Good afternoon all,

Events from the nest:

09:00am – Nest unattended.

09:25am – Immature redstart with parent on nest for approx. two minutes.

09:55am – Male returns to nest with a stick.

09:57am – Male leaves nest.

10:19am – Male returns to nest.

10:23am – Male leaves nest.

14:14pm – Female returns to nest.

15:30pm – Female calling.

15:51pm – Female leaves nest and lands in nearby tree.

Other Wildlife at Loch of the Lowes:

Today on the loch there were three great crested grebes, four mute swans, ten Canada geese, sixty four mallards, fifteen tufted ducks, six goosanders and eight black headed gulls.

At the feeding station today there were five pheasants, three great spotted woodpeckers, two robins, a blackbird, three blue tits, three great tits, three coal tits, a tree creeper, five chaffinches, a green finch, six siskins, a reed bunting and two red squirrels.

Conservation work and sightings on the Perthshire reserves:

Himalayan balsam removal continued on one of the Perthshire reserves today; we still come across new patches of this invasive species; the plants that haven’t previously been managed are now flowering and preparing to scatter there plentiful seeds, keeping on top of it is a constant task.

While clearing an area of balsam we uncovered a wasp’s nest, so in the interests of our safety we did leave a small area of flowering plants!

On the same reserve there were also sightings of buzzard, common gulls, black headed gulls, sand martins, swallows and we witnessed a feeding party of finches and tits working their way through the birch, hazel and willow woodland; we saw goldfinches, long tailed tits, chaffinch and blue tits.

Perthshire Conservation Team