Well we think Blue 44 has had another go at fishing as he was drying his wings for a long time this afternoon. His dad is still providing good size fish for him with a stonking great Brown Trout this morning and another good size one this afternoon.  We had thought our male was beginning to reduce the amount of fish he brought in therefore encouraging Blue 44 to become more independent but it doesn’t look like it. There’s time yet as we would normally expect them to leave in early September so there’s a week or so to go.

We’ve had a huge flotilla of Tufted Duck on the loch today along with an usually large amount of Great Crested Grebe and our juvenile Goosander have been showing off their diving skills. This is a great time to watch all the youngsters develop the skills they need for adulthood.

Talking of developing skills we’ve been working on a Squirrel Tail identification chart to help us understand more about the Red Squirrels that visit our feeding stations. So far we’ve identified five separate individuals but we’re sure there’s another two or three to go. This is been a great team effort by staff and volunteers as we’ve spent the last week frantically snapping photos of Squirrel tails any time they appear and it’s been lots of fun for everyone. If you visit the centre you’ll see our Squirrel Gallery and you can see if you work out who’s who. Here’s one to get you started, thanks to Tom Taylor for this photo.

 

Lindsey