The end of January brought us a smew and a Slavonian grebe on the loch, and a little gull and 50 sanderling down on the beach, where the recent weather has certainly made some changes to the landscape. The smew and grebe lingered over the weekend, with a long-tailed duck and a couple of scaup also dropping in. The first great crested grebe of the year was seen on Monday 3rd, and a water rail was calling near Tower Pool Hide on Tuesday 4th. By Thursday 6th, there were two long-tailed ducks on the pools on the Low Ground, the smew and Slavonian grebe were seen from Bay Hide, and the great crested grebe was seen from Fen Hide. The long-staying little egret is still around, mostly seen from Tower Pool Hide.
On Friday 7th, at least six bean geese arrived on the fields at the north-west end of the loch, and were filmed (see below) by regular birder John Watt. At the south-east end, off the reserve and seen from Rattray, there are still two white-morph snow geese around, usually with the pinkfeet flocks, a small flock of barnacle geese, and two brent geese were also seen in the fields behind the lighthouse buildings on Sunday 9th. Mammal sightings for this week have included fox, otter and roe deer.
Thanks to everyone who turned out on a rather wet and cloudy night for our 'Stargazing at Strathbeg' event - a few glimpses of the moon between scudding clouds were about all the actual stargazing that could be achieved, but Aberdeen Astronomical Society kept everyone's interest with a great presentation on the sights that we could see in the skies above Aberdeenshire, and what to watch out for at this time of year, plus a virtual tour to the edge of the known universe!
Edited to add: As is often the way of these things, the more exciting news always comes in after you've pushed the 'Post Blog' button! A ring-necked duck (male) was seen in the silt trap (to the left of Tower Pool Hide) late on 10th, there were two pale-bellied brent geese on the reserve on the 5th (seen from Fen Hide) and five white-fronted geese on the Low Ground on 10th, all of which brings the reserve year list to 97!