With 350+ Whooper Swans every morning on the Visitor Centre pools, we thought we'd show them off a bit, so we told a few people and got a BBC camera crew to come up and visit on Wednesday morning. Arriving just after seven, I was struck by the lack of swan-like noises and, sure enough, I took the camera crew into the centre to be greeted with the magnificent sight of ... 11 Whooper Swans. Yep, just eleven (I hadn't accidently missed a number off). Some more were hiding out on the Low Ground and others were on the Loch, but this wasn't the impressive wildlife spectacle that the poor BBC chaps had left Aberdeen at 6am to see! Still, they were very polite and stayed to see a few swans flying over, as well as 'Ralf' our resident eagle and a dramatic lift-off of geese, so they were impressed with the Loch of Strathbeg, although I don't think we'll be making the telly just yet!
The day got a bit better, when a Great White Egret was found by a visitor. It even performed well for the reserve camera on the Low Ground (which gave some nice shots of it fishing, even when it was hidden from view from the centre). I decided not to give the BBC a ring to let them know though!