often I get to type that!) they generally start appearing from about mid-afternoon.
This week they've been joined by am incredibly pale Ruff (which looks confusingly like a Greenshank when it's asleep), up to 18 Redshank, several Snipe and a single Green Sandpiper (which more usually pop up on the wet grass in the cattle fields). Our Osprey seems to have started visitng again, after a long break without any sightings (at least during the time visitors are here) it's was sitting on the loch edge for an hour or so on Saturday and on the low ground with a decent sized fish for much of Sunday afternoon.
Down at Fen Hide the Bearded Tits seem to be lying low, but the (even rarer for us) Reed Warblers have been putting on a quite a nice show. You can still hear the odd Grasshopper Warbler (along with heaps of Sedge Warblers) on the summer trail and earlier in the week there was a young Redstart in the bushes just near the Troll Bridge.
In the garden there's a young Great-Spotted Woodpecker making visits to the peanut feeder and the area around the office is heaving with young Swallows, Tree Sparrows, Pied Wagtail, Great Tits and Blue Tits.
Out on the loch, our breeding ducks aren't doing too well this year. There's a few surviving broods of Shelduck but the Mallards outside the centre have disappeared- perhaps eaten by one of the Herons that patrol the pools, or one of the resident loch Otters.
The Mute Swans have done okay, and the group that nested outside the centre are growing larger every day!