Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday, Emma was on one of her rare days off and I haven’t been able to get to the blog until now.

The last two days couldn’t have been more different. Yesterday was dreich (miserable) and wet while today we’ve all been basking in the sun.

On Sunday we had three intruders Osprey fly over the loch in the morning and later in the day one even landed on the nest. The intruder was quickly batted off the nest with a flick of the wing, guess who was incubating at time?! Today we’ve had both intruder Osprey and Buzzard but our female didn’t seem too bothered by them.

With only a week or so to go before hatching the excitement and anticipation is building here.

Our young male seems to be varying his fish tastes recently with a large Blue Trout coming in yesterday morning just before 9am and an equally large Rainbow Trout brought in at lunchtime today. However he had left her for 27 hours without a meal and further disgraced himself by flying overhead with a fish in this morning, circling round the nest and then eating it himself.

Yesterday on the loch was a cracking day with Pied Wagtail, Pied Flycatcher, Reed Warbler, Long-tailed Tits, Jay, Wren, Shelduck and Sedge Warbler all spotted from the hides while Swallows and Sand Martins zoomed over the surface. Our Great Crested Grebe continued to display regardless of the weather and a couple of Goosander popped in for a visit.

Today it’s been quieter on the loch, although a pair of Redstart were spotted. Our feeding stations have been busy with our juvenile Siskins making one of their first appearances along with both the male and female Great Spotted Woodpecker. Most entertaining of all were the Red Squirrels this morning, one of the Squirrels had a walnut and the other decided it wanted it (despite there being plenty to go around). He chased the other Squirrel up the tree and down the tree until the Squirrel with the nut sought sanctuary in the Squirrel box. Not to be defeated the pursuing Squirrel tried to follow him into the box but the sheltering Squirrel had obviously had enough by then and shoved him back out!

Being on Nightwatch can be tough as you’re working through the night in all weathers but there are many compensations. Last night, despite the cold, very wet and windy weather, the Nightwatch saw a couple of shooting stars, one falling through the constellation Cassiopeia. Now there’s something you don’t see everyday, or night as the case was!

Lindsey