During the last week some habitat management & maintenance has been taking place at our Loons Reserve in Birsay. We have had a digger (not a crane unfortunately) on site. Increasing the amount of open water available on site for wildfowl & waders. At the viewpoint lay-by we have created five additional pools, they are quite subtle from the lay-by but the birds are going to love them - already 5 species of wader have checked them out; Snipe, Redshank, Lapwing, Greenshank and 6 Golden Plovers came into bathe!
The view from The Loons Hide has had a haircut ... The first three shots are before...
and now it looks like...
Several years of aquatic vegetation growth has been removed to keep the view from the hide 'live' and interesting. This has been made possible as part of the Enjoy Wild Orkney project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and RSPB Scotland. The work was carried out using a small tracked excavator working on specially made bog mats that we had stored on Shapinsay (where similar work took place a few years ago). Ewan (from DS Nicolson Ltd) has done a fine job.
While I have been on site this week supervising operations, I have had some great wildlife moments and a couple of soggie wellies; from Brown Hares to a juvenile Merlin chasing a Lapwing and grounding it twice, though not quite sure what to do with it and the lucky Lapwing escaped... There have been upto 6 Greenshank, daily sightings of Hen Harriers, Short-eared Owl & Kestrel. The first Golden Plover have returned with upto 250 birds and a very impressive flock of Curlew has peaked at about 400 birds. Both Common Frog and Toad have been seen also.
Well worth a visit at this time of year - Sit for 15 - 30 minutes and you'll be amazed what turns up...It will be interesting to see what is seen over the next couple of months.
Cheers AlanOrkney Sites Manager