We’ve recently had a glut of fantastic bird sightings, with three significant species seen on the reserve, taking our annual species count up to 119 for the year – one more than last year!
Firstly, a male sub-adult marsh harrier was seen hunting on the Aird Meadow three days in a row, and was joined by a juvenile marsh harrier on the third day. We think this younger bird must have fledged this year. Visitors were treated to stunning displays from both birds as they quartered in front of the visitor centre – a rare treat seeing as we’ve not recorded a marsh harrier on the reserve for four years.
Marsh harrier – image © Claire Martin
We were also delighted to see a red kite on the reserve – again this is a very rare sighting at Lochwinnoch. A beautiful bird which, due to persecution, was once confined to Wales, but has successfully been reintroduced to Scotland and England. A good place nearby to see red kites is the feeding station at Ardgaty near Stirling, but Galloway and the Black Isle are also renowned for the numbers of kites that you can see gliding overhead.
Red kite – © RSPB images
Finally, a greenshank was observed on the channel in front of the visitor centre. Normally seen in northern Scotland in the summer, this migrant wader will have been on its way back to Africa for the winter, when it had a pitstop at Lochwinnoch.
Greenshank – © RSPB images
Other memorable sightings this summer have included little ringed plover on the channel, osprey flying over the Aird Meadow, a cuckoo in the carpark, male mandarin ducks in eclipse plumage, and a nuthatch at the trail feeding station, which is a rare sighting for Scotland.
Aside from the birds, we’ve also had some great mammal sightings, including a mole, a hedgehog, roe deer, foxes, badgers, bank voles and shrews. A recent camera trap video montage featuring some of these animals has had over 1,700 views on our Facebook page – have a look if you haven’t already!
Roe deer – image © Joe Crossland