Sun, hide and frisky.

Just the one day in the hide this weekend as I have tomorrow off.  But, what a day.  It was great to see some of the faces from last weekend again, and meet some new faces.  New to me anyway.  Some of the visitors I’ve met have been coming to the reserve for a long time, and have great stories to tell.  Such as… apparently the reserve used to have Black Necked Grebes nesting on it, and there was a time when there were so many Black Headed Gulls nesting on the loch that it was not possible to hear yourself speak when in the Gullery (hide).

The Sun came out and life on the reserve is getting a bit frisky – there’s a definite feeling of spring in the air.  Mallards chase down each others’ girlfriends, male Shovellers swim tight circles to impress potential mates and, best of all, the Lapwings perform amazing aerobics whilst making the most mellifluous fluty noises in an attempt to hold onto to territory, and, of course, get jiggy with the local totty.

And, on top of all that, there were Ospreys.  Anyway, more more about them shortly.  Just to finish the day off nicely, after spotting a Toad swim up underneath the Gullery, and following the advice of Steve, a regular visitor, I decided to call by the Lily pond on my way back to the flat.  At the pond there were hundreds of toads splashing and swimming about.  Not all of them were in full voice, but there was a decent amount of croaking.  The pair of Swans sleeping out in the middle had obviously seen it all before.  I stood with the lowering sun warm on my face, listening to the action for a few minutes, before strolling back to the flat.