Good news and bad news with regards the Terns: After a rather long time of tern nest failures on Starnafin Island, we are still (finally!) seeing a wonderful result of successful breeding!! A total number is rather hard to come to as the vegetation has grown up so much that a lot of them are hiding in it, but at last rough estimate, there are at least 120 chicks there. So all the hard work by the wardening team last winter…

Around lunchtime yesterday we were alerted to a fire on the dunes at the northern end of our Loch of Strathbeg reserve, near St Combs. It was in an area of grass on the sand dunes and was moving fast. By late-afternoon, the Fire and Rescue Service...

On 7^th June on the visitor centre pools, there were 2 spoonbills and 3 Canada geese.

An exciting event last weekend was the birth of another foal! We weren’t sure of the sex, and a couple of days later another was born. A wee trip out to the Lowground proved the suspicion that the first had been a colt, and was therefore named Bilbo Baggins, and the second born was a filly, so she was called Brèagha. Brèagha is pronounced…

The spoonbill that I mentioned in my last blog entry was joined by another on 17^th, a third dropped in on 20^th and by Wednesday 21^st we had a grand total of four! The latecomer only stayed for a day, however, but the others stayed on, and two are still around the reserve, although they can be a little elusive, feeding on the pools of the Low Ground as well as at Starnafin.

Our star bird is probably the American wige…

The recent spot of fine weather has seen the wardening team out and about on the reserve, getting to all the things that need doing in the boggiest places, so it falls to this office-bound administrator to write the latest update!

Tuesday 6^th saw a ring ousel on the dry grass fields near the Back Bar, and swifts screaming over the Plantation, a dunlin and a couple of black-tailed godwits. The waders were joined by another…

Kicking on with highlights on Starnafin Pools in front of our visitor centre, waders have started to trickle in and we have had several "reserve year ticks".   Two male ruff were seen on the 28th April moulting into their summer plumage.  One was very dark and the other was predominantly white.   The white individual is still here, last seen this afternoon.     A little ringed plover was first seen on the 4th May and again…

Highlights from the past week 21/4/14 to 27/4/14

The Little Egret has been around all week.

Monday 21^st

2 Stonechat and 2 Wheatear on the airfield

Tuesday 22^nd

We did a WeBS count on Tuesday morning, highlights from the count:

1200 Pink-footed geese

13 Gadwall

3 Whooper swan

4 Pintail

27 Shelduck

4 Water rail

124 Teal

1 Little grebe

2 Scaup

Osprey and a Peregrine over the low ground

And a Ring Ouzel in…

This week, although there have still been some geese, (a couple of flocks of 300 or so flew over me on the reserve on the 18^th) I got the feeling that most of them have headed off. This was confirmed this morning when we did a goose count, along with our WeBS count, which revealed that only about 1200 are still around.

Last Sunday we still had the two little egrets hanging around, and have been spotted on and off throughout…

It's been a couple of weeks since our last update and there is a fair bit to report.

Starting with a dawn goose count on 1^st April..a very respectable 19,100 pink footed geese were recorded and the feeling is this was a probably an undercount. (several massive lifts causing panic amongst the counters!)   As of today’s date there are still good numbers of pink footed geese roosting on the reserve.   A visiting photographer…

Report by Matthew Smith & Christine Hall.

Visit to the hides on Monday 17th  for the weekly clean included sightings of Great Crested Grebe (2), Red Breasted Merganser (4), Goosander (2), Bean Goose, Scaup (2) Hooded Crow, Whitefronted Goose and a surprised Ermine on the broadwalk to Fen Hide.

5.30am start on Tues 18^th for early morning goose count got 21, 700 pink footed geese currently roosting on the reserve.…

 

It’s been a while since our last round up, we have been busy with a couple of projects on the reserve that got held up by the wet and windy winter.

Continuing on from the last update, Bearded tits are still being seen, literally all over the reserve.   They are a regular feature of a visit to Fen hide.   One of our visitors tells me they are often to the left of the hide.   On the 9^th March at least one bird was in…

Well, the first thing to say is that it really is beginning to feel like spring.   There are lots of signs that wildlife is beginning to feel the same, with skylarks singing, a few half hearted displays from lapwing over the low ground and goldeneye doing their crazy head flicking thing.   Of course, who will ever forget our bushnell camera footage of a couple of badgers feeling “spring like”. The weather too has hopefully…

 Over half way through February and the reserve year list is up to 99 and ticking along nicely and Snowdrops are out in force. The highlight was a drake Ring-necked duck, which was first found on the silt trap to the left of Tower Pool hide on the 10^th but is still showing well as I write.   Pink-footed geese numbers roosting on the reserve is currently at 11,494 along with up to 5 European White-fronted geese and a single…

The end of January brought us a smew and a Slavonian grebe on the loch, and a little gull and 50 sanderling down on the beach, where the recent weather has certainly made some changes to the landscape. The smew and grebe lingered over the weekend, with a long-tailed duck and a couple of scaup also dropping in. The first great crested grebe of the year was seen on Monday 3rd, and a water rail was calling near Tower Pool…

If there's one thing we're not short of at the  moment, it's rain!  The reserve is almost as wet as I've ever seen it - much to the delight of the wildfowl and waders, if not the poor wardening staff and volunteers who are still digging trenches for our new otter fence. Current fashion is not so much RSPB blue as a nice shade of mud!

All the water has drawn in good numbers of ducks, with three scaup (2…

 21 days into 2014 and we have already had some memorable wildlife moments. This round up begins with a summary of the monthly wetland bird survey (WeBs) undertaken over the weekend just gone. The most important news is once again Strathbeg comes up trumps with a wintering bittern, seen by the site manager Richard from Fen Hide on the 18th.  Pink footed geese currently roosting on the reserve total 16,180. Plus at least…

Starting with mammal sightings this week...another great sighting of an otter on the 10th swimming and fishing in front of Bay Hide.    Most early mornings in the fields near the Starnafin Visitor Centre there is a group of up to 10 roe deer.   I had a rather private wildlife moment with them this morning as they trotted in front of my car on the access track and then sheer panic set in amongst the group as they sprinted away…

Happy new year to all our facebook followers. So,what has been about over Christmas and New Year? Despite the generally dreadful weather it hasn’t been too bad with some great wildlife moments. We haven’t done a goose count since mid December, so no news on pink footed geese numbers, but there is good news on the Snow goose front, 2 (white morphs) were seen on 3rd January on the low ground in front of Tower…

On the week before Christmas, it’s not been too bad at Loch of Strathbeg. Pink footed geese are still hovering around the 10,000 mark which is less than we would like but fairly typical for this time of year. While we had a blank year for snow geese in winter 2012/13, this winter has been phenomenal and we are already getting a bit blasé about them. This week 2 “white” snow geese have again been seen nearly every…

It's Friday the 13th and nothing has gone wrong...yet.

Fen Hide has seen some action this week with A great Northern Diver seen on Tuesday afternoon. 2 Water rail were also heard squealing away at the same time and we received the first sighting of a Green-winged Teal this winter.

Our resident Little Egret can still be seen almost every day with Tower Pool hide seeming to be the best location. TPH was good for seeing…

Tis the season to be jolly and all… so at RSPB Loch of Strathbeg we have kicked off December with lots of Christmassy events and activities to get us in the mood…

On the 1^st of December, we started as we meant to go on with a special Christmas Goosewatch. We invited people to come and join us to watch the spectacle of the Pink-Footed Geese returning to roost on the loch at dusk. Lots of people turned up…

There has been no recent count of pink-footed geese, so no update on numbers, but the lifts of geese at dawn continue to be spectacular. The Tower Hide or the Visitor Centre as the day breaks is the best viewing spot, as the Low Ground or Starnafin Pools are the favoured goose roosting spots. There is a coordinated count tomorrow morning, so an update on numbers after that. The snow goose fest continues, with 2 white…

I just thought I'd take a moment to explain about the 40m long ditch visible from the visitor centre window. In actual fact we are not laying a gas main, rather work progressed today on installing the brand new Otter-proof fencing around starnafin island. This past year the nesting Terns that use the island have suffered from heavy predation by Gulls and Otters and so following the extensive flattening of the island…

Highlights over the past week.

25^th: 4 Dunlin and 4 Scaup from Tower pool hide. 2000 Wigeon from Fen Hide. 2000 Golden plover and a Chiffchaff at Rattray.

26^th: A Woodcock flew over the Visitor centre. Dipper and Tree Creeper seen near Savoch burn. Water rail spotted on Mosstown Marsh. Female Stonechat spotted outside the Visitor centre.

28^th; 47 Barnacle Geese our highest number for the week. 100 Common Gull from Tower…

Those who joined us for this morning's dawn Goosewatch were pleased to see some spectacular lifts from Tower Pool hide. No Snow Geese to see today though earlier in the week there were 48 Greylag geese reported and a single Greenland White-fronted Gooses seen a couple of times on the 17th and 20th from Tower Pool Hide again. 57 Barnacle Geese were counted on the back fields from the visitor centre on Thursday.

The…