It's not felt much like the middle of summer for the past few days- the weather's been mixed to say the least! It was clear enough on the solstice night itself, and Ian our current short-term volunteer was able to take this shot of the reserve at midnight on the longest day.
The weather has kept most of the small songbirds very quiet, and we've been fairly quiet for passing waders as well. There are still some superb birds to see, including a beautiful family of siskins that are using the feeders outside the office and the new Willow hide. As someone who's done most of their birding further shouth and only seen siskin in the drab winter plumage, seeing them in their bright summer black and yellow is always exciting (and often far more exciting than what I'm meant to be doing in the office!). We're still have regular visits by at least one osprey, and numbers of our common waders like curlew are starting to build back up.
This weekend we hit the start of the summer show season- on saturday we'll be at Haddo Country Park near Ellon for the first regional BioBlitz. This is a big event designed to help people start recording wildlife in their local area. There will be experts about to help you identify everything from lichen to spiders to mammal tracks and signs and it should be a super day. You can read more details about the day here- http://www.nesbiodiversity.org.uk/HaddoBioBlitz.html
On Sunday we'll be back at the Scottish Tradional Boat Festival at Portsoy, we're up by Loch Soy so wander up on the day and say hello!