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.

So, life is pretty good here at the moment.  Although it rained all day on Tuesday.  Myself, Tom and Graham were taking down a fence on the North West of the reserve, and getting pretty muddy – no pictures from Tuesday.  On Wednesday, suddenly, the weather had improved.  Same job, but somehow we managed to get a whole lot more done.  At one point I heard some chirping above me, just as Tom and Graham were on their way over, and we all looked up to see three Ospreys circling above us.  There are pictures from Wednesday, but not of Ospreys.

Yesterday there was some work to do down at the hides before Hannah showed me the way of wader surveying.  Hannah promises me that there’ll be plenty of wader/other surveys to do, which is terrible news as sitting down with a scope looking for birds seems like such a chore.  And the whole situation is made worse by the fact that the process is only really worthwhile on windless days with sun.

Other interesting news – I forgot to say that I’m especially happy with the size of the mugs in the kitchen.  After filling them to the top, which is what you’re supposed to do, they hold enough tea for me to avoid having to get up to refill.  The room I’m sleeping in is now almost warm enough for me to consider using just the one duvet on the bed.  And, perhaps most importantly, the local Coop does not stock Hobnobs.  How can a food emporium not stock Hobnobs?  But they do stock milkchoc Hobnobs!  I have, you won’t be surprised to hear, written to McVities to explain my chagrin.

Finally, an election was called this week.  It’s disappointing that the environment doesn’t seem to feature highly in any of the election debates I’ve heard so far.  Apparently, the public are more concerned with how many children each potential priministerial candidate has, or is going to have, or whether they are messy whilst at home.  If you are one of the important few who think that the election should be about making big decisions on the way the country is run you might be interested in the RSPB’s “Letter to the future”.  It’s not really a letter to the future, it’s a letter to politicians asking them to help preserve nature so that future generations can experience what we have.  More information can be found here:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/applications/lettertothefuture/index.aspx

Also, it is possible to quiz your local prospective parliamentary candidates as to what their thoughts are on the environment, by email. Do it. Even if their response is not going to influence your vote, it will still get them to think that the environment is a serious issue. I find it hard to understand why the environment isn’t top of every political party’s agenda. Without an environment nothing else matters, life is impossible. This is already happening to thousands of species across the world, thanks to man’s activities. It seems logical to me that we should be tackling major environmental issues first.

Contact your local candidates

Hmm, I promised myself that I wouldn’t rant on my blog.  Never mind, on to some pictures…

Following my day off on Friday I was posted to hide duty over Easter weekend.  This involved me spending time in one of the hides, with a telescope, talking to visitors about the birds we could see.  I can remember thinking to myself a number of times over the two days, ‘hmm, is this really work?’.

The job was made even more gratifying when various people, often youngsters, exclaimed surprise at seeing a bird they’d maybe never seen before, up close through the scope.  Nature is amazing, and doesn’t take much selling – hopefully a few more kids will now grow up knowing this, and one of them could end up in a position to make a serious difference to our future.

I was also regaled with stories from a  number of local regulars, one of which showed me a picture that he’d taken at the reserve two weeks earlier, of a White Tailed Eagle.  The Eagle had been released nearby last year, as part of a reintroduction programme, hence it had blue tags on its wings.  In the picture the Eagle was flying low, maybe 2 or 3 feet over the water, wings outstretched to slow itself down, and a few feet in front of it were two Swans rearing up out of the water to face it, both also with wings outstretched.

The Eagle is huge. It’s wings almost span the width of both swans standing together.  Unfortunately I can’t remember if I asked the question as to what happened next, because I was so fascinated by the picture.

I was also lucky enough to see some birds I’ve never seen before, as well as get some great views of some amazing birds that I never tire of seeing (not that I ever tire of seeing any wild animal in its natural environment, but I must admit I have favourites), such as Widgeon, Teal and Ospreys.  Of my firsts, I did just catch a glimpse of a Sand Martin, and the other is pictured below.

Today I had a day off – I get two a week, just not necessarily at the weekends – and the weather hasn’t been welcoming, so I’ve been catching up with (digital) paperwork.

So, I’m doing some more volunteering with the RSPB, this time in East Scotland near a town called Kirriemuir.  The reserve is about 90 hectares (almost 1 square kilometre) in size, and it’s possible to see it all in a day, which is what I did on my first working day here (Monday 29th March).  Since then I’ve been ducking inside avoiding snow (more snow!), out in a canoe on the loch, taking down fencing, and trying to keep warm.

On Tuesday and Wednesday it was blowing a hoolie, so not much opportunity for pictures.  By Thursday (yesterday) things had calmed down a little so Hannah, the warden, took myself and Tom, a local reed cutter contracted to the RSPB, out on the loch in the canoe.  Hannah collected 10 samples from the loch, which will hopefully tell someone somewhere something useful about the silt content.

Today I’ve had a day off

More information about the reserve is here

Hannah, the warden writes a blog, which is here

Oh, it’s late – I’ll write more soon.