Right then – where to begin? Well probably with the 2, that’s right, 2 White-tailed Eagles that are hanging around in the area! They are currently around the south end of the Loch and if you are going to look for them then please do so with respect to the eagles and the landscape. The lay-by next to the cemetery on the road to Rattray seems to be a good vantage point but the one with the ‘A’ on its tag was right in the…

There are a few things that will drag me into work on my day off, and a phone call from Emma this morning saying that a White Tailed Eagle had been seen on the reserve was definitely one of them!

Locals have been reporting an eagle in the area for a couple of weeks (Vicky spotted one from the Ythan and Mark, the leader of the Aberdeenshire RSPB group saw it again at our small reserve at Meikle Loch) and we'd been hoping…

After the beautiful (if slightly un-seasonal) weather last week, the snow on Monday morning was a bit of a shock to the system! Luckily we only got a light covering at Strathbeg, which thankfully didn't hang around for long, meaning reserve work could continue as planned...

The main task this week on the reserve is to continue with some hedge rescue work, which involves replanting one hedge line and lot of mulching…

For those of you expecting an April Fools story (and we can highly recommend the East of England region's press release for today), here's a story from a few years ago that involved a few local birders and explains why we don't put out any big bird hoaxes at this time of year! The Belted Kingfisher.

We've had enough going on on and just off the reserve this weekend that we've not needed to make much up. The…

A very sad day yesterday as we said goodbye to Greig, one of our residential volunteers. He's been a huge help on the reserve and great fun to work with, as well as making myself and Emma incredibly jealous of his amazing-smelling dinners every night. We wish him the best of luck in his new volunteering role down at RSPB Vane Farm (sorry, RSPB Loch Leven!). Below is one of his finest moments (click here if the embedded…

Another early start for Goose count this morning, especially since with the clocks only going forward on Sunday. It's worth being up for as we still have around 23,000 geese leaving the reserve as the sun rise. Unusally a large group of them headed South this morning, rather a surprise to Ben who was down there on his own expecting a quiet morning and was suddenly faced with 10,000 geese heading in his direction.

Okay, it might not be summer, but the bright, warm days and the
sight of our first Swallow over the loch on Friday night prove that we’re
definitely heading into spring. Although, it didn’t quite feel like it today
when the haar was so thick we had trouble seeing the tower at one point. I’m
told it was incredibly warm and spring-like a few miles inland though...

The wardens have been taking advantage of…

With some good spring migrants (ospreys especially) arriving across
the rest of the country over the past two days, it was a bit grey and
wintery at Strathbeg this morning- especially with the sight of 15
Fieldfare hopping about around the access track as I drove in. It felt
more like October than March!

The weather hasn't stopped us finding a few good birds over the
weekend. The Greater Yellowlegs is still nicely…

 (Daffodils in the Wildlife Garden.)

As Spring takes hold of the Loch of Strathbeg, we still await the arrival of our summer visitors we are still being entertained our now usual birds on the reserve.

The Greater Yellowlegs remains and has been giving good views throughout the week I’m not surprised that my intended map has not been any use whatsoever as the Yellowlegs has been all over the Low Ground.

Our Ruff…

Well! What a few days that was!

The Loch of Strathbeg has a new bird of its all time list and the Greater Yellowlegs is still here. It seems to be favouring the area to the right of Tower Pool in front of the sluice which is highlighted in the photo and if it is here it is only viewable from Tower Pool Hide. But this morning it was viewable from the Visitors Centre right over the far side of the Low Ground and later…

The reappearance of the Greater Yellowlegs yesterday rather overshadowed some of the most exciting news the reserve staff have had in a long time- the arrival of a brand new truck!

Our old blue truck has been developing a few interesting rattles and other noises for a while now, and has had to make a few visits to the garage in the past few months. Now thanks to some Scottish Natural Heritage funding we've got a…

The Greater Yellowlegs, which we're all but certain is the same bird seen briefly on Saturday, is BACK!

It was found at about 2:00, first seen from the Visitors Centre and then quickly found from Towel Pool Hide feeding on the right hand side of Tower Pool.

It is the 1st ever Greater Yellowlegs recorded at the Loch of Strathbeg!

Here is a very blurry photo but the key feature of this bird is clearly visible.

It's been all about gull watching around the reserve this week. On Sunday we and 18 members of the local group went on a gull identification course in Peterhead, lead by a local gull expert. With the aid of a couple of loaves of sliced bread we attracted a huge flock of gulls. With a bit of help, even a terrible gull watcher like me still managed to identify eight different species including Iceland, Glaucous and Kumlien…

Forgetting to write the recent sightings blog for the past week has paid off after the brief visit of a Greater Yellowlegs!

This rare north American vagrant shot over the visitors centre and was seen looping around to the west but was lost after that.

From talking to others earlier, it seems this bird has been doing a tour of reserves in the north (coming from the south coast of England, saying that doesn't seem…

Yesterday was a beautiful, warm, sunny day at Strathbeg (which admittedly was a little confusing, with it being only February....plus we’re not really used to weather like that!) and the RSPB Aberdeen local group were onsite for the day to help us out with various tasks.

First up was some hedge rescue work - clearing vegetation from a very much over grown hedge line and then after lunch planting trees up at tower…

While the nights getting lighter are generally a good thing, it does mean that the early goose counts is steadily getting earlier... It was a six am start today for the spring Icelandic Grey Goose Census. We were hoping that our numbers of Pink-Footed Geese would have risen a bit since the previous count of 17,300 as birds start to head north in preparation for their migration up to Iceland and we weren't disappointed. We…

Hello blog land fans,

Another week goes by and ashamedly we haven’t been doing a lot of birding this week with various officey based stuff to do and we all had a konik information day during the week too.

Still, we have had a good week of records even if the more ‘spectacular’ species have not been around...that we know of, anyway...

We have been letting water off the reserve during the week and the…

Just to let you know that we're holding an RSPB staff training day on the reserve on Thursday and the Visitor Centre will be closed until just after midday. We may be walking out on the marsh and low ground in the afternoon as well, so there may be a bit of disturbance from the Visitor Centre/Tower Pool Hide.

If you've already planned a visit for Thursday, all the hides are open as normal, or why not head to Rattray…

Despite the really terrible weather last night, we've escaped any serious snow here at Strathbeg. There's been just a scattering of what's more like frozen hail than proper snow that's lying in the colder parts of the reserve. The temperature has still been pretty low and the small birds on the reserve have been looking for food anywhere they can find it. There were large number of tree sparrows on the feeder outside…

Hello recent sightings fans! 

After the weekend and Webs notables (2 Garganey, Bearded Tit, Green-winged Teal) Monday kicked off well with a Glaucous Gull outside Fen Hide. 

Elsewhere, my favourite bird of the moment, the Short-eared Owl who I’ve come to think of as Patch due to its missing feathers from its right wing, has made more intermittent appearances as has the ringtail Hen Harrier. 

Another less than regular…

It's been a quiet few days on the reserve, mostly because our off-road truck has been in the garage for its MOT so getting equipment out to the big projects on the reserve has been very difficult. The truck made it back just before we finished up this evening so in the next few days, the wardens will be able to get out to the marsh to finish work on the handling facility for the Koniks and do some work out in the plantation…

A good week here at Starnafin with the Short-eared Owl making appearances again, once perching on a wall in the yard in the manner of many plastic owls. (Picture:  Greig Warburton.)

The first Brent Geese of the year arrived on Wednesday with 6 pale-bellied birds mixing in with resident geese and the Iceland Gull of last weekend hung around for a few days afterwards.

There are some lingering Barnacle Geese though with…

Hello again blogland!

A good week here at the Loch which began with the Iceland Gull which was still here on Monday morning but even though it’s not been seen since then doesn’t mean that it’s not here somewhere! Today though, we now have 6 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, the variation from Greenland and northern Scandinavia, amongst the large numbers of Pink-footed Geese. They are perhaps best viewed from Tower Pool Hide…

While the rest of the coutry seems to be under a layer of snow, Strathbeg seems to have missed out on the worst of the weather with just a couple of heavy frosts overnight. Unfortunately one of the cold nights was enough to crack one of our outside pipes, which meant Tom and Ben spent most of their Saturday morning off lifting slabs in the yard trying to find the outside stopcock. At least the reserve car, which was parked…

On the whole a good week with the Short-eared Owl giving very nice views around Starnafin Farm and the white ermine Stoat under the Visitor Centre windows. Today the elusive Water Rail made appearances either flushed by us walking to Tower Pool Hide or by an Otter swimming in front of Tower Pool Hide along a drainage ditch. The numbers of White-fronted Goose have dwindled from the 300+ numbers and were hanging around the…