There is definitely a wee hint of spring in the air here at Loch of the Lowes, despite the fact that snow is forecast this afternoon. Yesterday I saw two brown hares courting in the nearby fields and this morning heard a woodpecker drumming in our woods- a sure sign of courtship beginning. This hint of spring has spurred us into spring cleaning mode here at the reserve too.

You may notice some human activity on our feeding station webcam today , as we are refreshing the layout and adding some improvements to help diversify your viewing by attracting more species to the camera zone with a better variety of feeders etc.

We are also adding some improvements that will help control disease in this very busy bird area, particularly trichomonosis, which has been a problem in recent times. This disease particularly affects finches such as Greenfinches, which are popular here, so we are doing everything we can to help prevent the disease- something we should all be aware of. We have two sets of feeders which we swap weekly to ensure they get a really through clean and dry. We also rotate around the placement of feeders to make sure the ground beneath doesn’t become too contaminated. These are both things you can do at home in your own garden to help prevent this awful disease.

Please accept our apologies of the feeder cam is a bit disrupted today- rest assured we have placed some feeders further afield so that the birds will not go hungry whilst we are working in the area. We hope you enjoy the new look on the webcam.

Ranger Emma