RSPB Loch Leven

 We paid one of regular visits to the RSPB reserve at Loch Leven this week. It was a nice calm bright day for a change, our last two visits it has been blowing a gale so the birds were keeping a very low profile.

This time was pleasingly different with lots going on, the Lapwings were very busy in front of the middle hide,

nice view of its bum!

and plenty of aerial activity too.

We saw our first Reed Bunting of the year

and the duck species count was high with Wigeon still around,

Teal, Goldeneye, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Shoveler and Shelduck

Great Crested Grebes were busy pairing up on the loch and also on the reserve pools, as were two Little Grebes. I have to say the improvements made in front of the middle hide to make it more suitable for the Lapwing are paying dividends, it looks great and seems to be attracting birds in numbers. The curlew seem to like it too:

We counted 75, but i'm sure there were more.

Then to cap it off a couple of Hare were spotted on the bee/butterfly meadow,

a great day.

Over 30 species in all!

First Visit to Loch of the Lowes

 Having joined the Scottish Wildlife Trust we took ourselves off to Loch of the Lowes, just a 45 minute drive from us.

I have to say we were very impressed with the whole set up and the friendliness of the volunteers. Access to the hides (2) is great with great views of the Osprey nest on the opposite shore of the Loch. Each hide have good quality scopes, so there was no need for me to have lugged ours from the car! SO we had a great views of both Osprey coming and going from the nest, bringing back new nesting materials. Both hides also have TVs showing the nest cam, so an all round great experience.

So apart from the Ospreys it was pretty quiet on the Loch itself with Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Black-headed Gull and a couple of Buzzards putting in an appearance.

The feeders viewed from the visitor centre were very entertaining:

The Great Spotted Woodpeckers 

and the Nuthatch being the highlights

With a good supporting cast of Chaffinch

Great Tits,

and Coal Tit.

Of course there were Blue Tits, Robin, Crows, Pigeon and Blackbird. Finally as we walked back to teh car a Jay put in appearance.

A great place with many more visits to come I'm sure!

Loch Leven - Findatie

 I haven't posted for a while, a number of factors, but we've mainly been very busy and not a lot of time for birding!

However we managed to get up to Loch Leven for a few hours on Wednesday, going for a walk from the Findatie car park. We enjoy Findatie as it's a good mix of loch, river and woodland, so a good variety of birds if you can spot them! 😏

In the end though we had a good list, with few photo opportunities though, but I did manage a few.

As we started down the path from the car park, I caught a brief glimpse of a Goldcrest before it shot off, the nearby field held a few Greylag, one of which is shown below,

From the hide a number of Grey Heron were seen constantly moving from fishing spot to fishing spot in the strong winds,

Amorous frogs were about on the paths,

a male Goldeneye showed briefly on the river, through the undergrowth, befoire it flew off!

A Treecreeper gave us a good show,

and we saw our first Sand Martins of the year hawking over the loch.

An Oystercatcher smartening himself up,

and a pair of Black-headed Gulls sunning themselves now in full summer plumage.

That'll do for now!

The Meadies.......

 A walk around the Nature Reserve area of Lochore was very quiet, not much seen from the hide, plenty of amorous Teal though,

with the male Teal starting to look their finest for the upcoming 'festivities' 😀

Apart from that just the usual suspects until we returned to the car park, when we spotted two Yellowhammer in the tree by the car! The light was fading and very dull so this photo is brightened up a bit and grainy:

We also paid a visit to the RSPB Loch Leven, it was a very windy day and all the birds were keeping a low profile tucked up in the reeds or hiding in the undergrowth. So no photos for this one. We did add Greenfinch and Shelduck to our year list though.

This is February! Starting at Kinghorn Loch.

 We have threatened for ages to spend more time at Kinghorn Loch and get the code for the bird hide that's there so last week we finally did it. As usual the past few times we've been out it was a bit overcast and with the great Kingfisher views we had I could really have done with a bit more light, but you can't have everything!

So here's a few Kingfisher photos, plus a few other bits and bobs from the hide:

The others; Little Grebe,

Great Tit,

Coal Tit,

Robin,

Dunnock,

Long-tailed Tit

That was January!

 So one month down already. I've just a few things to wrap up for the month.

We went for another look at the Waxwings at Sighthill in Edinburgh before they move on (in fact they are still there as of yesterday) The day was very dull and they weren't about. Of course someone else had seen them earlier, but thanks to Facebook we learnt that they had relocated a few hundred yards down the road, where there were still some berries, so off we went. As I said it was dull day so not the the best photos:

This Mistle Thrush tried to drive them off from the berries and succeeded at first but gave up after a while.

Elsewhere:

Lochore Meadows ("The Meadies")

Another dull day and quite quiet, Goldeneye and Teal being the highlights;

A walk at Seafield (Kirkcaldy),

Pied Wagtail,

Long-tailed Tit

A Ukranian Patrol Boat, presumably training in the Firth of Forth,

The Tower in the sun,

Gulls and Oystercatcher,

our first Red-breasted Merganser of the year,

Redshank having a stroll,

and Redshank having a get together!

Finally a very very quiet walk at Burleigh Sands with just a Goldcrest jigging about in the pines.