Ok so the weather has been 'mixed' but the spring is here - it's official, the clocks have changed and we've got summer migrants.
The first were the Chiffchaffs, with two seen in the plantation on Friday, followed by five Sandwich Terns on Saturday. Things slowed down a bit yesterday, although the Lesser Black-backed Gulls had built up to eight and a Black-tailed Godwit was new in.
On the more wintry side of things, there are around 150 Whooper Swans on the Loch, a couple of Redwing in the garden and still thousand of Pink-footed Geese roosting overnight on the reserve. A white-phase Snow Goose has been with the geese, although its appearances are erratic (it left the Loch at 6am on Saturday for example).
Offshore, things are quite exciting with a large raft of Eider building up (best viewed from the field at the North of the reserve, near the Tufted Duck Hotel) along with up to 160 Common Scoter and a handful of Long-tailed Duck, Goldeneye and Red-breasted Merganser. There have also been a couple of dozen Great Northern Divers, a few Red-throated Divers and the occasional sighting of Black Guillemot.
There's been no sign of 'Ralf' the White-tailed Eagle since the 16th March and the sightings of the male and female Hen Harriers seem to have stopped - right on cue for the first Marsh Harriers returning, which will hopefully be any day now...
PLEASE NOTE: if you're wanting to come along on our guided walk in April to look for signs of spring (see the events page), the times should read 1.30pm - 4.30pm (I'll change them on the other page when I work out ho these new-fangled web pages work!).