The snow has definitely arrived at Strathbeg over the past two days, starting on the Goosecount yesterday morning. The picture below shows the storm creeping up on Suzanne as she counted from the truck at the North End of the reserve and Emma's view of the same storm from the South End!
Goose numbers continue to be quite high for the time of year, with a count of 15,535 Pink-Feet on Sunday- compared to just a few hundred in the heavy snow this time last year. There are also regularly and 150 Greylag about and Tom and Debbie counted at least 112 White-Fronted Geese on the low ground this morning before the flocks lifted off. Our elusive Bean Geese have been tracked down by one of our regular local birders and seem to be spending the daylight hours feeding in a field just next to Fraserburgh Tesco.
The cold weather has managed to bring out some otherwise elusive birds, including at least two Water Rail in front of Fen Hide this afternoon, Jack Snipe and Short-Eared Owl on the marsh and Purple Sandpiper on the Camples near St Combs so there's still lots to see if you're prepared to wrap up warm and head out onto the reserve.
Finally we had to post at least one of Emma's photos of yesterday's Humpback. It's hard to judge the scale or animals at sea, but the distance between the 'blow' at the whale's head and the visible dorsal fin does give you a good idea of just how big it was.
great photos, folks!