The sun comes up every morning more early and gives us more time for watching the wildlife. This morning reserved us some surprises, we were lucky to watch 4 black throated diver. This bird has wonderful white and black feathers, it can be seen in North West of Scotland in the summer for the breeding season. This species is part of the priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Actually there are between 190 and 250 breeding pairs across the UK. They can fish at depths of up to six metres, but usually only stay underwater for a minute.

 

 

The mute swan family has got two cygnets and they are following their parents across the loch. When the mute swan saw the divers invading its territory, it started displaying defensive behaviour to scare them off!

 

 

The osprey’s family is going well and every day we can see the chicks growing. The second chick is becoming feisty and has even been seen stealing morsels of food from its older sibling’s beak!

The heavy shower on Sunday sparked changes noticeable to all the senses; the sunset was unusually dramatic with a lovely orange hue and the wet soil gave off a wonderful smell called petrichor. In fact we could see lot of toads on the path and around the reserve and could hear them calling throughout the night. It was very peaceful and we discovered another side to the wildlife.

But sadly on Sunday night the blue tit female didn’t come back to incubate her chicks (maybe because of the weather) and finally returned on Monday morning. The chicks were cold and we lost 5 of them. But luckily one survived and she is taking care of the only chick. It was sad to watch this kind of thing through the camera but it is the law of nature.

 

Chloe & Michelle SPO Team