Surely the summer migrants that have made it up here so far must have been regretting it today as yesterday's horrid weather continued. This morning there were gales, rain and snow. The wildlife pond burst its banks, the entrance track started to flood, the visitor centre windows developed a leak and our field teacher who was leading the Nature Club tree planting event was snowed in at home (although unsurprisingly, no kids decided to brave the elements).
By the afternoon though, it was all change - the sun came out, the snow melted and the wind dropped to a light breeze - even high tide at the wildlife pond seemed to have passed! When the weather had improved enough to see anything there were a few birds around. The plantation held a reasonable number of Song Thrushes and Robins (almost certainly birds heading to northern Europe to breed) and a Chiffchaff.
Good number of wildfowl remain, including 14 Gadwall on the Visitor Centre pools (which have joined up into one big pool at the moment), but some are heading off. At six o'clock, just as I was leaving the office, 82 Whooper Swans took off from the Loch and headed north, trumpeting and bugling as they went - next stop Iceland? What a magnificent sight.
In recent years April has seen a good number of scarcer species amongst the arrivals of spring migrants - what will this year bring?