Cullaloe Local Nature Reserve

We've Moved!!!

2010-02-13T16:09:00.004Z

Hey Cullaloe-watchers!!

Firstly, don't panic!! If you like to get a regular Cullaloe fix, you will still be able to do so - just in new and exciting ways! We hope! ;-)

It is the end of an era for this Cullaloe blog. We have decided that we would like to make our blog a more interesting and user-friendly place to be and sadly this blog just doesn't have it to give! The world today is all about choices and we want to give you the biggest amount of choice we can of how you "do" Cullaloe. Embracing social media, Grahame says! ;-P

So - what are we getting at? Well, we are moving to the new blog so that we can:

1) provide you with updates as and when interesting stuff happens, through Twitter, when we are still on the reserve!!

2) showcase existing images of the reserve, and even add your photos, through Flickr!!

3) personalise the blog with our own photos and give more detail on the reserve and staff in the About section of the site!!

The best bit is that this all happens on one page!! :-)

So, to view the new and improved blog, direct your browser to http://cullaloelnr.wordpress.com

Alternatively, you can follow us on Twitter @swt_cullaloe

The blog has a direct Twitter feed, and this feed will be automatically updated when blog posts are published, so you will always know when we have something to say! All you have to do is choose which option works best for you!

We hope you will join us on the new blog very soon! :-)

The Cullaloe Team

That makes me see red, no wait, it's amber. Oh, it's green!

2009-12-08T13:15:00.002Z

Hey folks,

Just a quick update to advise that there are roadworks going on just now, directly outside the reserve, with traffic lights at either end. Apparently, the road works will be going on for the next 4 weeks.

The reserve is still open and accessible, but please do take care when leaving. Currently, we can only see one set of traffic lights, and can't tell which side is green.

In other news, we closed the valve to let the water level rise on the loch last week, and it has risen already! The spillway is now in full flow!
As a downside, the loch seems a bit quiet in terms of wildfowl just now, but to compensate, the feeders are getting lots of attention just now!

Anyone for Swimming?!

2009-11-26T16:06:00.007Z

Dear Blog-watchers, it is that time of year again when the wellies and mactintoshes come out and everyone looks a little like Paddington Bear as they make their way around Fife ;-) And at Cullaloe, it is no different!

As you know, Grahame and I are always keen to promote new developments at the reserve and today I present... the carpark-come-swimming pool! Now, anybody who knows us knows we would love nothing more than hoards of visitors to come along to our reserve - in rain snow, or the occasional sunshine - but on this occasion we have had to close the car park for safety due to flooding. The disabled parking area is still available for use, but the gate down to the carpark proper has been closed for the moment.

Now, we don't wish to spoil all your fun, so we would still like to see you at the reserve whenever you would like to visit. The soggy birds and plants (and convenor and reserve warden) will still be around :-) And you are of course welcome to walk down to the car park to splash about in the big puddle until your heart is content! But please, please take care on the staircase down from the old Dam Wall as it is slippy!

We went Bats for National Moth Night!

2009-09-21T23:17:00.002+01:00

When I speak to most people about moths, they are more than happy to tell me that moths are boring, brown and annoying as they flutter around the lights in their house. How very wrong they are!

Most people appreciate butterflies and the variety and colour of them. What they don’t realise is that moths can be just as colourful, but with a wider variety!
There are over 800 different species of macro moth in the UK (Macro moths being those larger than a fingernail, generally) compared to only 50 or so butterflies!

To highlight this, SWT have run a variety of moth nights throughout the summer months at the various reserves in Fife. We’ve had 4 events at Cullaloe, ranging from very productive to hopelessly quiet.

The most recent (and last at Cullaloe for the year) event was held on the evening of 18th September, which was part of National Moth Night, a national celebration of moths and moth trapping.

Throughout the evenings of 18th and 19th September, there were literally hundreds of moth events accessible for the public up and down the UK. It isn’t all fun and games, though. The serious side to the National Moth Nights is that all of these sites were recording the species and numbers of moths present. It’s like a snapshot of the UK, charting the state of moths throughout the country.

Now, onto the event itself!

We set up two traps on the reserve. One was based at the pine trees next to the viewing screen and the other was in the willow scrub to the east of the spillway. The temperature wasn’t too bad – still in double figures when we set up and there was a fair bit of cloud, which would hopefully have stopped it from dropping too low (the lower the temperature, the less likely we are to see moths). It wasn’t long till we saw our first moth – a Canary-Shouldered Thorn. I’m sure you’ll agree – definitely not a dull, boring moth!

We had several moths in pretty quick succession at this point. I could tell you what we got when, but I think it’s easier at this stage just to show you the list of species – if you want to see what each one looks like, click on its name and you’ll be taken to a website with pictures and info on each species

4 x Canary Shouldered Thorn
2 x Small Wainscot
2 x Square-spot Rustic
11 x Autumnal Rustic
18 x Common Marbled Carpet
4 x Pink-barred Sallow
9 x Red-green Carpet
2 x Sallow
6 x Pine Carpet
5 x Spruce Carpet
3 x Grey Pine Carpet
2 x Brimstone
10 x Frosted Orange
5 x Rosy Rustic
1 x July Highflyer
6 x Black Rustic
1 x Small Phoenix
2 x Autumn Green Carpet
1 x Red-line Quaker
1 x Yellow-line Quaker

There were also 3 other species, which we have yet to confirm ID on.

Now, life as a moth isn’t always a safe place. The darkness hides you from some things, but not from everything - Our moth trap in the willow scrub is testament to that!

At about 9pm, after studying the recent captures at the screen, we took a walk to the willow scrub to see what was going on. When we got there we found… nothing! Not a single moth in sight.

Now, we knew this trap was working, the light was plenty bright enough and was in a nice, big clearing… surely the moths should have been here?!

The answer quickly became apparent as a bat flew right past us, quickly followed by another two! As we stared, watching these flying mammals hurtling past us at lightning speeds, we noticed that there was at least two different species of bat, judging from their size.

The smaller ones, we reckon are almost certainly either Common or Soprano Pipistrelles. The larger ones, on the other hand, we are not sure about. We suspect they could be Daubenton’s Bats that have come over from the loch, their usual hunting ground. They could also be other species, such as Natterer’s Bats, which are also found in Fife. Sadly, we did not have a bat detector with us, so were unable to get any sort of confirmation of this.

Still, it’s good to know that we’ve got a healthy population of bats, whatever species they are!

Now, having read all this and you’re now hankering for a bit of moth action – never fear! There is one final moth night planned for this Friday, 25th September at SWT’s Fleecefaulds Meadow reserve. It begins at 7:30pm and is being hosted by Tim Brain, our resident moth expert. There will even be a bat detector present this time!

We’ll be releasing dates for next year’s moth trapping in the next couple of months, so watch this space!

Update

2009-07-09T10:42:00.002+01:00

Hey folks,
I know it's been a long time since either Janie or me updated the blog. We've both been crazy busy recently, mostly working on material for the reserve open day on 2nd August!

I can, however, give you all a brief update on what's been going on at Cullaloe. Don't be expecting the flowery speech and long stories that Janie gives you, though. I'm not nearly that exciting!

The screen has now been completed, and if you go along, I'm sure you'll agree that it makes a huge improvement on the old one! We're definitely finding that the wildfowl are beginning to get that little bit closer, so better views are definitely to be had.

Butterfly season is in full swing on the reserve, with butterflies absolutely everywhere. The most common one right now is the Ringlet, though other species are also present, including the occasional Dark Green Fritillary!
An absolutely gorgeous butterfly, i'm sure you'll agree!

The march of the froglets has begun over the past week or so, so keep an eye on your footing when on the reserve. The little froglets are everywhere, and it's quite easy to stand on them - in fact, you're probably better off if you don't look down!

If any of you have been along in the past month or so, you'll have noticed that the bird feeders had been left empty. Never fear, as of last weekend, they are now kept with food in them!

Finally, just to let you all know, we're having an event on Saturday afternoon (11th July), with members of the local branch of the Scottish Wildlife Trust coming along and sharing their expertise with us. The main theme is on bugs, but you can be sure we will be touching on butterflies, birds, plants - anything that's there, really!
It is open to all, so if you're free on Saturday afternoon from 2pm, please do feel free to come along

Hopefully it won't be quite as long between updates now. I know, we say that every time, but this time it might just happen! :)

News Update - Screen Clean!

2009-05-14T12:37:00.007+01:00

Just a quick update for our regular blog-watchers! The screen replacement works have finally begun at Cullaloe main loch! Grahame and I are very pleased to announce that Dave Blair and his Conservation Team have been hard at work since Tuesday, taking down the old willow withy screen that had become so battered and vandalised in recent years, and replacing it with something much more hardy and user friendly! :-)

I haven't seen it personally but Grahame has taken a wander along and reports back that the Team started working from the end that is farthest away from the loch. The first section looks much like you would expect a standard 6ft garden fence to look. It is made up of vertical fence boards set side by side with small gaps between. The screen will continue in much the same way, but with sight-holes at varying levels for all the visitors to be able to peek through and see what our water based birds are up to! :-)

If you happen to take a walk along to the loch in the next few days, keep your eyes peeled for our magnificent swans! They have recently become the proud parents of 7 cygnets! :-) Grahame and I have some concern about the loch being big enough to support that many young, and there is always the chance of one or two being lost to predators along the way, but we are hopeful that the bulk of them will successfully reach maturity! If you have never seen a cygnet before, don't be expecting a miniature version of their beautiful snow-coloured parents! Oh no! Think back into your childhood and the story of the Ugly Duckling. That ugly, grey, scruffy little duckling was actually a beautiful, graceful swan, just waiting to grow up! :-) They may not look like much when you see them, but if you keep coming to visit, you will gradually see the changes take place until eventually they will look like proper full-grown swans wearing dirty jumpers! ;-) They don't get their white feathers until they are a full year old, by which time they will already have taken flight away from Cullaloe.

Other birds are also having their young, so keep looking for ducklings and coot chicks as you scan the loch. Don't forget to look above the surface of the loch too for the swallows who are busy chasing the insects that fly above the water! :-) They like to swoop and twist and swirl in the air in mesmerising patterns - very entertaining to watch! :-)

Hope you are getting out there and enjoying the long-awaited sun! Just don't forget to wear sun cream as the heat can be deceptive when it is so windy!

Take care all!

Janie
Reserve Warden

BIG BIRD NEWS!

2009-04-26T12:30:00.003+01:00

Hey there :-) Welcome to the beginning of summer at Cullaloe! :-) How do we know that it is getting to be summer at long, long last? The arrival of migrants has begun! And boy are they making their presence felt!

But first, the big news about a big bird! No... not the 8ft tall yellow one from Sesame Street... ;-) We are talking Osprey here! Yes, here - at Cullaloe! :-)

There are a couple of very regular visitors to the reserve (human this time) and one of them very kindly text Grahame yesterday to let us know that they had spied an Osprey making for our loch in search of a wee afternoon appetiser! This is brilliant news as we regularly make trips up to Loch of the Lowes (SWT Reserve) and Loch Garten (RSPB Reserve) to see these magnificent birds of prey! :-) For anyone who doesn't know their osprey from their buzzard, the osprey is similar in size to a buzzard, but it is essentially black and white all over. The top of its head is white with some speckled areas, the wings are black and the chest is white again, with a speckled bib at the front. The osprey also looks like a bit of a punk with a funky spike going on at the back of its head! ;-) If you are wondering what the buzzard looks like now - first suggestion is to visit the reserve and take a gander up the gorse slope towards the telegraph poles, where you can see one personally 9 times out of 10! ;-) If you can't make it along, buzzards are a very rich milk-chocolate brown all over, with some gold-brown mixed through. They have a black curved beak in the usual bird of prey style, but with a yellow nostril-cover that makes it look quite distinctive.

Although Grahame and I were obviously disappointed not to see the osprey personally, we were chuffed to bits that Ian and his wife took the time to let us know that the appearance had been noted. Thanks very much guys and we'll see you on the reserve again soon!

Now, apart from an Osprey making a pit-stop at the Little Chef that is Cullaloe Loch, we also have a new stream of more long-term visitors arriving. They are mostly of the LBJ (Little Brown Job) crew, but they also have their own distinctive features. First to arrive was the Chiff-Chaff which can be heard all over the reserve, but likes to hang out at the side of the loch nearest the sheep pasture mostly. Next arrival was the Willow Warbler (Grahame's favourites!) and they can be heard and seen every step of the way through the reserve! They are one of the most melodic singers of the LBJ crew - very beautiful indeed. We are also playing hosts to swallows as of the tail end of this week. These cheeky chappies are swooping about over the filterbeds, the loch and most of the areas in between! Best chance of sighting these is basically to look upwards! This morning was the turn of the first whitethroat of the year which has taken up residence as usual in the trees around the filterbeds! :-)

So, getting to be a busy wee place, with birds of all shapes and sizes moving in to their summer addresses. Make sure you take time to go and check them out before they check out of Hotel Cullaloe! ;-)

Take care!

Janie

Long time, no blog

2009-03-10T10:35:00.010Z

Hey guys! I'm really sorry to see it has been more than a month since my last post! You could be forgiven for thinking that nothing much is happening on-site - and that is all our fault for not keeping you up-to-date! :-(

So, lets get cracking and see what is new! :-) The first thing to mention is that the snow-drops are out in force all along the banking at the car park! I love snow-drops :-) For me they are the herald of the spring but with a wee remembrance of winter to warm the cockles of your heart! ;-) The bright green of the stems beautifully show off the crisp white of the flowers and they sway like little bells in the gentle breezes we were enjoying until this week! :-) I like the fact that they are nestled within the trees that mark the right-hand edge of the car park (as you stand looking down from the steps up to the top of the dam wall). They brighten the brown earth between the bare trees and make you realise that before too long the air is going to be thick with perfume and you are not going to be able to see a hint of bareness anywhere at all! :-)

Unfortunately the right hand edge of the access road has taken another beating in the recent heavy rains as it curves into the car park, so there has been a fair amount of debris washed down over the road. It makes things a litte dicey for the old car, so take your time as you come down around the corner, and make sure you check your brakes as you leave the reserve once your visit is over.

Another good reason to slow down as you come around the bottom bend in the access road, and regular readers will know I say this often, is that you never know what you might find at the filter beds. Picture it - you are minding your own business, sun-bathing on a rock, or hunting for rodents or small fish, and suddenly this massive hunk of metal comes belting into your existence, squealing and growling for all it is worth! What are you going to do..? Take off like the clappers - that's what! ;-) So, now imagine that you are once again engaged in your own activites, and you gradually become aware of a low growling noise, approaching quite slowly. You will certainly pause for a moment to try to identify the sound. You might even come out of cover a little to get a better look at whatever this new predator is. But you will most certainly delay the moment of flight for longer than you would have! And that, guys and girls, is the whole point! :-)

Grahame and I make it our habit to approach the filter beds as quietly as possible, whether we are driving or walking, and that is why we are occasionally treated to seeing some of the more shy creatures that call Cullaloe home. We have lost count of the number of deer, wildfowl and smaller mammals such as foxes we have spooked in that area of the reserve. Recently it seems to be the turn of a rather sleekit beastie - the mink. There have been a couple of occasions that a single mink has been spotted at the edge of, or within, one of the filter beds. Sightings have also been made at the spillway. The presence of mink would certainly explain the apparent down-turn in young on the main loch this year and we are keen to gauge the levels of them we might have, so if you should happen to spot a small weasel-like creature with dark brown/black fur, please leave a comment on this blog, letting Grahame and I know where you were, where it was and when it was! :-)

Other than the possible mink, something you definitely will be able to spot at the moment is the sheer number of birds who are singing their feathery little hearts out! :-) The feeders are being so well-used that Grahame barely gets the chance to hang the filled feeders back on their hooks before the cheeky blue tits and coal tits starting feasting away again! :-) The great spotted woodpecker has been spied regularly coming in from the direction of Cullaloe Lodge, and I have had yellowhammers pointed out to me by Grahame on at least 4 occasions in the last couple of weeks! :-) Now, I can recognise quite a few birds these days but the Yellowhammer is one that I just can't seem to get in my mind. I usually find though that if I say it out loud, or tell someone else, their description normally starts to stick - so I'm going to jot it down here as a memo to myself and hopefully it will help you all find them too! :-) They are about the same size as a house sparrow and from the neck down they are a little similar in pattern. There are dark lines that flow down the wings and back towards the tail in the same way as a sparrow has. However, as the name suggests, the yellowhammer has much brighter colour about him than a sparrow. The male has a sunny yellow coloured head and the yellow mingles with brown going downhis back in those stripes I already mentioned. The female has more brown on her body and head than the male, but is still yellow enough to be disingushed from other small brown-coloured birds. I hope that helps! :-) And for all of those who want to be purist about it - I know that the patterning of the sparrow is a little different, and it has a white stripe running cross-ways on the wing that the yellowhammer doesn't - but I just think it helps to have something that is well known to compare an unknown bird to. It helps me - and it might help others! ;-)

I do have one piece of cracking good news for all of us who like to go to Cullaloe though :-) Something that might make the experience a little more rewarding for all of us... :-) You may know that we were hoping to receieve funding towards the replacement of the viewing screen situated at the main loch... and we are delighted to say we have been successful! :-) The viewing screen will be of different construction this time to try to persuade vandals not to cut pieces of of it, and also in the hope that it may last a little longer this time! We are still sourcing funding for a noticeboard to accompany the screen, or be placed down at the car park, so we can share interesting sightings or put up adverts for events that are due to be held, but that funding is yet to be agreed. I'll keep you posted though! ;-) Out of interest... if you think it would be useful to have a notice board, please comment and let us know why! :-)

Anyway, that's it for now. I will come back and let you know of developments as they happen in due course! Happy spotting! ;-)

Willow? What Willow?

2009-02-02T14:56:00.012Z

Hey Blog-watchers!

Its been a while since I last updated you, which I apologise for! The weather hasn't exactly been fantastic recently and I'm afraid many of the trips to Cullaloe have been entirely for work purposes, in as much as they have been quick stop-overs to fill feeders, count birds and generally check the place over.

One of the most recent visits,though, was as much about enjoying a day outdoors with like-minded people as it was about hard work. The cadets from ATC 859 Squadron (Dalgety Bay) were welcomed back to the reserve for their second visit of this year, to continue the willow coppicing they have been doing such a brilliant job of. Anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting the reserve since Christmas can't have failed to notice the impression the cadets have been making on that pesky water-sooking willow on the Snipe Bog (to the right of the path as you walk to the loch). Where once there was willow standing as thick as the hedges around Sleeping Beauty's castle, there is now a sandy-coloured sea of bog vegetation, spinging up to fill the space that has been created :-)

The cadets were last on-site on Sunday 24 January 2009 and we set them to work at the left-hand edge of where they had last been cutting - and boy did they cut when they were let loose! Grahame and I were very pleased to note that 12 cadets had pitched up ready and willing to work, accompanied by 4 adult supervisors!! :-) What a show of support!! :-)

I am going to focus on the cadets themselves on this blog entry because I really do think that they have come a long way since their maiden visit on 02 December 2007! :-) Some of the group on 24th January this year were newbies to the reserve, but don't think that held them back! No Sirree Bob! Given a pair of branch lopers or a bow-saw and pointed in the right direction, it wasn't long before they could be seen breaking off into groups of 2 or 3 with more experienced cadets and taking the willow down as if they had been doing it all their lives! :-)

As well as the newbies, some of the cadets have been coming to the reserve on each scheduled visit since the start of our volunteering sessions with them and it has been a pleasure to see how self-assured they have become - and how justifiedly proud they are of their ongoing achievements! :-) And seeing as 24th January was marked as being the date of the first ever drawing of blood when the cadets have been on site (a very small slip involving a thumb and the business end of a bow-saw - all very accidental and never to be repeated!) the cadets can actually say they have given both blood and plenty of sweat to the project! ;-) Joking aside, it is an achievement in itself tthat we have managed to go more than a year before having even the smallest of accidents with the coppicing tools, and that is testiment to the mature way the cadets have gone about their work - even if one or two of them (you know who you are guys) like to challenge themselves by thinking of taking down the bigger trees that perhaps we might be wanting to save! ;-)

For anyone that is concerned about the taking down of the willow - and may perhaps be wondering if it is the best thing for the reserve - please don't worry. The willow warblers, white thoats, and other little brown jobs ("LBJ's") like them will still have many perches around the Snipe Bog area in the shape of mature trees of species other than willow. The Snipe, who until now have never been known to nest on the site, but are regular visitors, will almost certainly prefer the more waterlogged conditions in the Snipe Bog, and you dear Cullaloe walker, bird-watcher or bug-spotter, will have more chance of seeing some of the larger animals that inhabit the reserve, and may see the reed dwelling birds and insects we have to offer more easily too! :-) I'll tell you this much - I wouldn't suggest venturing off the path onto the Snipe Bog without a good pair of wellies any more! It is very muddy and wet over there - which is just what we were hoping for! :-)

Anyway, I'll round off this post by letting you know that the cadets will be back with us on Sunday 07 February between 12pm and 3pm, where they will be sweeping in an easterly direction through what remains of the willow on the Snipe Bog. We will also be taking wee tours around the reserve to show the cadets what else can be found in and around the area, so if you see us about, please don't hesitate to come and have a blether! Tell us what we may have missed while we have been up to our knees in mud! ;-)

Till next time!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T08:51:00.002Z

Hey there folks,

Just a quick one to wish everybody who reads this blog a merry Christmas. I hope it was a good one for you all, and i hope 2009 is an eventful year for wildlife.

2009 will definitely be an eventful year for Cullaloe. You may remember me mentioning a couple of months ago that we'd put in for funding for various bits and pieces on the reserve. I'm happy to announce that the funding has been approved. As a result, there will be plenty of improvements happening on the reserve over the next two years.
In particular, in 2009, look out for a replacement viewing screen at the loch (very much needed, i'm sure any visitor to the reserve will agree) and a pond dipping platform at the filter beds.
There will also be events on the reserve throughout the year, from moth trapping evenings to guided walks and then to the open day in August. Once dates for these are confirmed, i will be sure to add them to the calendar.

I look forward to seeing you all on the reserve in 2009.

Blooming Campion, it's cold!

2008-11-25T15:51:00.011Z

Hello Blog-watchers and welcome to a chilly day on the Cullaloe Blog. Grahame and I headed over to the Reserve earlier this week to catch up on a bit of survey and seed maintainance, so I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts on what we, and nature, were up to! :-)

It was with some intrepidation that Grahame and I first descended the access slope into the Reserve as the roads leading to Cullaloe itself had not exactly been pleasant following the recent cold snap Fife had been plunged into. However, about half-way down we noticed that the crisp white snow had been broken by tracks of some kind - and tracks always get our interest levels rising! ;-) I admit that we were actually a little disappointed that at 10.30am on a Sunday, we were the first visitors to the Reserve of the day... we would really love to have found tyre tracks leading to the disabled parking bay (situated outside the Reserve gate) and human footprints disappearing off towards the Loch, but alas on this particular morning it was not meant to be... :-( You do come to the Reserve sometimes... don't you Blog-watchers...? Drop us a comment and let us know! :-)

Where was I... Oh, yes! Tracks! :-) They ran down the middle of the access road, and around the bottom corner, before disappearing over towards the far back corner of the car park. Grahame and I parked up and took a look. To begin with we wondered whether perhaps the Lodge's resident German Shepherd had taken itself on an early morning walk, but we quickly established that our track-maker had in fact been a fox! :-) As we crossed the car park we encountered another set of tracks, belonging to a bird this time. They were pretty big - about 8cm long, and we noticed that every once in a while they were joined by another set of tracks that were similar in size. We didn't have any identification books with us, but can be reasonably sure that the tracks belonged to a couple of pheasants. The really interesting part was that the fox tracks seemed to mirror the location of the pheasant tracks - almost as if we were seeing the memory of the fox slinking along behind them, thinking about lunch! ;-) This was backed up by the fact that in some places, the fox's tail had also made contact with the snow as it walked, perhaps as it hunkered down to get a good old nostril full of the pheasant's scent! ;-)

Both the fox and pheasant tracks ran up the slope and along the pathway to the Loch, and this is the way that we walked as we undertook the most recent Birdcount Survey (details posted on the survey results section of the blog). There were two birds that particularly stood out for me in terms of their numbers and "stage" presence - the Robin and the Greater Spotted Woodpecker. We saw around 4 Robins and 2 Woodpeckers. Both birds are extremely beautiful in their own way. First the Robin, regularly assuming that well-loved Christmas Card Pose of perching on the top of fence-posts, his brilliant orangey-red chest puffed out as far as it will go and his beady eyes shining as he monitors with chirps of encouragement your progression along the path towards the Loch. Then the Woodpecker with his black and white striped plummage, chevron style on the wings, thicker strokes across his back, and a bold splash of scarlet across the back of his head and lower abdomen, who clings with effortless ease to the most precarious of tree trunks and branches while he decides which direction to go darting off in next! :-) I know - I get a bit poetetic over nature - but it really is beautiful guys! ;-)

The whole Reserve was blanketed in about an inch depth of snow which sparkled in the comparatively bright sunshine of the morning, making everything look very pretty and at peace. Here and there tufts of grass penetrated with touches of green, reminding us that winter is just a passing fancy and Spring would be coming around the corner before we knew it. Around about half-way towards the Loch, a long line of deer tracks joined that of the fox and pheasant. These were interesting as they progressed towards the Loch steadily for a while then abruptly stopped - and started up again a good 4 feet further forward and around a foot and a half to the left of the original track-line! I have often heard of animals such as deer, hares, etc making a flying leap to one side in an effort to evade a predator, and it was lovely to see tracks that suggested such a move had taken place. The Loch itself was partially frozen, although not to any great depth. There were the usual selection of Teal, Widgen and Swan with one or two Moorhen and Mallard popping in and out. Grahame and I re-filled the seed and peanut feeders (having to put the peanut feeders back on their hooks while we were at it - thanks Mr Squirrel!) and took down the empty coconut halves that had been filled to the brim with a tasty mixture of lamb-fat and seeds just a couple of days before! Grahame and his mum have been making the fat cakes themselves and I will be adding a separate blog entry with the recipe for anyone who would like to put a tasty treat in their own garden for their winter visitors. We are hoping to make a deal with a kindly butcher to receive regular donations of fat to help keep the cost of feeding the Reserve birds down. As Grahame and I pay for most of the seeds and peanuts, and all of the feeding equipment, ourselves, this is a very necessary consideration! But we know that it is appreciated by visitors :-)

As we continued down the slope towards the spillway, we saw the first of a few Reed Buntings we recorded on our Birdcount, which was a pleasure as they are not often seen on the Reserve at this time of year. The spillway itself was covered with snow the same as everything else and the water was crystal clear as it flowed through the pipes embedded within the concrete bridge. This is about the only time you could expect Grahame and I to say that actually we would prefer it if the water was significantly more silty. If you take a look at the spillway, you will see the water tumbling down the concrete run-off slope, then disappearing BETWEEN the stones forming the gabion mattress that replaces the previous black liner we all disliked, and then running out of the bottom again to meet with the Dour Burn further across the Reserve. Its the "between" part that is the problem - but one which will be naturally overcome by the gradual building up of layers of silt, swept downslope by the water. This is Scotland - it won't take long for a few healthy downpours to do the work that is required! ;-)

We continued on along the Reserve path towards the sheep-field and beyond, noting as we did so that Dave Blair and the Conservation Team have been doing an absolutely sterling job of taking down the more mature willow that occupies a large proportion of the area to the right of the path. Grahame mentioned, from reading past survey records, that this area of the Reserve was often found to contain significantly large numbers of Jack Snipe (smaller than Snipe, slightly shorter beak, makes a bobbing motion when feeding). It is hoped that this bird may make a return if the correct conditions are made available. We will certainly be keeping an eye out for them!

The path leading along-side the sheep field presented us with more tracks. This time the track-makers were rabbits, leaving little pockets of 4 prints, followed by a gap, 4 more prints, gap... and so on :-) It was thought for a while that perhaps rabbits didn't appreciate the goods on offer on the Reserve as we had never spotted any - but the tracks have put paid to that! Obviously they are just very good at hiding in the undergrowth! ;-)

Once you get beyond the end of the sheep-field, the vegetation starts to take over a bit, and as the path is on a downward camber to the right, it can get a little awkward for walking along. The ground itself was quite wet where the watery sunshine hadn't quite managed to penetrate. It was along here that we found a little gem of a flower, still turning its face to the sky, and bringing a touch of pink to the never-ending green and brown canvass - Red Campion. This delicate little flower can be found from one end of the Reserve to the other during the summer months, but it seems to have found a lovely sheltered winter foothold at the far end of the Reserve. Well worth the walk to get there on a cold, bright morning like the one we had! :-)

Well, that's my round-up from our most recent trip to the Reserve. We will be dropping in a bit more frequently over the next few months to keep the bird food topped up. We will do our best to keep blog-watchers topped up while we are at it! Don't forget to say Hi" if you see us around. Take care all! :-)

Janie

Whoop-di-do!

2008-11-03T12:33:00.003Z

I thought I'd drop in and post about some of the changes that have taken place now that Autumn has started to spread it's multi-coloured cloak over Cullaloe :-)

The trees are looking resplendent in shades of green, gold, crimson and amber - well worth bringing your camera with you to the reserve to capture a few shots of mother nature at her creative best! And with the crunch of newly scattered leaves underfoot and the crisp, fresh (and admittedly cold) air rejuvenating puffed-out lungs, the whole experience is like a re-birth into the world of nature! Watch out for the slippy wet leaves though - they can plant the unwary walker on their behind faster than you can say "Whooper Swan"! ;-)

And talking of Whooper Swans... guess which reserve has been playing host to a group of 5 of the birds for the last few days?! Yes, that would be our own Loch at Cullaloe! :-) As you know, we regularly have Mute Swans on the Loch, but for the last few days there have been a few battles of the bands as our 2 resident Mutes have attempted to scare off the 5 interlopers. They don't seem to have been successful yet though, so if you hop to it you might get to see them before they head off elsewhere. Mute Swans and Whopper Swans look quite different, so spotting who-is-who is fairly easy. As a quick guide, the Mute Swans have an Orange bill, whereas the Whooper's bill is Yellow with a Black tip. The way the birds hold their neck is also different, with the Mute Swan having the very graceful, and typical, S-shaped neck, whereas the Whooper holds its neck much more upright and straight.

One more thing - both the Mute Swans AND the Whooper Swans will bark loudly at each other in an attempt to frighten each other away - so don't be fooled by the Mute Swan's name and think that the only noisy ones are the Whoopers! ;-)

While you are at the Loch, take time to scan around the muddy edges. We have been treated to visits by a Redshank for the last few days. Grahame has now "put the plug back in" at the screen end of the Loch to allow the water level to rise again, so the mud will not stay exposed for much longer, but hopefully long enough for a few visitors to catch sight of the odd wading bird. If you do spy anything that we haven't mentioned, please feel free to use the "Comment" facility at the end of the blog to let us know :-)

Now that the year is gradually slipping towards winter, we have started filling up the seed and peanut feeders again. They are attracting a good amount of use already and have encouraged a few old friends to come back out into the open, such as the great spotted woodpecker. For those visitors who are new to the reserve, or for those who might have forgotten since summer, the peanut feeders are located on the dead tree to the left of the screen as you stand facing the Loch, and the seed feeders are on a dedicated stand to your right as you walk down the slope towards the spillway.

One last thing to draw to your attention is that the cadets from 859 Air Cadet Sqdn (Dalgety Bay) will be donning their clumpy boots, working gloves and hard hats, and grabbing their branch lopers all over again to help with the willow scrub clearing in the Snipe Bog! Work re-commences on 23 November 2008, so we'd like to say a big shout out to the Cadets for offering their help again this year! Thanks guys - we are looking forward to getting stuck in! :-)

Hope to see you down at the reserve whenever you take the notion. Take care all! Janie

Update and winter plans

2008-10-11T08:06:00.003+01:00

Hey folks,

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. I've been really rather busy of late. I've just started my second year of my college course and I've recently changed shifts at work, so things have been a bit hectic.

Quite a lot has been happening on the reserve over the past few weeks, though. The mess that was the paths appears to have cleared up now. The paths are certainly more accessible than they have been for a while. There's even been some regrowth... we've got grass growing where a few weeks ago there was just mud!

As i'm pretty sure Janie mentioned on her last mammoth blog post, the water level has been lowered on the loch. This exposes mud at the loch edges, giving various plants and animals all sorts of opportunities. Just last week, we had our first Redshank visiting the reserve. An excellent sighting! We've hopeful that over the next couple of weeks, as the autumn migration continues, we'll maybe get a few more interesting sights.
The valve is due to be sealed at the end of this month, to allow the water levels to come back up.

Now, onto the plans for the winter months.
It's going to be a busy period from now till March. This is when most of the maintenance work is carried out on the reserve, when there is no chance of disturbing nesting birds, etc.
We will be having the local Air Cadets on site again this year to assist with several tasks. The main task, like last year will be the clearing of the willow scrub at the Snipe Bog.
This is done to try and bring the area back to boggy conditions, which are more favourable for the Snipe and some other bird species.
The cadets will also be helping clear out the weeds on the spillway.
The other task they will be performing is not a fun one for them, or for us. They will be helping us clear the litter from the reserve, in particular from the pool that is used by illegal fishermen.
I can confirm now that 6 fishermen have been charged for illegally fishing on the reserve by the police. As a result, i can only assume as an act of reprisal, the fishermen have cut down the 'No Fishing' sign at the entrance to the pool. Unfortunately, the wildlife trust does not have the funds to replace it at this time.
In honesty, it was probably the most stupid thing they could have done. The lack of sign does not prevent them from being charged when fishing on the reserve. In fact, after discussions with the local police, it will now be the case that all of their fishing tackle will be confiscated if they are caught fishing - if any fishermen are reading this - You've been warned!

The SWT conservation team will also be working on the reserve over the course of the winter on various tasks. They will also be taking part in coppicing and willow scrub clearance, but more importantly, SWT have managed to secure funding to replace the viewing screen at the loch.
The conservation team will be erecting the new screen at some point during the winter (It's still in the design stages, but as soon as we know exactly how it'll look, you can be sure we'll pass the information along here!)

Dates have yet to be confirmed for most of the work being carried out this winter, but once they are, they'll be added to the calendar (link to the right).

Walking in Mudfields (to the tune of Walking in Memphis)

2008-08-22T17:24:00.002+01:00

I put on my walking boots, and
Drove to Cullaloe today.
The view of the car park gave me the Blues,
In the middle of the pouring rain!

Water and mud and puddles,
crowding all around me,
Yeah, I wanted a new spillway lining,
But I`m as blue as a butterfly can be.

Chorus
Then I`m walking in Mudfields…
Walking with my feet slipping, sliding away.
Walking in Mudfields…
So is there anything else to say?

Saw the tracks disappearing,
Along the reserve path.
Followed them up to the screen at lochside,
Then I watched them start on past.
Now the heron he did not see me,
He just fixed his eye on fish.
But there`s a fine flock of coots.
Waiting for the brave.
Down on the loch today!

Chorus
Then I`m walking in Mudfields…
Walking with my feet slipping, sliding away.
Walking in Mudfields…
So is there anything else to say?

We’ve got bees on the flowers!
We’ve got bird-song in the air!
And Grahame and Janie’d, be glad to see you…
If you’re willing to take care!

So, please, take care in our Mudfields!

Now, workers will be at the spillway,
Every day at this till they’re done.
And I’ll pop in occasionally,
Coz Grahame asked me if I would…

Do a bit of recording?
And I said I’d do my best.
But I’m thinking,
“Tell me, am I a miracle worker? What will I...
Spot in this mess?!”

Chorus
Then I`m walking in Mudfields…
Walking with my feet slipping, sliding away.
Walking in Mudfields…
So is there anything else to say?

I’ll put on my walking boots, and I’ll
Head for the reserve.
But I’d suggest to the populace,
That they give the place the swerve.

Or you’ll be Walking in Mudfields!

Ok – I’ve had my fun now! :-)

As you can tell from the above - even if you are struggling to fit the words into the song music - the situation at Cullaloe is looking a little muddy right now. Ok – I’ll rephrase – a LOT muddy right now! :-(

The contractors appeared on-site yesterday (Thursday 21 August 2008) to begin working on the new and improved lower spillway – and boy have they made an impression! Sadly we all knew that it would be virtually impossible for the reserve to remain unaffected while this work was being carried out but even Grahame and I were a little dismayed at what we found on arrival today.

The car park is getting to be a real concern with flooding problems after all the wet weather we have been “enjoying” recently, but the arrival of the necessary heavy machinery has brought the extra worry of mud on the entrance road. We would normally ask reserve visitors to exercise a certain degree of caution when driving down the slope to the car park in case they disturb unsuspecting wildlife, but we are reiterating that caution warning for your own safety this time. The mixture of water and dirt from the soft verges is turning into a truly awful paste on the road and traction is a bit of a distant memory if you are travelling at any great speed. Once you reach the car park, please navigate carefully around the hardcore deposited by the contractors. This is unsightly, but essential to the works being carried out.

It is only when you start walking along the pathway to the loch that the real problems begin to leap out at you. Grahame is quite concerned about how the butterfly transect results are going to fair following the obliteration of a couple of feet of grass verge on either side of the path by the to-ing and fro-ing of the mini-digger :-( And as you crest the slope leading down to the spillway, the path peeters out after 20-or-so feet into what can only be described as a soup of vegetation and mud. Grahame and I strongly advise any visitors to consider turning back after they have checked out what is on the loch, because the terrain down the slope is virtually impassable at the moment.

I would just like to say at this point that I am not at all criticising the contractors for their contribution to the changed landscape at Cullaloe. In fact, to give credit where credit is due, they appear to be keeping a very tidy ship as far as their machinery and building materials are concerned. It is clear that they have tried as far as possible to keep within their own tracks along the paths to minimise damage and allow some hope of being able to take a walk to the screen. There is also evidence of them trying their best to counteract the effects of the torrential rain by packing some of the hardcore intended for the spillway into the mud soup at the bottom of the slope to ensure a more stable surface for their vehicles. These are measures that are greatly appreciated by those of us who volunteer on the reserve and are to be applauded.

Now as I’ve said, parts of the reserve are just not negotiable at the moment, but I will be braving the slippery slopes to take a few photographs of progress being made and plan to post these to the blog as soon as possible. The eagle-eyed of you will notice that I have posted the blog all by myself this time and that is because Grahame is taking a well-earned break in Cumbria to catch up on some spotting of his own. So I’ll just ask everyone for a bit of patience to let me work out what I need to do to load on photos! ;-)

Ok – enough doom and gloom! It isn’t all bad news on the reserve! We are nearly at the end of August now and as I said in the last post we have opened the sluice-gate for the lowering of the loch. All the water gushed out… and the water fowl were flushed out of their cozy reeds and grasses to sit all exposed on the open water! :-) Who knew that there were so many coot and moorhen hidden in all the nooks and crannies?! And Grahame spotted a female Teal out on the water on Sunday, so the loch will soon be a very busy place with Widgeon also expected to return shortly! There were also a couple of swans sunning themselves on the bank during a very brief sunny spell!

I know I mentioned concern about the butterfly transect earlier, but we have already seen the Common Blue, Large White, Green-Veined White and a Red Admiral, so we know they are out and about and just waiting to be spotted! :-)

One good outcome to the mess that’s been made, I guess, is the possibility of getting the Scottish Wildlife Trust Conservation Team, and our brilliant volunteers from Air Training Corps 859 (Dalgety Bay) Squadron back on board to help tidy things up again and recommence essential maintenance works in mid-September! You always have to focus on the positives! ;-)

Being realistic, it is going to be a while before the reserve regains its air of peace and tranquillity, and for now Grahame and I are verging on suggesting people might like to consider alternative wildlife spotting locations. But, I know that sometimes it can be interesting to see change as it happens and monitor for yourself the effects of them, so the reserve will remain open throughout the spillway works. All we ask is that everyone takes safety precautions in terms of wearing sturdy food-wear, even if you plan on sticking to the paths, and staying well back from the edges of the lower spillway.

Thank you for your kind attention on these matters – and I’ll update you with gorey photos soon! ;-)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes…!

2008-08-11T16:21:00.003+01:00

Good morning blog-watchers and welcome to a wet and wild day at Cullaloe! There are mini-rivers running down every pathway and the spillway is full to the brim!

As some of you may know, the Convener is required to lower the water level in August to allow areas of mud to be exposed. This exposed mud is the perfect seeding ground for the Mudwort plant. This plant is special to Cullaloe because it is the reason the Site of Special Scientific Interest was granted to the Reserve and the, therefore, reason Grahame and I have such a fulfilling volunteering experience today! :-)

Now I am supposed to be the plant person for Cullaloe, although I am still very much a learner at this. I am in the process of constructing a large database of all those plants that can be found on the Reserve and I would very much like to add Mudwort as a definite this year! :-) I have been very busy with other things though, so a big shout goes out to Grahame’s parents, particular his mum, for filling in the plants that are currently listed on the on-site database! :-)

Now you may have spotted that the weather has been particularly grotty in the last couple of weeks and, as I have already said, the spillway is full to bursting right now! But in the next few days, regular visitors should notice a difference around the loch and spillway as the big plug-pulling event has just taken place! ;-) A couple of days ago, Grahame popped along to the Reserve with his special key to open the sluice gate and allow the water level to drop down around 2ft across the surface of the loch. Now that is a WHOLE lot of water, people, so be aware that there will be additional noise around the loch from the water emptying into the Dour Burn which runs under the path leading down from the viewing screen to the spillway! Last year, this mad gushing of water continued for about 3 days until the loch was at the desired depth, and then the sluice gate was closed once again. However, this year Mother Nature appears to be keeping us guessing as to when the gate should be closed because the changeable weather patterns over the weekend have sent the water levels in the spillway yo-yo-ing from completely empty to over-flowing!

This is a bit of a concern this year because we are due to make a dramatic change to the landscape of the spillway area. Grahame and I have never been fans of the truly awful looking black plastic liner that covers the lower half of the spillway. At the time of installation, it was thought that the liner would gradually become covered with a layer of mud and vegetation as this was swept down from the loch, however, the dream has never quite been realised, and instead we have been left with a bit of an eye-sore that is not doing a particularly good job of preventing erosion of the lower spillway either! But that is set to change – and I’m afraid it does mean a little bit of upheaval for our wildlife and visitors too!

We have recently been granted funding to install a series of gabion mattresses, which are wire baskets with stones in, but on a large scale. These are going to replace the black plastic liner as the newest defence in Cullaloe’s ongoing battle with water erosion. There will be heavy machinery and workers on site so the chances of seeing wildlife in and undisturbed state are going to be remote this week. We anticipate that the works will take approximately 1 weeks, but with the weather being the way it is, this timescale is subject to change. Once the works have been completed, though, we should have a slightly prettier, and certainly more stable, foundation to our lower spillway area.

Now, to get back to the plug-pulling, the period of time immediately after the plug-pulling tends to be a bit more interesting than the period of time leading up to it. :-) Last year, Grahame kept a note of the types and numbers of birds he was seeing on the loch around the time of lowering the water. Before the water level was dropped he was seeing approximately 30 or so birds of 4 different types – but after the water level dropped, he was seeing upwards of 200 birds, with about 8 different types being found at any given time! That is a very big jump indeed! :-) The exposed mud tends to bring wading birds flocking in to feed at the edges of the loch, as well as providing that essential growing space for the Mudwort, so that means we get to see a little more than the usual ducks and coots – lovely though they are :-) This year, however, seems to have been a tough one for Cullaloe-based water fowl, so really we will be happy to spot whatever we can!

Volunteers and visitors alike have been a little concerned about the lack of fledglings on the water, especially as last year appears to have been a bit of bumper harvest in comparison. Yesterday, Grahame and I identified a possible cause for some of the decline – and I would like to say at this point that the following is not for the faint-hearted… As we neared the screen, Grahame had his binoculars trained on a heron on the far side of the loch – and it had something black in its mouth. The first thing you’d think would be that it had caught a sizable fish and was having a bit of trouble getting it down – but no fish living in Cullaloe has feathers and a beak! :-( Judging by the racket being raised by the resident coots on the water, the heron had captured a coot chick and was trying every possible angle to get it to go down its throat! In one of those typical slow-motion movie type moments, Grahame and I watched with morbid fascination as the heron first manoeuvred, and then swallowed the chick whole! I have to say, I am not good with the more beastly aspects of nature watching – but it was quite literally amazing to see – if not more than a little sad. Grahame was just blown away by the whole experience! I don’t think either of us will forget the sight in a hurry!

Now I have spoken about the plug pulling, and now it is time for another, totally shameless, plug – of the Reserve itself this time! :-)

As you may know, Grahame and I hosted an Open Day on 07 June this year, ably assisted by colleagues from the Scottish Wildlife Trust Fife Members Centre, Fife Coast and Countryside Trust Rangers and the Air Training Corps 859 Sqdn (Dalgety Bay). Before the Open Day took place, the Dunfermline Press popped along to have a wee word with Grahame, and our boss, Alistair Whyte, who is the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Reserves Manager for Central East. The man from the Press was treated to a tour around the Reserve and a few photos were taken, much to Alistair and Grahame’s disgust! ;-)

We have waited a fair while for the article to be printed, however, I am proud to announce that Cullaloe features in this week’s Dunfermline Press (dated 07 August 2008) and we have very kindly been given a tag-line on the front page, and a third of a page spread on page 6! :-) The article gives some interesting background information on the Reserve and our esteemed Convener as well as providing a couple of photos which will allow any future visitors to recognise Grahame and Alistair if they are spotted on the Reserve!

Those of you who are plant lovers like me, I apologise now for Grahame’s obvious disdain for them! Rest assured, you and the plants still have a champion! ;-) However, as the article says, Grahame is a bird man at heart, and his commitment to them ensures that he is equally happy to help the bugs and plants they survive on thrive on the Reserve! :-)

Well, as they say at the end of all good Loony Tunes… That’s All Folks! I hope you take a moment with a cuppa to read our article in the Press, and if you fancy ignoring the bad weather and want to take a look at the newly lowered Reserve, perhaps we will see you there!

Changeable Weather and Butterflies!

2008-07-21T14:58:00.004+01:00

With the weather being so changeable recently, we’ve not had nearly as many opportunities to visit the reserve as we would have liked. As a result, I’ve not really had too much to report about, I’m afraid.

I run a butterfly transect as part of my duties, which I report on to Butterfly Conservation. I’m supposed to walk the reserve counting the butterflies present each week, but as a result of this year’s weather, there has been five weeks so far where I’ve simply not been able to get onto the reserve for an hour to do this. It’s either been too wet, too cold or too windy. Still, on the occasions I have been able to do the transect, it’s shown that the butterflies are not nearly as bothered by the weather as us humans are. It’s proving to be a bit of a bumper year for them!

Just last week, whilst walking the transect I recorded over 70 butterflies throughout the reserve in just a single hour.

The species recorded on the reserve so far this year are:

Small White

Large White

Green-Veined White

Orange-Tip

Small Copper

Small Tortoiseshell

Peacock

Common Blue

Dark Green Fritillary

Ringlet

Meadow Brown

That’s 11 of the 56 species found in the UK, just on one site! There's also another 2 more to come, i suspect - the Red Admiral and the Painted Lady. Ok, to some, that might not sound very impressive, but if you consider how many different species the average person gets in their garden, it’s almost a totally different world.

The reason we have so many butterflies on the reserve is partly due to the way the reserve is managed. I‘ve mentioned before that we have the Flying Flock graze part of the reserve, and this helps to keep certain invasive species under control. We also have a management program in place for the flower meadows, where we cut these just once a year at the end of summer. This allows a good spread of flowers to come up the following year, which in turn provides a great source of food for the butterflies on the reserve. One of the best examples of this is the bird's-foot trefoil (shown below) which can be seen throughout the reserve at this time of year.

This year has been particularly good for the plant, which has in turn resulted in a bumper year for the Common Blue butterfly. This plant is the main food plant for the caterpillar of this species, so having more of it, means a greater opportunity for the species to breed. Last year, the most I saw of the Common Blue was 3 or 4 butterflies of a day, where as this year it’s not uncommon to see at least a dozen of them!

I’ve included photos below of one of the butterfly species which can be found on the reserve just now, so that people can get an understanding of what they’re looking at when they’re on the reserve.

Dark Green Fritillary

The Damselflies of Cullaloe

2008-06-24T00:30:00.005+01:00

First of all, I'm going to have to apologise. I know that I've promised an update on the open day, but both me and Janie have been incredibly busy over the past couple of weeks and neither of us has had a chance to do it. Hopefully Janie will be able to provide a full update on the open day in the next few days. Rest assured that a good day was had by all!
I'd also like to apologise for the lack of updates on the species list (It should be huge by now, since there's so much going on!), but again, I've not really had the time to do it.

In the meantime, I figured I would show everyone pictures of the three damselfly species we currently have on the reserve.

The first one I'd like to show you, and the one that you're most likely to see on the reserve is the Common Blue Damselfly. When you see males flying around (like the one in the picture) it's like a big flash of blue that's passing you by!

The second damselfly we have on offer (I sound like I'm trying to sell something here!) is the Blue-Tailed Damselfly. This one isn't quite as striking as the Common Blue, but is a beautiful damselfly, all the same. You're more likely to see this species either at the Filter Beds or near the Spillway.

And finally, we have the Large Red Damselfly. This one is rather special for me, since as far as I'm aware, it has not been recorded on the reserve before. The only place i have seen these is at the Filter Beds, just off from the car park.

It's definitely a great site to see these wonderful creatures hovering over the water or the surrounding plants, looking for prey (They feed on other insects... midges are a favourite of theirs, so they're double good to see!) and I don't think it will be long now till we get the full blown Dragonflies out on the reserve. I know that when they were pond dipping during the open day a few dragonfly nymphs were captured, so it's a relatively safe bet that we'll get a decent hatching soon.

Speaking of hatchings. If anyone is planning on visiting the reserve in the next week or two, please watch where you put your feet!
This year's batch of frogs and toads are on the loose, and there are hundreds of them jumping around along the path, particularly near the loch. Please keep an eye out for them while you're walking about.

Open Day Update!

2008-06-04T01:27:00.002+01:00

Janie mentioned in her previous post that we would update you with details of what is going to be happening during the reserve open day. We've both actually been really busy over the past few days planning and organising things, but it's all starting to come together now. The open day will definitely be going ahead this Saturday, 7th June from 11:00 to 15:00. So, what's going to be happening, I hear you ask - the wait is over. The (almost complete) list of activities are listed below!

Guided Walks:- We will be hosting guided walks for anyone interested at 11:30am and 1:30pm. These will be led jointly by myself and Alistair Whyte, the Reserves Manager for East Central Scotland (AKA: The boss). Each walk should last approximately an hour and a half and we'll be covering the wildlife you can see on the reserve and covering some of the reserve management techniques we use.

Pond Dipping:- Stewart Bonar of Fife Ranger Service will be providing entertainment for young and old alike in the form of pond dipping at the filter beds, just next to the car park. There is a whole lot of pond life out at this time of year. Who knows, there may be some aquatic monster lurking in the depths!

Bark Rubbing:- Janie will be providing further entertainment for the children in the form of bark rubbing. I think you'd be surprised how entertaining it can be to rub a crayon onto a piece of paper up against a tree! It can be a whole lot of fun, and it gives kids their own self-made souvenir of their day.

Treasure Trail:- Follow the list of clues, answer the questions and receive a reward. Yet another great one for the kids!

Stalls:- The local Member's Centre will be providing a stall, highlighting the work of the SWT locally and providing an opportunity for visitors to purchase various SWT branded and nature related items.
859 Squadron of the Air Training Corps will have a stall to advertise themselves and the work they do to enrich teenagers lives and the work they have done on the reserve.

That's the main events and activities that will be happening on the day. There may be some slight changes, modifications or additions, but the main activities are unlikely to change at this late stage.

I would ask that if you plan on visiting the reserve and you know others who would like to come along, share a car where possible! For those who know the reserve, they'll understand that parking can be a bit limited, so hopefully if everyone does their bit for the environment by reducing car numbers, it will also help us out with a potential parking nightmare.

If you do come along, we hope you have an enjoyable, memorable visit. You can be sure we'll update with behind the scenes action as soon as the open day is over!

Notices and a bit of fun!

2008-05-21T14:51:00.001+01:00

I was going to blog this at the end of my last entry, but as Grahame says mine are very long I thought I’d best do a new one! :-) There are a couple of things we’d like to let you know about.

Open to All!

First, the fun bit! We are very pleased to say that Scottish Wildlife Trust has agreed to Cullaloe Local Nature Reserve having an Open Day during the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Week :-) Grahame and I are VERY excited about this as we are understandably proud of the reserve and would love to show it off to as many people as possible! :-)

As this blog entry goes to press the details are still being finalised but there is talk of guided walks, pond-dipping and maybe even a treasure-hunt to take part in, so it would be really great to see some of our blog-readers joining in and helping to make the day a success! :-) The details are as follows:

Place: Cullaloe Local Nature Reserve!

Time: 11am – 3pm

Date: Saturday 07 June 2008

We will post further details as they become available! :-)

And now for something a little different…

Dusk till Dawn

Many of our visitors may have noticed that there is a gate near the top of the slope, just after the disabled parking bay. You may also have spied the sign there which lets you know that the car park gate will be locked at dusk or 9pm. It has been quite some time since this sign has been accurate, however, following a recent meeting at the reserve the decision has been taken to begin locking the gate over-night. This is to try to prevent much of the littering in the car-park which has become a bit of an issue.

Anyone who wishes to visit the reserve once the gate has been lock is still more than welcome to do so. We are very happy to encourage genuine wildlife watchers to park their cars in the disabled bay if they wish to take a walk along to the lochside and listen out for nocturnal manoeuvres in the dark! Please do take care if you are visiting the reserve at night as it can be quite easy to wander off the path and there are many ruts and bumps in the ground that are well-hidden by grass.

Thanks for your attention!

Dew-covered grass means wet feet!

2008-05-15T10:27:00.001+01:00

Something possessed Grahame and I on Saturday night and made us think it would be a great idea to go to the reserve at 7.30am on Sunday morning – and you know something – it was worth it! :-) I’m serious – it really was! Don’t believe me? Then read on…

It was a truly beautiful morning and we pulled into the reserve (doing the usual 1 mile an hour!) wondering what we might see. Well, how about a couple of roe deer grazing at the end of the dam to kick us off? :-) I have to admit – much as I love my birds, I truly enjoy catching out the larger mammals we have around the reserve – and deer are my absolute favourites! I love the way they can be standing stock still one moment, and the next they leap sideways and take off into the undergrowth – sometimes so fast that you can’t really be sure you saw them at all! :-)

Once I’d calmed myself down – and Grahame had taken his hands down from his ears – we sat in the car quietly for a minute or two and were amazed to see a fox slinking along the back of the filter beds! It came from the direction of the dam and headed towards the right hand side of the car park. What really tickled us, though, was the fact that it appeared to be carrying a hedgehog in its mouth! I have no idea whether the amount of eating in a hedgehog warrants the danger of dealing with the prickles – but I suppose the fox knows what he is doing! It did remind me of hedgehog flavour crisps that were on sale for a limited time when I was a kid at high school circa 1990 though! ;-)

After we finally exited the car, disturbing the nesting moorhen on the filter beds as we did, we heading on up the steps to the top of the dam where we were hit by the cacophony of songs from the various warblers (garden warbler, another LBJ, now added to the species list! ;-)) along with our resident song thrush singing his heart out at the very top of the highest tree and the swallows zipping around playing tag in the sky. It is nice to stand at the top of the steps and take a deep breath of the sweet smelling fresh air – not least because the steps are quite steep and can take it out of you a bit - but also because you get a great view looking easterly over the reserve with a fair spread of the mature willow trees, younger trees of various types and the boggy grasslands being so successfully reclaimed by the work of the Conservation Team and local Air Cadets.

The daffodils have now almost entirely disappeared, but are gradually being replaced with violets, pink campion and other meadow varieties. This is going to help Grahame in increasing species numbers when completing the butterfly transects as we are seeing more butterflies every day. Sunday marked the appearance of the Orange Tip Butterfly (see photo below) – although I am quite sure when Grahame goes out to do his timed walk, the Orange Tip will be very well hidden along with the rest of our flying beauties! ;-) I am noticing all the different types of bees a bit more this year though! I have to say the most involvement I usually have with a buzzing insect is standing still and hoping it doesn’t want to sting me – but I am trying to take a greater interest. I am quite taken with a smallish variety that has an orange bottom and a single orangey-yellow stripe across its back! :-) I’m afraid I haven’t managed to identify it… answers on a postcard! ;-) I spent a good couple of minutes just watching as he moved in a zig-zag from one flower head to the next, gathering up pollen as went. Bees are quite pretty really and I’m glad I’m not as scared of them as I used to be… although my hands are still firmly rooted in my pockets while I’m watching! ;-)

We reached the loch side and were pleased to see 3 different little grebes, 2 of whom seemed to be a pair and the other appeared to be nesting in the rushes. A single swan was gliding about in the centre of the loch and the mallard and tufted ducks were keeping to their usual corner – towards the back left. We didn’t see the mallard chicks this time but I’m sure they will still be around! :-)

We left the waterfowl to their foraging and walked down the slope towards the spillway with the usual tits and finches flitting about in the trees. There are plenty of them but they don’t seem to be using the feeding station as much now. Fresh bugs probably taste much better than dried seed! ;-) When we reached the spillway, we glanced down at the water – then did a double take at the hundreds, if not thousands, of tadpoles we could see!! Little black dots swimming this way and that – big black groups of them in some places – so thick you couldn’t make out individuals! They are on both sides of the spillway bridge so I can only assume that some have even tumbled down the stream to the pool at the bottom of the spillway!! No wonder a female and juvenile heron were taking such an interest in our loch earlier in the week!! There are very easy pickings just now.

We carried on up to the sheep field and saw that our cheeky lambs were inside the field boundary this time… Trust me – this is become a rare occurrence – despite the efforts of our shepherd, Tim, to make the fence escape-proof! ;-) Even though they are growing quickly now, I still love to see them skipping about. However, there was one very large (and at the same time, very small) distraction for Grahame and I this time… A lizard! :-) Grahame spied it sitting on the path and very quietly crept up alongside it. As it was still very early in the morning, the lizard (Grahame identified it as a common lizard) hadn’t yet been out in the sun long enough to warm up properly, so Grahame was able to get close enough to touch it! :-) I doubt very much I would have seen it but our Convenor has eagle-eyed vision sometimes! :-)

We walked to the end of the sheep field and then turned to walk back – and surprise, surprise the lambs were on our side of the fence this time! Man – I wish I could stay annoyed at them for it – but I can’t resist their cute wee faces and wagging tails! :-) We walked very slowly towards them and they obliged us by scrambling back under the fence and running to their mama! If you should see the lambs outside the fence – and you need to walk past them – please walk slowly and make as little noise as possible. They should run back into the field without any trouble. I will just ask dog-owners to keep their dogs on leads in this part of the reserve again at this point though – I’m sure you can appreciate our concerns.

Have to laugh at Grahame at this point… We had obviously walked through a fair amount of grass in getting beyond the sheep field – and it was as we reached the slope beside the loch that he looked miserably down at his trainer-clad feet and said “yuck!” ;-) I myself had worn walking boots because dew-covered grass and trainers invariably mean wet feet! ;-) You’d think that with all his experience of the outdoors, Grahame would know that, wouldn’t you? ;-)

Butterflies, Ducklings and Electronic Alarms!

2008-04-30T11:56:00.002+01:00

I have been inspired by nature to write the blog again today! :-) After the torrential rain of Monday, its lovely to get some sunshine and, reminiscent of Sunday’s visit to the reserve, the air smells fresh and fragrant with the spring blooms bursting into life all around and its making my fingers twitch!

As Grahame and I drove down the slope to the car park, the daffodils were still waving their heads in the slightly more gentle than normal breeze blowing across the top of the old dam, but their pale beauty is becoming more and more eclipsed by the wealth of deep golden yellow offered by the gorse which surrounds you as you pull up into the car park.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that the entry road and car park have a whole lot of interest to offer in their own right, and so I’d like to make a small suggestion here… When you turn onto the reserve, slow your car, wind down the windows, turn off your music – and just enjoy! :-) On recent trips to the reserve Grahame has spooked 2 heron off the filter beds, and a moorhen is regularly to be found floating in and around the edges, so it is worth taking your time to make your approach as quiet as possible :-) Who knows what you might see… Grahame has even seen a stoat slinking off into the tall grass!

As we parked up, a buzzard swooped lazily down from one of the telegraph poles up the hill to the right and made a leisurely circuit of the area, while on the filter beds the moor hen poked about in the vegetation for the choicest nest-building materials. Having brought lunch we decided to eat it right there and take in the sights and sounds for a while – and the noise was incredible! :-) In direct contrast to the lazy meanderings of the buzzard, the blue tits were in full voice, and at full speed, darting through the trees before rising into the sky to give an amazing aerobatics display! There were at least two pairs involved and plenty of chattering back and forth as they criss-crossed the air. They were so caught up in their game that one of them nearly ploughed straight into Grahame – missing him by about a foot! There were also a few Reed Bunting in the area, occasionally living up to their names by hanging on to the stalks of the tall grasses leading up to the slope of the old dam!

The main reason for visiting the reserve on Sunday was to take advantage of the lovely weather and walk the route of the Butterfly Transect Grahame set up as part of the Butterfly Conservation Society’s UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. This is basically one of a series of 26 visits, undertaken on a weekly basis between April and September, where butterflies are recorded within 5m of a set route. I am pleased to say that after 3 weeks of zero, we have finally logged our first two butterflies for this year! They were both Peacock Butterflies and were found at the opposite ends of the reserve, so we can be sure they were not the same one twice!

The trip was by no means wasted even though these were our only two sightings! :-) Grahame has always been a lover of the LBJ’s (little brown jobs!) such as the warblers, chiffchaffs, whitethroat and buntings, and they have not been disappointing him so far! The melodic song of the willow warbler accompanied us on every step of the route, with the birds themselves being content to sit among the catkins of the willow trees. It was easy to see where they might have taken their name, given that the pastel shades of their plumage are perfectly reflected in the colours of the willow tree itself! The more sharp bark of the chiffchaff was also prominent, and the loud croak of the pheasant added to the music :-)

The loch is becoming more interesting as each day passes and Sunday provided its own little surprise! Grahame and I were just scanning around the edges looking for the dabchick (little grebe) when both of us happened upon something small and dark towards the far bank… Following a small adjustment of the binoculars and a couple of gasps, we were delighted to see 7 little mallard ducklings paddling like crazy after their mum! :-) Neither of us had really expected to see chicks just yet – although granted we are nearly at the end of April now. I suspect the dodgy weather has been fooling us into thinking that its still winter!

Just a small apology here for anyone who likes nipping to the loch-side to check out the birds at the peanut feeders… We have gotten a little lax in filling the feeders just recently due to a number of other personal commitments, however, now that the lighter evenings are rolling in normal service will be resumed. One of the peanut feeders does need a bit of repair work, so it may be just two of them being filled for a little while… a bushy tailed visitor has been a bit impatient about getting his hands on our peanuts!

Sadly, there was a little bit of disappointment as we neared the sheep field. We were really hoping that there might be more than two bouncy lambs for us to see – but it is common practice for ewes to be taken indoors during the lambing season these days and the flying flock are no exception so the field is looking very empty :-( However, the mother with the two lambs that have already been born are still in residence, so please do check on their progress if you are at the reserve – they are getting bigger very quickly but are still very cute with their wagging tails :-)

As we continued the Butterfly Transect beyond the sheep field, Grahame suddenly stopped and put his finger to his lips. It was the unmistakable call of the Grasshopper Warbler! Another item to be added to the species list for the reserve! :-) We tried very, very hard to spot the singer, but he was far too well hidden in the trees. As we had stopped to look and listen, we were treated to a fist fight by two male bullfinches who showed amazing agility in chasing each other through the winding branches of the willow trees! I don’t know how they were able to avoid them all, although there were a couple of close calls!

The remainder of the Transect, which basically ends at the point where the Dour Burn crosses the path at the east-most end of the reserve, was pretty quiet with the occasional chaffinch call and the bleeting of the sheep belonging to the farm east of the reserve. However, as we crossed the last open grassland area, I startled a hare (and myself!) out of the grass! I was amazed as I’d just walked past it and hadn’t seen a thing! Wildlife really is the master of disguise sometimes – which is why you should always walk slowly and talk quietly when you are out and about! :-) Grahame was happy as he’d just spotted a lapwing taking to the skies. They really are beautiful birds – but with a song that frankly sounds like an electronic alarm! :-)

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, but still a lovely walk from one end of the reserve to the other all the same :-) We jumped back into the car with 2 butterfly sightings and a couple more amazing wildlife experiences under our belts and the feeling that we’d had a good day - and isn’t that really all that matters sometimes? :-)

More arrivals, plus outings

2008-04-23T11:49:00.002+01:00

First of all, apologies for the slow update to the blog. Janie and I have been away up north for a few days for a spot of R & R. We're back now, though, so I promise I'll keep it up to date, particularly with all of the new arrivals we're getting.

On April 12th we had an outing to the reserve from the Edinburgh Natural History Society. It was a relativley pleasant day, though the wind was bitingly cold. Despite the late spring we've been having this year, plenty was to be seen. The highlights were the Roe Deer up on the hills, the Hares in the neighbouring field and the Snipe which were flushed from the Snipe Bog. Several different plant and fungi species were identified on the reserve, and I'd like to express a big thank you to everyone who came along and particularly those who helped me understand and identify the various plants on the reserve.
I have to admit, plants really are not my strong point (I normally leave those to Janie) so it was good to get an insight from such knowledgeable people.

Recently we've had the arrival of Willow Warblers on the reserve. We had our first sighting on Sunday 13th April and they've been there ever since. When i went along yesterday evening, i counted at least 10 singing birds, along with 4 or 5 singing Chiffchaffs. We've recently had an increase in Reed Buntings to the reserve, with 4 males and 2 females sighted this morning.
The most interesting new sighting on the reserve over the past little while was a Common Lizard found on Sunday. I found it in the early morning near the field where the flying flock are resident.

Janie and I have also invested in some pond dipping kits, which we've taken out for a little outing to the reserve. It's still early yet for a lot of the pond life, but there were still plenty of water boatmen, beetle larvae, beetles, snails and flatworms to be found. We'll definitely be doing that more regularly. Who knows, i may even be able to persuade Janie to update the blog again with some of our findings!

Ringing in the Trees

2008-04-11T11:19:00.004+01:00

Hey all! :-)

Firstly, a quick apology for the lack of update on what is becoming quite a busy and exciting time for the reserve! Grahame, who is the primary writer of blog updates, has been very busy recently as we are involved with conducting a few surveys and building our species lists as quickly as we can with new items are appearing all the time. On the reserve, homes are being built, mating songs are being sung, and new arrivals are popping in for the day or even being born on site so plenty of jostling for position can be seen at the feeding stations! So, given that there is a fair bit to be said, I thought I’d do the update again this time and share a bit about what has been going on! :-)

Spring has sprung at Cullaloe and every day there is something new to see, hear or smell. It is quite a feast for the senses and, on Sunday, the Dunfermline RSPB Wildlife Explorers came along to see what all the fuss was about for themselves! Just as a bit of background, RSPB Wildlife Explorers is a membership of the RSPB that is open to children aged 4 – 19 years old. Mark, our local bird-ringing expert, very kindly agreed to come along and show the Explorers what ringing is all about, which was brilliant news as this is definitely something that appeals to wildlife devotees of all ages! ;-)

Now you may have noticed that the weather has been rather changeable of late and the drive to the reserve was a little hairy in the blizzard-like conditions! I have to admit, I did wonder whether the snow might put a dent in the day by persuading the Explorers to stay indoors, so it was great to see so many people starting the trek up the hill from the car park (and yes – I’m afraid I was late again – but there was snow… and no grit yet… and… *blush*). Luckily Grahame and Mark had both arrived in plenty of time and the group were well buttoned and booted up against the chill of the morning air :-)

We started by taking a walk along the top of the old dam to the viewing point that overlooks the willow scrub on the one side and the filter beds on the other. Grahame took a moment to explain some of the history of the reserve and its previous life as a water refinery. The weather had dampened the level of bird activity around us and the only accompaniment we had on the first part of our tour was the beautiful sound of a song thrush, singing from the very top of one of the tallest trees on the reserve… or so we thought! As we all made our way back to the path leading to the Loch, we were amazed to see a chain of bird-prints running along the path where only moments before the crisp new snow had only been broken by an occasional human footprint! After a bit of consideration it was suggested that the culprit may have been a Snipe, and sure enough as we walked along towards the Loch, a group of 4 Snipe rose into the air from the willow scrub area. I have to admit I was pleased to see that many together as it suggests that all the hard work we and the local cadets have put into clearing some of the scrub for the benefit of Snipe may just be paying off! :-)

Just on the subject of the Loch, regular visitors may have noticed that the bamboo section of the screen overlooking the Loch has been removed. This is due to damage caused over a period of years which was finally brought to a head by the recent high winds. We are currently seeking funding for timber to erect a permanent replacement for the screen in the hope that this will stand up to the pressures of time, weather and the occasional enterprising visitor! If anyone thinks they may be able to help, please get in touch.

Mark met our group as we entered the trees beside the Loch and gave a bit of background on bird-ringing, the equipment used, the purpose behind ringing, and the qualifications required. Then, once the mist net had been set, we went to take a look at the Loch to let the birds come and settle around the feeders again.

There were a few birds to be seen on and around the Loch, most notably the first sighting of a swallow for this year – thanks to Matthew for spotting it skimming over the Loch! Our resident male swan from last year has returned but this time with a different female as this one features a ring. I was surprised at this as I had thought that swans mated for life, however, I read up on it a bit and, where it is necessary, they are not adverse to taking up with a new partner. They seem to be getting on very well and have already established their nest in a spot close to where last year’s was sited. Also to be seen were coots, tufted ducks and a dabchick (little grebe).

It wasn’t long, though, before our attention was taken by one of the young Explorers who had been keeping an eye on the mist net and spotted that some birds had already become caught up in it. Sure enough, when we all went to take a look, some blue tits and great tits had gotten tangled in the very fine mesh of the net. Mark carefully untangled each bird (a task that required great skill and patience!) and popped them into individual cloth bags ready for ringing. Once he was ready to start, you could feel the anticipation as Mark gently brought the first bird out of its bag, with children and adults alike leaning forward to see as much as possible. It was definitely one of those “I love my job” moments for Grahame and I as everyone’s faces as Mark carefully measured the bird’s wing, noted its age and weighed it in what one visitor described as a “piping bag” were full of amazement and interest :-) We even found that one blue tit had been ringed at Cullaloe by Mark before – 5 and a half years earlier! That amazed even Grahame who didn’t think that blue tits lived that long. He was equally impressed that it was happy to still be living at Cullaloe after all that time! :-)

Although we only captured blue tits and great tits in our net this time around (no woodpeckers much to Grahame’s disappointment!), bird numbers appear to be on the increase on the reserve with more species being recorded all the time. We have well over 40 different birds on the species list now and it should be noted that this is the best source for the latest information on the species on the reserve. Although we try to update the blog on a weekly basis, the species list is updated immediately after any visit during which a new species is recorded, so be sure to take a look.

There are some other new additions to the reserve this week but who are not from the world of birds. Cullaloe is currently host to the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s flying flock (in the field beyond the Loch) and some of the ewes have begun to give birth. If you happen to be visiting the reserve and would like to see how our bouncy spring lambs are doing, please feel free to take a look. We would ask that you be as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the sheep too much, and would appreciate it if dogs were not walked beyond the spillway for the moment.

And finally, just to advise, the Edinburgh Natural History Society will be making a visit to the reserve tomorrow (Saturday 12 April 2008) and will likely be on site for the best part of the day. Grahame will be present to act as a guide and to share his knowledge of the reserve where he can.

The return of the migrants

2008-04-03T11:31:00.002+01:00

It seems that the first of our migrants have finally returned to the reserve. I went to the reserve on Monday, as it was such a lovely day. As i was walking along the path, just past the screen, i could hear the tell tale call of the Chiffchaff. It only took a couple of minutes from there to see it.
Hopefully, this will mean that the rest of our African summer visitors will be arriving within the next few weeks. I suspected we will see swallows or sand martins next.
The lone Little Grebe on the loch has been joined by a partner, so I'm getting quite hopeful that we might have some breeding success for them this year. We also had a pair of Shelduck stop over on Monday for the day, but they didn't stay long. From reports, they have attempted to breed on the reserve in the past, but it doesn't look like this year will be another attempt.

Just to advise, we have the RSPB Wildlife Explorers visiting the reserve this Sunday. They'll be getting a guided tour and a bit of a ringing demonstration from Mark.

Keep an eye on the species list. It gets updated more regularly than the blog does, and right now it's constantly changing

New Arrivals

2008-03-25T13:12:00.002Z

The migrants from abroad have not yet arrived on the reserve, but there are several reports of them arriving in the south of England now, so it shouldn't be more than a week or two till they are here.
We have, however had some new bird species arrive on the reserve in the past week or so. There has been a pair of Bullfinches on the reserve, which I've seen a couple of times. I've also had sightings of Pied Wagtail. The most interesting addition was the arrival of a Little Grebe to the reserve today. They have been reported as breeding on the reserve for quite a few years, but did not appear to be last year. Hopefully this new arrival will be followed by a partner and we'll get a successful breeding year for them!
Although in saying that, the pair of Mute Swans have now returned to the loch, so once they become territorial, they may scare off some of the smaller birds that might nest on the loch. I guess time will tell on that front.
Some of you may have already noticed that there is a mound of clay and rubble on the reserve at the car park right now. I know it isn't the prettiest sight in the world, but it shouldn't be there for all that long and hopefully it will be put to good use by SWT, either at Cullaloe or on the other reserves in the area. Cullaloe was chosen as the place to store this as it has what is probably the best access for large vehicles of all the reserves in the area.
In an additional note, i saw a mammal species today which i have not seen on the reserve before. There was a Stoat roaming around the car park this morning, which was really good to see!

Showing signs of spring

2008-03-14T13:55:00.002Z

I'm away for the weekend, and i suspect as a result i'll miss some interesting arrivals to the reserve.
I went down today and the daffodils have started to bloom. I also saw my first red-tailed Bumblebee of the year. A sure sign that Spring is edging ever closer! I suspect it won't be long now till we hear the familiar 'chiff chaff, chiff chaff' of the first warbler arrivals to the reserve.
Our male mute swan has returned to the reserve as well. Here's hoping he's soon joined by a female and we get another successful year.
The most interesting sighting today was just as i was about to get into the car and drive off. I heard a very loud croaking noise and when i looked up, there was the familiar diamond tail of a Raven! They're not particularly common in this area, so it was good to see. I only saw ravens once last year at Cullaloe, so if i see it again, i'll have improved on the record!Anyway, i'm now off on a trip to Ayr for the weekend for College. If anyone is planning on visiting the reserve this weekend, please feel free to let me know what i miss!
On that note, if you see something that isn't on the species list, I'd be grateful if you could let me know so i can add it to the list.

The Flying Flock

2008-03-08T11:52:00.002Z

The weather has been pretty awful the past few days, so I've not had much chance to get to the reserve. Last time i was there was on Thursday, which was simply a quite trip to top up the seed feeders.
Mind you, i did get my first Sparrowhawk sighting of the year then, so I'm certainly not complaining! The Species list continues to grow. I don't think it will be too long now till we start seeing and hearing the first arrivals of the spring and summer migrants.

Since i haven't been on the reserve much and can't update you on what is happening just now, i figured I'd use the opportunity to explain what the flying flock is and why they are on the reserve.
I mentioned in my last post that some sheep have arrived from the flying flock and are grazing one of the meadows on the reserve. The flying flock is SWTs own flock of sheep. They travel around various sites both in Fife and in other predominantly lowland areas. I think in total the SWT have over 300 sheep now, although only 25 of these are currently resident at Cullaloe.
The purpose of the flying flock is to provide practical management for some reserves in the form of grazing. By regularly grazing certain areas, they can actually help preserve the variety of plant species in the area. They can help prevent areas from becoming overgrown and dominated by particularly invasive species.
Currently at Cullaloe, they only graze one meadow, but there are plans to have them start grazing a second meadow on the reserve. We don't have them at Cullaloe all year round. That would result in the meadows being over grazed and little growing there. It is done at specific times of the year to preserve plant species.

So there you have it. I probably could have written for hours about the flying flock, but i figured it would be best to give just a small indication of why they were there.

Hopefully the weather will improve so that i can give a good report of things happening on the reserve next time!

The Willow Screen

2008-02-24T16:00:00.002Z

I went down to the reserve today to fill up the feeders to find that the willow screen had been tampered with. There is now a gap, almost one foot high at eye level of the average person in the screen.
This infuriates me. It is an act of pure vandalism, and the thing that annoys me most is that i am certain that the people responsible for this are bird watchers!!
Do people not understand the purpose of hides and screens? Yes, it to to give people the opportunity to see the wildlife, but more importantly, it is there to prevent DISTURBING the birds. The way things are now, there is little to no chance of any birds breeding close to the screen or at that side of the loch because some thoughtless individuals have taken it upon themselves to create a gap in the screen so they can see better.
I just can't believe that bird watchers would be so inconsiderate to the actual birds and so self-centered. They are clearly only interested in what view they get of the birds, not on the impact this has on the birds themselves. For me, the first rule of bird watching is to do so WITHOUT disturbing the birds.
If the people responsible for this read this, i hope they are ashamed of themselves. They've clearly put no thought into the disturbance they have caused and the results will continue to cause to the birds and also no thought about the time and effort David Blair and his conservation team put in to erect the screen for the benefits of the birds and for the people. I don't expect the people responsible for this to come forward or to make amends. I suspect that they will show true cowardice on this front.
Please be aware that anyone seen tampering with the screen, or on any other part of the reserve will be reported to the police for vandalism. Enough is enough now. It is a nature reserve, for the benefit of nature. We don't need these bad elements spoiling it.

On a slightly different note, please be aware that some sheep from the Flying Flock are now using one of the meadows on the reserve. Please keep dogs under control at all times to avoid worrying the sheep.
And on the dog front. Please pick up after your dog. I don't like stepping in it, and i'm sure nobody else does either. It has no benefit to the nature interests on the reserve, so please remove it.

Anyway, i think I've ranted enough for now. Again a reminder that anyone seen causing damage to any part of the reserve will be reported for vandalism. I welcome any comments, both positive and negative to this post.

First signs of Spring

2008-02-15T16:49:00.003Z

I've been visiting the reserve quite a bit the past few days for stress relief and to work out some pain while i recover from a car accident last weekend. It has been good, and there's definitely some signs that Spring is in the air!
We've got snowdrops in bloom down at the car park right now, and some of the birds have started singing. It's a real cacophony of bird noise along there right now. I could sit at the screen all day and just listen to the bird noise!
We've also had quite a few birds added to the species list in the past week or so, taking the total up to 35 for the year so far. I'm pretty sure that figure will double before the year is out, too!
I've modified the species list a little to include the date of last sighting of birds (I haven't done it for the other species - butterflies, mammals, insects, plants, etc) since i suspect the majority of visitors to the reserve are there for the birds. I think it may be best to have a last sighting date so that people can see the chances of seeing any given bird species currently. I've also tried to sort it in date order, with most recent sightings first. If you take, for example, the Jay. I only saw one in the whole time i was visiting last year, yet i saw one just a couple of days ago. I wouldn't expect to see them anytime soon, but people might be under the impression from the species list that they can be seen all the time.

Just a reminder that we will be having the local air cadets on site doing some work this weekend. The forecast looks good, so for a rare change, we might actually get a decent amount of work done!

Raising the water level

2008-02-03T12:04:00.000Z

On Friday i went to the reserve and I sealed the valve which allows us to lower the water level. The water level should remain pretty high now until the end of summer, when we'll lower it again.
We had planned to do a number of things at the edge of the loch this winter, when the water level was lower. Not least of which was to scrape away some of the encroaching rushes to create an area of bare mud for the Mudwort to establish itself on. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of rain we've had this winter, the water level has never stayed low enough for long enough for us to do any of this work. It is slightly disappointing, but sometimes these things happen. We'll probably try again later in the year, once we lower the water level again.

I'm going to have to make a point of ignoring the weather forecasts for ever, now! I'm slightly annoyed that I've cancelled the latest planned visit by the local air cadets for today due to forecast adverse conditions. Looking out of the window just now it's a little overcast, but it's still dry. It hasn't really rained for 3 days, despite numerous weather warnings for the met office for blizzard conditions! I feel bad about not having them come on site. Apparently they've become quite enthusiastic about the reserve and the work they've been doing and I'd really rather utilize that enthusiasm than let it dwindle.
On the plus side, thanks to Janie, we should have a back up plan for the next time they're due to visit. She's managed to find a source of wood, so if the weather prevents us from going on site, we can use the cadet hall to have the cadets building nest boxes for the birds on the reserve.

When i was on the reserve on Thursday, i managed to see something I've never actually seen on the reserve before. Foxes! We've always known they were there, with prints and scat clearly showing that they've been using the reserve, but this was the first time I've seen the actual animals. I saw one not far from the peanut feeders and another one on the hill near the car park. It sat and stared at me while i sat in the car warming my hands up after spending 2 hours on the reserve in freezing conditions.
As I've mentioned in a previous post. Finding field signs of mammals on the reserve is quite easy, but normally we wouldn't expect to see the mammals themselves. It makes it a real treat when you do, though! I won't be forgetting it for a while, that's for sure!

Squelch!

2008-01-24T19:56:00.000Z

Hi everyone! Its Janie here, the Reserve Warden for Cullaloe. I thought I would give everyone a little change and do a blog entry for the first time! I’ll apologise now if it isn’t as polished as Grahame’s have become! ;-)

Well, hasn’t the weather been awful the last few days? Thank goodness Grahame and I decided to take advantage of a lull in the rain on Sunday and head along to the Reserve to have a nose around and see what we could see! I know what you are thinking… don’t we do that fairly often anyway? Well, it’s true that Grahame can be found on site most days, me a bit less so, but we don’t normally go far off the beaten track so every once in a while we go exploring! ;-)

Thank goodness most of the flooding has drained from the car park now – although if you are planning to visit make sure you wear sturdy shoes as the mud that has been left behind can get a bit slippy! The filter beds are looking rather dull just now as the water looks a little reminiscent of a weak cup of tea, but there are still plenty of insects and fish going about their business, as evidenced by the occasional break in the surface.

The walk along to the Loch was punctuated by a buzzard swooping around above the rise on the east of the Reserve, great tits alarm calling and a robin who was bobbing along ahead of us, encouraging us to follow him in a charming way. The Loch itself gave its usual bounty of coot, mallard, mute swan and a few teal, and I enjoyed a little entertainment when a heron that had been feeding in the rushes near to the screen startled and rose up into the air right in front of Grahame who hadn’t even noticed it! Admittedly, neither had I, but I didn’t jump the way Grahame did! ;-) It just goes to show that sometimes us bird-watching types need to keep the binoculars on our chests to see what is right there in front of us!

On the way towards the spillway, the chaffinches were out in force in the trees to the left of the path, whereas the feeding area on the right was dominated almost entirely by great and blue tits. Although there has been a lot of rainfall recently, the spillway is still dry from the ledge a third of the way along its length coming from the direction of the Loch. I have to admit that I am starting to wish it would refill now – and I’m sure it will once the valve to the overflow has been closed once more. This wish is partly because I love creeping along that portion of the path and popping my head up just above the tops of the plants to see what I can catch unawares (how else do you spy a kingfisher? ;-)), but also because I am finding it a little frustrating to be counting more than a hundred birds on the Loch one moment and seeing them all rise in a panic the next, only to find someone standing in the middle of the dried up spillway with their binoculars or a scope out! Having only mediocre binoculars myself, I can completely understand the urge to get a little closer to whatever you are trying to identify, but please allow the birds their comfort zone as well. It is much more enjoyable to be able to watch the various waterfowl as they drift sedately around on the Loch before gracefully rising as one into the air in their own time, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Anyway, as I said, the purpose of Sunday was pretty much exploring and our route took us into some of the more-out-of-reach areas of the Reserve. I have to be honest and say that this was one time that, for me, the journey was more productive than the destination as we were constantly stopping to identify birds, prints in the mud or droppings! However, sight was not the only sense being used as Grahame picked up the strong musky odour of the fox at one point (we’d already photographed his print as Grahame’s photograph shows), and there was also the unmistakable sound of prey being turned into dinner for a sparrowhawk as we picked our way carefully along part of the Dour Burn.

The highlight of the day for me though was the sighting of a family of goldcrest in one of the more mature trees just beyond the sheep pasture at the east end of the Reserve. Grahame spotted one first and tried to draw my attention to it as I’ve never seen one but –in the way they do – by the time I’d gotten my binoculars up and tracked it to another tree, it was well hidden! Then Grahame turned his attention to something else sitting in the same tree as the goldcrest had been and I managed to spot another two flitting about from branch to branch! :-) Now, if I do many of these blog entries, you will soon realise that I am not big on the LBJs (little brown jobs – warblers, sparrows, buntings – that kind of thing). I just find them a little difficult to identify. But I don’t think even I’ll manage to forget that gorgeous little flash of gold on the head of the goldcrest in a hurry! Definitely worth the wait and a pleasure to watch.

So, I guess the moral of this story is that even though the Reserve may look a bit bare and even untidy in places right now – there is still a fair bit to be seen if you have a little patience, some warm clothes and some spare time on your hands! Don’t forget that you can comment on our blog entries, so if you see something of interest and want to encourage others to take a look, please let us know! :-)

Flooding

2008-01-16T13:13:00.000Z

With us having so much heavy rain recently, water levels have been running extremely high on the reserve. The loch is currently up to it's summer levels, even though the valve has not been closed! It's basically filling up faster than it can empty right now.
As a downside, the water had caused quite a bit of flooding at the car park, but hopefully a little dry spell will sort it all out. It's sunny outside as i write this, so who knows!

Below is a photo of the car park taken on Monday afternoon. As you can see, it's not exactly the nicest place to be parking!

Even with all the rain, we've managed to increase the species list by a few species in the past week, so it's not all bad.

Surveying and monitoring

2008-01-08T11:09:00.000Z

Well, the first week of the year has now passed and we've already got a pretty good bird list for the year, with 25 species having been recorded so far.

This year both me and Janie plan on doing a whole lot of surveying and monitoring of the species present on the reserve. Not just birds, but plants, mammals, insects, trees, etc. The idea is to build up a complete picture of what can be found on the reserve.

The Species list link to the right will hopefully contain a complete listing for everyone to see as it gets completed. Please do bear in mind that we are not experts and that this is a learning experience for us both, so some things will be missed. We will definitely do the best that we can, though.

With regard to the bird list, i plan on doing things slightly differently from how i have recorded them previously. I plan on working in a similar vein to the BTO's Bird Atlas scheme. Basically, birds will be recorded if they are seen or heard on the reserve. Unlike previous years, i will be excluding birds flying overhead from the list. I basically want to create a picture of what is actually using the reserve, not just those that can be seen from it. The 'flying' exceptions will be birds in flight which are clearly using the reserve, such as birds of prey hunting and swifts, swallows and the like.

The list does include a section on mammals, and it should be noted that in most cases the date of first sighting will not be the date the actual mammal was sighted, but rather field signs confirming their presence. Most mammals, particularly the small mice and voles are very secretive and you're not very likely to see them, so we must record confirmation of their presence rather than definite sightings.

Janie will be concentrating predominantly on the plant and tree species on the reserve, whilst i concentrate on birds and mammals. Insects, butterflies, dragonflies, etc will probably be done as a joint effort.

I have also added a calendar on the menu on the right. As with the species list, a google account is needed. I'll be updating it with every time we have a group coming on reserve for a tour, any eents on the reserve or any planned work. It'll give people a chance to either turn up or avoid the reserve on these busier days

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T13:43:00.000Z

Well, it's the first of 2008, so i figured i would wish everyone who reads this blog a happy new year!

I have big plans for the reserve and this blog for 2008. I hope to have a full species list available here (I might try and do it using google docs and have a link over on the right-hand side, where the other links are for the SWT), not only of birds, but of anything else i see while i'm out and about on the reserve. With a small mountain of reference guides given to me for Christmas, covering all types of insect, birds, dragonflies, butterflies, mushrooms and toadstools, etc, I don't think I will have a shortage of things to update!
I'm open to other suggestions on how to update it, if anyone has a bit of a technical know-how and can code in HTML, i'm happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions. It's got to be better than the bird list i was using for 2007!
The plan is to have a table listing the different species, and when they are first seen, so that you can see what new arrivals there are.

There are several plans for work to be done on the reserve in 2008. Some of them will happen, some of them will not. Almost all of it is based on funding. If you really want to help with funding at Cullaloe, and their other 122 SWT reserves, please consider clicking on the link at the bottom of the page and join the SWT. (Sales pitch over now!)

Some of the things which may or may not happen on the reserve in 2008 are:

An Open Day in spring/summer. Hopefully to attract new people to the reserve, encourage more use from the place.
The continued management of the Willow scrub at the Snipe bog by the local Air Cadet Squadron. Hopefully we'll have most of it cleared before Spring.
Clearing the Orchid Meadow for grazing by the Flying Flock.
Scrapes at the loch edge in an attempt to reveal bare mud to encourage Mudwort growth
The raising and lowering of the loch will continue again this year.
This one is a big maybe, as it requires a lot of funding! - A bridge over the filter beds and a path leading to a viewpoint on top of the hill opposite the reserve.
Some general Health and Safety work to improve conditions for visitors to the reserve.

Some regular things will continue on the reserve in 2008. The flying flock will periodically be paying the reserve a visit to graze the field they have been grazing over the past year or two, and potentially to graze the Orchid Meadow as well. The feeders will remain on the reserve and Janie and I will continue to try and keep them filled for everyone to see. I'm sure Mark will continue to visit and do some bird ringing.

A couple of different groups have expressed an interest in visiting the reserve, and I will hopefully be guiding these groups around the reserve and showing them what it has to offer. If anyone is interested in visiting the reserve, please do get in touch with me. I am happy to provided guided walks for any interested party.

I'm hoping 2008 will be a good year for Cullaloe, with lots of work being done, both for the benefit of the wildlife on the reserve and for the people who come there to enjoy it!

Update: There's now a link on the right to access the species list for 2008. Obviously right now it's either empty, or as good as. You will need a Google account to view the spreadsheet, but these are free for everyone to create.

Poachers

2007-12-29T15:53:00.000Z

It seems we may have developed a problem with illegal poaching on the reserve, besides that of the illegal fishing, which is already well documented both on this blog and elsewhere.

When on the reserve on Christmas Eve, there was a visit from the local Police. It appears that they had been called out by someone (Not myself) who had reported poaching on the reserve. I had been on the reserve for an hour at that point, and had neither heard or seen any sign of problems at that time, so it was deemed as a false alarm, i believe. Unfortunately, it seems there may have been some truth in the matter.

Janie called me this morning, advising that she had seen someone on the reserve with two black labrador dogs. From the noise and commands being issued to the dogs, she suspects that these were gun dogs. She said the man had something in his hand, but due to the shade, she couldn't clearly identify it. She does think it may have been a dead pheasant.
I went on the reserve myself this afternoon, and there was no sign of any activity on the reserve. There was, however clearly some shooting going on nearby and voices could be heard commanding dogs, so i have little doubt that Janie was correct and that people were poaching on the reserve.
I suspect the main targets would be the relatively large Pheasant population on the reserve, although Woodcock and Snipe are also known for shooting. With both of these species in decline in the UK, it is definitely a cause for concern that these species could be targetted.
I will be contacting Fife Constabulary regarding this, although there is little that can be done unless the culprits are caught in the act.

I would ask that if anyone is visiting the reserve they are vigilant of anyone behaving suspiciously. If you do see someone or something, whether it is shooting or fishing, please contact Fife Police on 0845 600 5702. Please DO NOT approach these people and leave the matter in the hands of the Police, who are trained to deal with these situations.

Lots been happening

2007-12-26T00:57:00.000Z

Ok, i know it has been a while since i updated this blog, and first of all, i must apologise. Things have been rather hectic of late and i simply haven't had the time! I promise it'll be back to weekly updates from now on, though!

We're almost at the end of December, and I haven't posted at all this month, even though there's been so much going on!
First and most important of all, we've had the some of the cadets from the local Air Cadet Squadron on site doing some work. We initially had them on site on the 2nd of December, just for a little tour of the reserve. Surprisingly enough, none of the cadets had ever actually visited a nature reserve before. I have to admit, i was more than a little shocked by this. I remember as a child getting dragged to these places whether i liked it or not. The thought of not having been to a nature reserve by the time i was a teenager is almost incomprehensible to me. From reading various sites and speaking with various people, this seems to be the norm these days, which really is a shame.
For me it was even more important when we were showing them about to let them see not only what work we were going to be asking of them, but why we were asking it of them and to give them a chance to see some of the wildlife on the reserve.
We were quite well rewarded that day, too, with Roe Deer putting in an appearance, Teal, Wigeon, Mallard, Mute Swans and Heron on the loch and several of the smaller common bords about. The cadets seemed to have a genuine enthusiasm for the reserve, which i will definitely be trying to cultivate.
With the cold weather we've been having recently, there have been a few days where the loch has been pretty much frozen over. Only a few patches remained where the ducks and swans could access the water. As a result of the cold weather, we did have a large flock of gulls arrive. There were approximately 150 gulls on the loch, predominantly black-headed gulls, but with a few common gulls mixed in.

We had the cadets on the reserve again on the 16th December, this time to help with the work on the reserve. There were two tasks that we had in mind for them. To pick up the litter on the reserve, primarily at the pool which has been used by illegal fishermen and to help with the coppicing of the trees which have encroached upon the Snipe Bog.
Upon entering the Snipe Bog, we flushed three Snipe out, which is great news. At least we know the area is still in use for wintering birds.
The cadets were on site from approximately 10:30am to 2:30pm. We had originally planned to have them on site a bit later than this, but it was getting rather cold rather quickly!
Still, they managed to get a fair amount of work done and i was really impressed with them! They really should be proud of their achievements, too!
The picture below shows just some of the area the cadets managed to clear.

Here's some of the cadets working on clearing the scrub

Here's the other cadets on their way to the fishing loch for litter picking, accompanied by Janie in the foreground

And here they all are at the end of the day, looking surprisingly cheerful considering how much work they had just done!

The cadets will be back on the reserve helping out three more times before the end of February, so hopefully we'll have a fair amount of the scrub cleared away.
We're also getting a visit by a group from BirdForum on Saturday the 9th February, where I have agreed to give them a bit of a guided tour. That one will be interesting, since I've been out with some of them before, earlier this year on a visit to the Isle of May. There's some there who definitely have more bird knowledge than I do, so I'm going to have to try real hard not to embarrass myself!

New Additions

2007-11-30T13:50:00.000Z

There have been several new additions to the reserve, of various sorts, both good and bad over the past week or two.
The first one I'll mention is that my friend Janie is now the Reserve Warden for the site. Basically, she will be assisting me with the work i carry out on the reserve. She's very enthusiastic and approachable, so if you see her on site, feel free to stop her and ask any questions you may have (She's easy to spot - she's the one wearing the SWT fleece with the 'Ranger Service' badge on it!)
In addition, she'll have access to this blog so that she can update it at any time. I think we'll try and stick to the normal routine of updating the blog once a week, roughly. Obviously, if either of us spot anything of particular interest, we'll update the blog as soon as we can!
We have another new bird addition for the reserve in the shape of a cormorant, which was seen on monday flying away from the loch (But not since). That's another one added to the list, which just keeps growing and growing! I suspect next year's list will be even larger, since we'll be starting in January, rather than May and we'll be on site more than we were at the beginning of this year, particularly during the migration seasons.

The most interesting new addition for visitors to the reserve is two new seed feeders, mounted on a pole. The feeders are 26" long and a bright blue plastic, so they should be easy enough for most people to spot! A (bad) photo of them is shown below - apologies for the quality of the shot, but it was chucking it down with rain today, so the camera wasn't playing very nice in the low light conditions.

The feeders were only put up yesterday, but already they've proven a bit of a success. There is a pretty constant stream of Coal Tits, Great Tits and Blue Tits darting back and forth to them right now. Although the birds are not lingering long on the feeders, they're definitely making use of them. It's a positive hive of activity there now as a result, with birds coming and going all the time.

The other new additions to the reserve are the negative ones, sadly. The past week or two have seen a large increase in litter being dumped at the car park and dog mess along the paths. I will definitely be mentioning this at the next advisory group meeting, with the hope that we can get a bin installed at the Car Park so that people at least have somewhere to put their rubbish. Why they can't just take it home with them and put it in the bin, i don't know!

And finally, this Sunday morning, i will be giving some of the local Air Cadets a tour of the reserve with a view to them helping out with the litter and some of the coppicing and scrub removal work over the winter. If you see a group of teenagers on site, but off the path on Sunday morning, don't panic. They'll be with me! :-)

More Bird Ringing

2007-11-17T16:24:00.000Z

Today was another interesting day at Cullaloe, with Mark coming back on site to do some ringing. Yet again, i had my camera with me and this time i decided to see what it was like in video mode!
For some reason, though Blogger really isn't liking my videos, so i don't seem to be able to upload it.

In total he ringed three Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Making a total of 4 woodpeckers ringed in two trips - three males and one female, all juveniles) more Robins, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Coal Tits.
Annoyingly, we had several groups of Long-Tailed Tit, Siskin and Goldcrest come nearby, but none of them managed to get caught in the net. I would have love to have gotten some photos of a Goldcrest or two!
I was also there to do some work on tree felling at the area which was originally known as the Snipe Bog. This area, we were led to believe originally had Snipe breeding in it. Since discussing this with Mark today, it may be that it is purely wintering birds that have been seen there. He certainly has no recollection of them breeding on the reserve. When going through the area to start work on the coppicing of the trees, i managed to flush two Snipe from the undergrowth, so they are definitely still about!
I didn't manage to get quite as much coppicing done on site as i would have liked, but i still managed to clear a fair amount of the scrub. I plan on returning to the reserve tomorrow to do some more then.
On Monday I'll be giving a talk to the local Air Cadet Squadron and hopefully i will be enlisting their aid with the clearing of the scrub. There is several little projects I would like to get them involved in, if they are willing, but we'll have to see how it goes. We may be hindered a bit by Health and Safety legislation on this one.
The loch has been relatively quiet recently, though we've still got Teal,Wigeon, Mallard, Mute Swan, Moorhen and Coots on it, and normally a Grey Heron or two. Today we did have a Sparrowhawk flying round the edges of the loch, too. (another bird which I would have loved to have seen in the net!)

Redwings arrive at Cullaloe

2007-11-04T11:49:00.000Z

I've been wondering for the past few weeks where the Redwings and other thrushes had got to, since the berry bushes at Cullaloe have been laden, but nothing has been taking them. I'm happy to say that yesterday i saw my first Redwings on site! There was a small flock of about 10 birds. They stuck predominantly to the far side of the loch, past the spillway, but i don't think it will be long till they're seen at the hawthorn bushes along the path.
Yesterday was one of the magical days that you occasionally get when visiting the reserve. It seems that since the wind has died down, absolutely everything was out and about. There were Siskins down at the car park, along with a few Pheasants standing on the wall which marks the reserve boundary, there was a flock of approximately 20 Long-tailed Tits at the edge of the large pine trees and mixed in with them was a single Treecreeper. That's only the fourth time i've seen one this year, making it equal to the number of times I've seen the Kingfisher!
I'd commented previously that the feeders had barely been getting any use over the past few weeks. That changed yesterday! There was a large influx of Blue Tits and Great Tits on the reserve, chattering away, and for the first time in well over a month I was seeing five or six birds at the feeders at one time. Recently it has just been one or two. There were also quite a few Chaffinches joining them at the feeders, which is always good to see.
The loch itself had much of the same species as it normally does at this time of year. There were plenty of Mallard, Teal and Wigeon along with the resident Mute Swans. There was also a lone Grey Heron, which was great to see when it caught a fish that must have been at least six inches long! I also heard Curlews at the far side of the loch, but sadly never saw them. They must have been hiding in about the reeds. It's good to know that they are still visiting, though.
The sheer scale of birds on the reserve yesterday was amazing. We even had a flock of about fifty Rooks alight on the tops of the pine trees. Hopefully with the wind now died down for a bit, we'll keep these large numbers of birds on site.

In response to a previous question regarding Weasels on site. I still have not seen any on the reserve itself, but on the way home yesterday, one ran across the road in front of me. It was only about 500 metres past the reserve entrance, so it is a safe wager that the reserve itself is part of their territory.

New birds to the reserve

2007-10-31T14:15:00.000Z

We've had a couple of new bird species to the reserve for the year. In the past week or so, I've seen Jay flying across the reserve and when going to fill up the feeders, I've flushed a Snipe out from the undergrowth!
There used to be an area on the reserve called the Snipe Bog, which used to have breeding Snipe in it, but unfortunately it has become heavily overgrown with willow scrub in the past few years. We are planning on clearing a lot of the scrub away to try and bring the place back to it's former glory. I'd love to be able to say that Snipe were nesting on the reserve again!
I've spoken with the local Air Cadet Squadron about the possibility of helping out on the reserve with litter picking, clearing of the spillway and potentially even with the coppicing work. They seem quite enthusiastic about the idea, and it will be great to have them on board to help out in the winter months. Hopefully by the time spring comes around again, the reserve will be a changed place, but in a good way. Hopefully we'll be able to get back some of the old habitat without impacting too much on the new habitat.
We've also had a large influx of Siskin on the reserve over the last few days, particularly at the trees by the car park. It seems that there's been quite a large irruption of them in the UK this year, so don't be surprised if you see them at your bird feeders this winter! They really are gorgeous little birds and it's great to see so many of them on the reserve.
We're still sitting waiting on the berry eating birds to arrive to feed off the laden plants, but there has been no sign yet. With the strong westerly winds right now, i doubt much will be coming over from the continent. There have been reports of early waxwings up north, near Inverness in the past few days. Hopefully this year will be a good year for them, too!

Increases and Decreases

2007-10-23T09:34:00.000+01:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I've updated the blog. The main reason for this is because I've spent most of last week on the isle of Skye on holiday.
On my return from holiday, it seems that a fairly decent number of Black-headed Gulls have taken up residence on the loch with the ducks. We're seeing approximately sixty gulls making use of the loch at one time right now. This is in addition to the large duck population, so the loch really is getting quite busy.
With regard to waders, there still isn't as many as I would have expected. There's been a few Curlew seen at the edge of the loch and several Lapwing, but nothing besides that. There's still time yet, though!
Elsewhere on the reserve, things have gotten a lot quieter. We've gone from having to fill the peanut feeders every four or five days to now only filling them once every two or three weeks. A big difference! (And it's good for my wallet, too!). That's not to say that there are no birds about. They're still there and we're still getting regular visits to the feeders from the Great Spotted Woodpeckers. There's also been an increase in sightings of Long-tailed Tits. Small groups of these are seen most days right now.
Robins are in full voice just now while they establish their territories, with at least five or six territories claimed. The Wrens are very active on the reserve just now, too. Some of the best views I've had of these tiny birds have been within the past couple of weeks.
Surprisingly, a lot of the berry trees and bushes are still quite heavily laden. I would have expected winter thrushes to have arrived by now, such as Fieldfare or Redwing to make use of these, but to date there have been no sign. Hopefully there will be some in the near future, though!
We're going to be using the winter months to get some work done on the reserve to try and do some clearing out, set up some new things before spring, etc. Hopefully by the time spring comes round and the summer migrants begin to return, the reserve will be a better place, both for the migrants and for visitors.

Lots to see

2007-10-07T11:58:00.000+01:00

There's still a whole lot to see on the loch right now, with average bird numbers in the region of 200 to 250. On Friday i managed to count over 100 Teal in a single visit, we've had over 70
Wigeon and over 60 Mallard on site, too. That's not including an average of 15-20 of both Coot and Moorhen each day!
On a couple of days in the past week we've had flocks of Lapwing on site, too. The largest flock I saw was approximately 60 birds, though only about 20 of them landed at the edge of the loch.
We're still waiting on serious waders arriving. No sign of them yet! Annoyingly, I've seen both Curlew and Oystercatchers in the nearby fields, yet still they haven't found their way to Cullaloe.

It isn't just the loch that's full of life, though. One of the filter beds has been getting cleared out by the SWT conservation team. Now that the dust has settled a bit, you can clearly see a whole lot of activity in the water, from small sticklebacks and minnows to large aquatic beetles and pond skaters. It just goes to show the diversity of species that the nature reserve supports. It also shows that the water quality must be relatively high for all these species to thrive.
There was a point during the week when i was watching a Heron on the loch and it caught a fish at least 6 inches long. It was rather amusing watching it struggle to swallow it, I have to say! Good to see, though, and another good sign of thriving water life.

The butterflies appear to have finished up for the year now, with none being seen in the past week, despite lovely weather for them. I guess it's just getting a little cold for them now. The dragonflies are still about in force, though. Several pairs have been seen to be laying both at the filter beds and at the edge of the loch itself.

There's also plenty of smaller birds about just now, too. The goldfinches have developed a small flock of 10-15 birds, which is really quite nice to see when they fly past or onto a nearby tree. The bullficnhes are still about and are seen daily, there's tits everywhere, including a regular flock of long-tailed tits right now and of course, the woodpeckers are still seen regularly at the feeders!

It really is a great time to be visiting Cullaloe right now! Well worth the visit.

Just to note, this afternoon I'm going to be on site picking up a lot of the litter which had been dropped by the illegal fishermen. I'm also planning on taking a walk around the edge of the loch to see if i can find and photograph the Mudwort. It may result in a large loss of birdlife on the loch as a result, so today may not be the best day to be visiting to see the birds!

Large Influx of Birds

2007-09-29T02:21:00.000+01:00

Since we began lowering the water level on the reserve, the bird numbers on or around the loch have more than doubled. Just today we had 60 teal, more than 30 wigeon, more than 40 mallard, 20 coot, 20 moorhen, the swans, a heron and several crows on or around the loch all at the same time! That's a huge difference from just a few days ago. In some cases the numbers have actually trebled!
Attached are some photos of the loch each day as the water level is lowered. I'd strongly recommend clicking on the images to see the full sized pictures, otherwise the difference may not be too noticeable. The water level in itself has dropped by more than two feet and it was still going this afternoon!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I am a little surprised that even though we've had a huge influx of birds to the site, i've so far not seen any waders. I would have at least expected to see a curlew or two, since they had been flying over the loch the previous few days. Oh well, there's still time yet! I've no idea how long the water level will be lowered for (still got to discuss that with the boss) but i suspect it will be for at least a month. If you're in the area at all during that time, it should be well worth a visit!

The lowering of the Loch

2007-09-26T01:32:00.001+01:00

On sunday, me and my friend Janie had agreed to carry out some work on the reserve. We had agreed to prune back the willow tree next to the screen to allow a better view of the feeders and we also set out to work on removing some of the willow trees which were blocking the view of the loch from the screen.
When we got there, there was someone else there. It seems he's a relatively regular visitor to the site and has had some interesting sights on the reserve. It appears that earlier on in the year there was a Garganey on the loch. This is a great find and a great sighting for the reserve!
The work was carried out by myself and Janie in just over two hours on Sunday afternoon, and i have to say that the difference it makes is truly amazing. Regular visitors to the reserve should be pleased with the results!
Whilst carrying out the work on the willow, we noticed a Common Hawker Dragonfly flying over the loch. This is the first time we've seen one of these on the site, and at over four inches long, they really are stunning!
On Tuesday i started the process of lowering the water level on the loch. This is done annually to allow for the Mudwort plant to seed and establish itself. It also has the additional benefit of exposing mud which may be of interest to passage waders.
The whole process of draining the water should take approximately three days, and i hope to update this blog with photos from each day so that readers can see the difference in water levels each time. Already the spillway has run dry!
Whilst in the process of releasing the gate to lower the water in the loch, I saw approximately 100 pink-footed geese flying overhead. A sure sign that autumn is here! Another tick to the list of sightings from the reserve, too.

Exciting Developments

2007-09-18T11:59:00.000+01:00

It's all been happening on the reserve over the past week or so. So many interesting developments to tell you all about. I had my first advisory group meeting as the convenor of the reserve on Tuesday 11th September. I have to admit, it was very interesting. It felt good to be a part of the reserve, a part of the team that decides on future plans. The water level is to be lowered n the next couple of weeks, when i get the key from Ross, the previous convenor. That should be interesting as we should see some wader interest in the sight. We're already getting Curlews flying over on a daily basis looking for places to land, so it's a safe wager that we'll have plenty of wader activity once the water level is lowered!
The most interesting thing that happened at the meeting had absolutely nothing to do with the meeting itself. Not long after starting the meeting a bird flew across the reserve. My initial thought was that it was a heron. It only took me a few seconds to realise that it was way too big to be a heron. Out came the binoculars, and lo and behold, it was a White-Tailed Eagle! 15 of these had been released in Fife in August as part of a re-introduction scheme between the RSPB and SNH and this was the first sighting of one for everyone in the group. It landed in the field opposite the reserve, sat there for a few minutes then flew off to perch on a fence post at the far end of the field.
After submitting a report of the sighting to the RSPB, including the wing tag detail (In this case, the bird was tagged 'H') i've received word that this bird is a young male, released on the 10th August this year. I was also asked if i could put up some submission forms on site in case the bird should return or anyone make a sighting, so i've added a few of them which can be taken at the willow screen.
I also found out that the male bird in our resident pair of Mute Swans was ringed. After some work between a few of us during the meeting, we got the ring information. Allan, from Fife Council called someone in the know and it appears that the bird was ringed as a cygnet just outside Edinburgh and has since been seen at several locations nearby. It really is good to know where the birds on the reserve are coming from.

On the subject of ringing, it was agreed that Mark, who was at the advisory group meeting would do some bird ringing on the reserve. I got an email from him advising that he would be on site on Friday morning to ring the birds. I took a walk down, when i eventually got up (I'm not really an early morning kinda guy) and he was there with the mist net, collecting and ringing birds. In total throughout the morning he ringed the following:

1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
2 Robins
1 Long-tailed Tit
5 Coal Tits
15 Blue tits
35 Great Tits

That's a total of 59 birds ringed! Quite impressive for a morning's work. I was particularly happy that he got the woodpecker. The woodpeckers on the reserve feel like their my babies, since the introduction of the peanut feeders to the site.
I've included a couple of photos below to show some of the ringed birds.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Long-tailed Tit

With several plans to be implemented for the reserve in the near future, i'm sure i'll be kept busy and there will be plenty of updates on the site. As we're coming into the winter months, more work can be done on the site than would be possible during the breeding season, and everyone is taking advantage of this.

Missed Opportunity

2007-09-08T14:39:00.000+01:00

I went down to the reserve this afternoon to see what was about. It is a truly lovely day today, so i had high hopes of good butterfly opportunities. When i arrived, there was another car parked in the car park, so i knew someone else was about. On the way along to the screen i bumped into a man who had been on the reserve for a couple of hours with his DSLR camera. He showed me some photos of something rather spectacular for the reserve. This morning there had been an Osprey fishing on the reserve! This truly is a great find for him, though a missed opportunity for me. The Osprey was successful in catching a small fish, too. A great sighting for the reserve, and one i'm happy to add to the list! The osprey was pretty much certain to be on passage to their wintering grounds and just decided to stop in for a snack. It's good to know they visit all the same!
I did spot a couple of curlews circling the loch looking for a place to land, but not finding anything and flying off. Once the water level is lowered, they should be a pretty regular occurance on the reserve.
New species this past week has been the addition of some passage wigeon, which stopped off on the loch for a couple of days before heading on. We're obviously getting the start of the autumn migrants through now, so we should be adding to the list a fair amount over the next few weeks. At least that's the theory!

Dragonflies and Butterflies

2007-08-31T18:55:00.000+01:00

I've been back from my little holiday for a few days and i've found that Cullaloe is positively alive with Dragonflies and Butterflies right now. There's several of (what i think is) the Common Darter dragonfly (now confirmed) about right now, which is shown below.

There's also lots of butterflies on the reserve. In particular Peacock and Small Copper can be seen in relatively large numbers. In addition I had my first sighting of a Painted Lady butterfly today. A first for me on the reserve, and a truly stunning butterfly! (shown below)

With a lot of the meadow that butterflies use having been recently cut down (this is done to allow a proper growth next year) the butterflies are more concentrated in smaller areas, which makes seeing them incredibly easy.
The birds have reduced a lot in numbers recently, with only adult birds seen on the feeders. Gone are the juvenile Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Great Tits and Chaffinches, although the juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers are still making an occasional appearance.
There has been an increase in the number of Tufted Ducks seen on the loch over the past week or two. I suspect that now that the breeding season is over with, they're coming back to Cullaloe for autumn and winter. We've had two new species seen on the reserve this past week, and those are the Curlew and the Black-headed Gull. This now takes our total to the 60 mark, since May, which isn't bad going!

In other news related to the reserve, Ross, the convenor for the reserve has had to give up the position due to time constraints. As a result, the position has now been passed onto myself. It seems i am no longer just a regular guy who likes the reserve. I'm actually getting to make an input on the reserve now, which is a really exciting prospect for me. It'll be interesting to see how the reserve works from the other side, to see how things are planned, how changes are made and how the species on the reserve is taken into consideration for these things.
I'm looking forward to taking on this challenge and trying not to step on too many toes! I love the reserve maybe a bit too much and i may end up shouldering my way into everything. I hope not, though!
Ross will still be involved with the reserve when time permits and i hope to see him there when the opportunity presents itself.

Not as quiet as it seems

2007-08-17T23:33:00.000+01:00

A casual glance at Cullaloe just now will show very little life and very little action. I'd advise anyone visiting the reserve to look just that little bit closer.
Hidden in amongst the bushes, or just for those patient enough to wait and be still, there is a whole host of life on the reserve just now!
This week i've managed to scare at least two adult pheasants from the bushes, each with juveniles (and scared myself silly in the process!). The Bullfinches are more regularly seen than ever before, even showing themselves directly in front of the screen!
There are still warblers around in the bushes, but you really have to be quiet and still and above all patient to get good looks at these.
The most important sighting this week was the dragonflies. I saw two or three of these just yesterday flying around the path near the weir. This is the first time i've seen them for myself all year! An excellent sighting of some fascinating insects!
Tufted ducks are returning to the reserve, with three or four females now present. There has been a large influx of Mallard on the reserve, too, with over 20 sighted at one time! I don't think it will be long now till the winter visitors will be arriving, and it will be interesting to see what we get.

I'll be on holiday over the next week, so won't be visiting the reserve, so it may be a couple of weeks before i next have an update.

Interesting sightings

2007-08-09T11:35:00.000+01:00

It's still quite quiet at Cullaloe on the migrant front, but there has been so many new and exciting things to see that it doesn't matter!
In the past week or so since i last updated, i've seen the return of the Kingfisher not once, but twice! So much so that i now know a couple of places where it perches, making it so much easier to see it in the future, too. I've spoken to the reserve manager about the possibility of adding a couple of artificial perches to potentially encourage them to hang around more., so we'll see what happens with that. Also this past week we've had a flock of 50-60 greylag geese circling the loch and potentially using the field which was formerly home to the flying flock of sheep.
Next to the same field i saw 2 juvenile bullfinches. That one is really good for me, because it's proof that the bullfinches in the area have been successful this year.
Speaking of breeding birds, the coots are at it again! There's a couple of very young chicks out on the loch at the moment and there's another coot sitting on a nest. That lot really don't know when to stop!
On that front, the water level on the reserve won't be lowered while they're still at it, so it's being postponed till September at the earliest. After speaking to the reserve manager, it seems there are quite a few plans in the works for the reserve. I won't go into detail here as i don't know what will happen and when, if any of the projects. These things all require funding, which as always, is in short supply.
Which leads to the shameless plug! If you want to help support the work of the Wildlife Trust, not just at Cullaloe, but throughout Scotland, join up! Become a member and show your support. Membership also gets you free entry to the reserves and visitor centre's of Loch of the Lowes, Montrose Basin and the Falls of Clyde. It doesn't cost much and every penny helps them out. If you want to make a simple donation, you can do that on the same place. Click THIS to go to the donation page for the trust. Look around the site here and have a look and see what work they do.
Ok, shameless plug over for now, i promise!

The reserve has also been alive with grasshoppers recently. They've cut back some of the grass in one of the meadows, which is making the grasshoppers particularly visible. I've actually managed to get a decent photo of one, too! I hope you like it, since getting it to sit still long enough was a bit of a challenge!

All in all, even with the reduction in migrants, the reserve still has an awful lot to show. The feeders are constantly in use, to the extent that my girlfriend and I are discussing adding more in the near future!

All was Silent

2007-07-29T00:17:00.000+01:00

It's gotten very quiet at Cullaloe very quickly. The number of birds seen or heard on the reserve have reduced sharply in the past week or so. There seems to be very few warblers about now, with only the occasional sedge or willow warbler to be seen. Even these are becoming less frequent than previously. Swallow numbers have reduced considerably, too. Previously there had been over 20 seen on any single trip, where as now I'm lucky if i see 5 or 6.
It really is surprising how quickly the migrant species seem to vanish. I was hoping we'd have a few more weeks of them, but it seems not to be. I suppose it is possible the inclement weather has just driven them into hiding for a while, though. We should, however start seeing some more passage birds stopping off at the reserve on their migration routes. In the autumn we've got a fair chance of getting some interesting wader species arriving on passage as the water level will be lowered to assist with the growth of the mudwort plant, too.
It isn't all doom and gloom, though. There's still a large number of tits and finches about, a long with the resident waterfowl. There's still deer to be seen on the reserve, and I've seen my first grey squirrel on the peanut feeders. I have to confess, I'm not overly excited by that latest addition to the population. I'd far rather it wasn't there, but i guess it's the price to pay for supplying free food to all and sundry.
Speaking of free food, my father works for a local supermarket and they had coconuts reduced recently. We've put 4 of them up on the reserve (8 coconut halves) near the seed feeders. I have to admit, i was a little skeptical about whether these would be used or not, since whenever we've tried them at home they've been largely ignored. I was somewhat surprised to find that within the space of a week, almost all of them are half gone. I'm now considering getting some suet mix and filling them up as fat blocks once they're gone. I'll probably wait until Autumn for this, though, since there's still a chance of nice, hot weather this summer and dripping, melting fat doesn't strike me as too appealing!

Unbelievable Day!

2007-07-16T21:58:00.000+01:00

Have you ever had one of those 'WOW' days, when absolutely everything just seems to be there at the right time? I've just had one of those days at Cullaloe. I went along with my mother, who was determined she wanted to get some shots of some butterflies (particularly the dark green fritillaries found on the reserve) It was still a bit overcast after heavy rain overnight and this morning, so i was doubtful she'd have much luck
We got there to hear the sound of the little stream sounding like a torrent as it ran through the three pools and out the other side. A rather dull, plain day to start us off with only a couple of sedge warblers, a blackbird flying past, swallows overhead and a lone dunnock near the gorse.
We walked up the steps to the meadow bit at the top so that me mum could try for her butterflies. How wrong i was with those! Up on the initial piece of meadow there was meadow brown, ringlet, 6 spot burnet moth, 1 dark green fritillary and the first common blue butterfly we've seen on the reserve!
On the path to the willow screen we managed to see a male blackcap flitting in and out of one of the willows, whitethroat all over beside the path and in the trees, my first wood warblers on the reserve (No.1 new species for the visit) As we were getting closer to the little conifer plantation, the warblers were darting about all around us, they were everywhere! Even heard us a chiffchaff. As i entered the conifers, i was struck by the sheer volume of tits that could be seen. There was great tit, blue tit and coal tit in large numbers all over the place. Also saw a treecreeper a little more than half way up one of the pine trees (No.2 new species to the reserve seen this visit). We got to the screen to see the usual suspects on the loch. There was coot, moorhen, the swan family, a lone grey heron and a couple of mallards. There were also sand martins and swallows swooping about. My mum disappeared to go see if she could spot more butterflies while i stayed at the hide/screen
The feeders were crowded with blue tit, great tit, chaffinch and a juvenile great spotted woodpecker. I heard a big splash on the loch and saw a male dabchick had just arrived (No.3 new species for the reserve) It's just a shame i didn't see it flying. I've never seen a grebe in flight before!
As i turned back to the feeder, i noticed there was now a male siskin on the feeders (No.4 new species for the reserve) I didn't think they were big fans of peanut feeders, but i'm not complaining at the visit! Might have to consider a nyjer feeder for the finches, though.
I went to join my mum looking around another part of meadow to find yet more great tits on my large seed feeder. It's pretty unusual for me to see anything using this feeder. I normally just fill it up without knowing what is using it. There were also a couple of willow warbler flitting around the trees and singing away.
When i went back to the screen, the juvenile woodpecker had been replaced with an adult male and the siskin had gone (much to my disappointment - very colourful, pretty bird!)
I stayed there for a bit while my mother decided to go back to the original meadow in search of more photos.
When i decided to move along and catch up, again, wood warblers seen around the trees on the way back (How could i not see them for 2 months then see 4 or 5 in a single visit?!), a male reed bunting was sitting at the top of one of the bushes, singing his little heart out and 4 swifts were flying overhead.
Back at the car park, there were another couple of sedge warblers, a pair of goldfinch flew past and a good 4 or 5 linnet could be seen on the hill behind the reserve.
All in all, it was a spectacular visit - and to have 4 new species sightings for the reserve was great. Admittedly, i'd always thought most, if not all of the species would be about, but i hadn't actually seen them.

Some of my mother's photos are shown below

'Common Blue' Butterfly

'Meadow Brown' Butterfly

'Ringlet' Butterfly

I went back to the reserve this evening, to see if i could repeat the success, but it was not to be. I did however get another new bird added to the list (5 in one day!). On the way back, a pair of Bullfinches flew right in front of me!
The real highlight of the evening was when i was writing a text to my girlfriend. As i was motionless, i guess i wasn't as obvious.. and a bank vole ran across the path about 5 foot away from me! Brilliant!

Local group outing

2007-07-15T01:22:00.000+01:00

Today was the day of the local SWT group outing to the reserve and i was surprised just how high the attendance was! I've never seen the car park as full as it was today!
I decided to turn up about an hour before the outing just to get a spot of birding in before it started. I'm quite happy i did. I got probably the best view of a male blackcap i've had all season on the reserve. Normally when i've seen them they've been partially concealed and hopping about. This one was showing himself off really well!
The outing itself was very good and very informative, although i did have to leave early to go to work. Bearing in mind the weather was overcast, there was still a fair amount of butterflies to be found. While i was there there was Ringlet, Meadow Brown. six-spot burnet moth, a couple of other moth species which i can't remember and a whole host of toads to be found. There was also plenty of flowers and plants which i hadn't noticed or had overlooked previously (most of which i've completely forgotten the names of, unfortunately!).
I had moved on ahead of the group just before leaving, just to see if there were any woodpeckers on the feeders (which there was - one juvenile) and i bumped into a man clearly carrying a fishing rod. I suggested he might want to take a different route as he was heading straight for the main group, including Alistair the new reserve manager and Ross the convener for the reserve (whom I had been discussing the problem of illegal fishing on the reserve with). The guy seemed to ignore me, but when i went back to the group he was nowhere to be seen and hadn't returned back the way i was. He'd obviously done a runner!
Apparently the rest of the outing after i had left was quite interesting with dragonflies, caddis flies and devil's coachmen being just some of the things that were seen. Hopefully i'll get an update on what was seen and I'll update this post if and when I do.
My parents had apparently gone to the reserve this evening (at least i assume so, since my dad sent me a picture which i've posted below - he has a habit of over-sharpening images, so it's not as nice as i'd like) and had a few insect encounters of their own.
It was a very informative outing and i wish i had been able to stay for the whole thing. A big thank you to the organisers and to those leading the outing. It's certainly given me food for thought and i think i might have to invest in some field guides so i can get a better understading of the insects on the reserve.

Photo of a pair of mating beetles, taken by my father

As an additional note, i was speaking to Biddy, one of the group leaders who had gone to the reserve to do some reconnaissance of the reserve the day before, and she mentioned she had seen a bird which she thinks may have been a Ring Ouzel. She saw a bird of a similar size to a blackbird flying across, but had white on it. It certainly is a possibility. Migrant birds tend to be seen about this time of year on the east coast. If so, it was a pretty great sighting! Very interesting, and you can be sure i'll be keeping an eye out for potential sightings myself! She wasn't sure, though and suggested it may also have been a dipper, which would also be great, since I haven't sighted those on the reserve since i started recording, either!

photography

2007-07-11T14:03:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note. The photos you see throughout this blog have all been taken by myself on the reserve itself. These are the real deal. I'm not copying them from anyone or taking them at a different location.
The camera i use for this is a Fuji Finepix S9600. It can even manage semi-decent shots of small birds, if you can get close enough. If you aren't close enough, it involves a fair amount of cropping and the pictures can be a bit grainy. Take the example of the whitethroat shown below (which was taken on the reserve)

As you can see, the picture is a little grainy and a lot of the bird's details have sadly been lost. At the same time, take a look at the Dunnock shown below. I was a lot closer to this bird and there is a lot more detail evident as a result.

One day i'd love to have a proper DSLR to take photos, but right now the camera i have does the job. A new scope is higher up my list than a new camera!

Butterflies and Bees

2007-07-11T13:51:00.001+01:00

This weekend, the local Scottish Wildlife Trust member's centre is having an outing to Cullaloe with the title 'Butterflies and Bees'. It's on Saturday 14th July at 2pm and anyone is welcome.
There are several butterfly species found on the reserve ranging from the ever-common Meadow Brown to the bright orange Fritillaries. I'm going to be going along on Saturday for the first bit (before i have to go to work) but will definitely be a learning experience for me. It's always nice to see what other people think of the reserve and it's a chance for me to learn more about the butterflies and insects on the reserve from those with a bit more knowledge than myself. You can be sure i'll be giving a full report on the day!
To potentially tempt you, here's a photo of a bee taken at the reserve this afternoon.

I haven't had much chance to visit the reserve in the past week. The weather has been horribly changeable again, so I've been avoiding it to an extent. The feeders are still in regular use, and I've finally seen something on the larger seed feeder! Admittedly, it was a lone female chaffinch. It's good to get an indication of what's there, though. The woodpeckers are nearly a constant addition to the peanut feeders these days and it's looking like we're gonna need to fill them more than once a week!
New additions in the past week have been the Tawny Owl (read the previous entry) and Grey wagtails, which were seen on the weir from the loch.
Notable species this week were the return of the Ruddy Duck today and also today, the Sparrowhawk being chased off and mobbed by a group of swallows. There's always plenty to see on the reserve and it would be impossible to describe it all!

When darkness falls...

2007-07-04T10:44:00.000+01:00

I decided to see what the reserve was like at dusk. I wanted to see how quiet it would be and what creatures would be seen. I arrived at the reserve at about 9:15pm last night and the first interesting thing was the buzzard. It had been resting right next to the road to the car park and swooped off as i arrived. It's not very often that you get a chance to see a buzzard flying six feet in front of you while you're driving!
I hoped this was a good sign of interesting things to come, and it was. The bird noise was significantly reduced on the reserve, which actually made it easier to track down the individual birds making the noise. On the path to the loch, i saw a family of whitethroat. Four birds in total, including at least one which still had some downy feathers. This was great for me, as normally i only ever see one or two individuals of a visit. To see four at once was pretty special for me!
The swallows were all over the place, obviously getting their last feed in before heading to roost. They were ducking and diving everywhere, and more than once i thought one was going to hit me! The skill of these birds is pretty amazing when seen like that.
The loch itself was pretty quiet. the swans were on their little homemade platform, obviously settling down for the night. There was a heron at the edge of the reeds, getting it's last feed in and several coots could be seen. I stayed at the loch itself till just after the sun had gone down, to see if there was a significant difference on the return journey. And there most certainly was!
Hardly a bird could be heard on the return journey. There were a few gulls flying overhead and a thrush or two singing from the willow, but that's about it. The swallows had gone from overhead. Just before we reached the house next to the reserve, I scared off a female roe deer. I must have been no more than four foot away from it when it bolted! And interestingly enough, i'm sure it was in the same area where the whitethroats were on the outward journey. Kinda makes me assume that it wasn't there the first time round.
Just after that the bats started appearing. They were flying all over round the trees, hunting for moths. At the same time, a Tawny owl could be heard hooting from the woods opposite the reserve. What a lovely sound! (added to the bird list) There were at least two different species of bat present (based purely on size - i don't have the luxury of a bat monitor, although it might be an idea for the future). They were flying just over my head all the way back to the car, where another deer was seen.
All in all, it's a very different experience at dusk, but it is just as fascinating, if not more than during the day!

Poor Weather

2007-07-02T21:48:00.000+01:00

It's been a pretty awful week this past week. The weather hasn't known what it wanted to do. One minute it's raining, the next it's sunny... i just wish it would make up it's mind!
It's been pretty quiet on the reserve this past week as a result. Very few people about. In fact, i think the only time I've really seen anyone was last night when two random guys asked me if i thought anyone would object to them camping there. I have to admit... i don't get that. Why on earth would someone think it'd be ok to camp on a nature reserve designated as an SSSI for it's rare plants and it's diverse birdlife?!
Anyway, the birds themselves have been pretty busy, with plenty to be seen on the reserve for those willing to look. The sedge warblers appear to have fledged. There was definitely one begging food from a parent when i went down there this morning. The young coot is beginning to look more and more like an adult, so i don't think it'll be long before it goes either. It looks as though a couple of other coots are having second attempts, too. There was at least one nest building this evening and there's definitely another one sitting on a nest. The cygnets seem to be growing larger pretty much every day and i suspect it's only going to be a couple of weeks till they're gone, too.
It's been a relatively good week for warblers as a whole this week. On a single night there has been willow warbler, chiffchaff, sedge warbler, blackcap and whitethroat sightings. Not bad going for a small reserve!
After mentioning the return of the ruddy duck last week, i haven't seen him at all this week. Typical, really. We have seen a heron again, though. Haven't seen any of those for a week or two, so i guess it all balances out.
The new additions to the bird list this week are greenfinch and linnet. The greenfinch were seen on the path towards the loch and the linnet were on the fence at the car park.
The feeders are still going down at a ludicrous rate... i don't know if i'll be able to keep up with them the way this is going!

That's all for now, though. I'm sure there will be plenty more to come (although don't expect new bird species to appear every week!)

Interesting Week

2007-06-27T10:49:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been an interesting week on the reserve. We've had some heavy rain over the weekend, and as such, the water levels are extremely high right now. The tiny burn that runs through the reserve is currently running more like a river.
The swans are still looking after their three cygnets and there is at least one juvenile coot on the loch. Monday saw the return of the Ruddy duck, which hadn't been seen for a couple of weeks.
The wet weather has brought out plenty of young frogs, just emerging from the loch. On Monday there must have been a thousand of them trying to cross the path! Trying to avoid standing on them as you walk along the path is near impossible.
On the occasional sunny days, we've got more of the common blue damselflies out and several butterfly species.
We've also had two new bird species added this week. There was a male Redstart seen beside the path last Friday and a very special bird on Monday. I had my first Kingfisher sighting over the loch! The bird didn't land (I suspect that's because of the commotion i was making and over excitement i was clearly portraying!) and i was wondering if it would be a good idea to add a few perches for them around the loch, to encourage them to hang around.
The feeders are going down very quickly right now. I assume with the weather being worse than normal, they're choosing to use the feeders more because there isn't so many insects out and about for them.
Hopefully this time next week i'll be supplying another update on what's happening on the reserve and what can be seen. Maybe this time i'll remember my camera, too!

Swans

2007-06-19T14:15:00.000+01:00

Well, i returned to Cullaloe today, with a view to getting some photos of the great spotted woodpecker on the feeders. It didn't work out too well, though. The woodpecker was about, and swooped over the feeders several times, but refused to settle on any of them while i was close (i was approximately 15 feet away from the feeders. The smaller birds had no problems with me, though (I've edited my previous post on the feeders with a pic of the birds on it)

The birds that were being particularly photogenic were the swans. They came close enough to the hide/screen for me to get a couple of good pics. (shown below) They actually started out with 5 cygnets, but they're down to three now. They're looking good, though, so here's hoping they all make it.
I also saw a young coot being fed by it's parent. This one is quite big, and pretty close to fledging. I'd seen coot chicks there earlier on in the season, but i thought they'd all died, since i haven't seen them for some time. It's nice to know that they're still about.

Female swan and 3 cygnets

The male swan

Of course, birds aren't the only things to be seen on the reserve. Right now there's plenty of common blue damselflies (shown below) and there's more and more butterflies appearing all the time (Although they're annoyingly good at avoiding the camera!).
There's also roe deer on the reserve, and we've had foxes living here in the past. Mice and voles are all over the place, but spotting them can be a bit of a challenge!

The feeders

2007-06-16T19:08:00.001+01:00

Well, i phoned SWT head office at the end of April, asking for permission to put up a couple of feeders on the reserve. Permission was granted.
We originally started out with a single seed feeder. The food went down, but slowly. We then added a large seed feeder and a small peanut feeder. It turns out that the peanut feeder was going down faster than the seed feeders.
As a result, we moved the seed feeders to a different location and ordered a large batch of peanuts and 2 more peanut feeders.
The seed feeders have started to go down a lot faster in their new locations. We've seen great tits on the small feeder and sparrows on the large feeder (although you'll note that there's no sparrows on the bird list yet... we couldn't identify if it was a tree sparrow or house sparrow at the time, since we couldn't see the head)
The small peanut feeder appeared to be getting regular use from great tits and blue tits.

Once the 2 new large peanut feeders arrived, they were swiftly filled up and placed near the original. Within 10 mins of being put up we had great tit, coal tit and chaffinch at them! 2 days later i had my first sighting of a great spotted woodpecker on one of them! That sighting in itself has made the expense totally worthwhile.

I'll be regularly updating with what i see on each visit, both on the feeders, the loch and the reserve as a whole. You never know. There might be more still to come!

One of the peanut feeders

The Birds

2007-06-16T13:59:00.000+01:00

Here is a list of the birds sighted on or from the reserve since 15th May 2007 by myself. It's almost certainly not a complete list of the birds and i'm sure that some have been missed and i haven't seen them.

On or around the loch:

Mallard
Tufted Duck
Ruddy Duck
Mute Swan
Grey Heron
Coot
Moorhen
Kingfisher
Little Grebe (also known as Dabchick)
Black-headed Gull
Wigeon
Osprey
Teal

13 species

In the Willow Scrub:

Willow Warbler
Mistle Thrush
Song Thrush
Dunnock
Chiffchaff
Sedge Warbler
Whitethroat
Collared Dove
Grasshopper Warbler
Snipe

9 species

Throughout the reserve and on the feeders:

Blue Tit
Robin
Blackbird
Chaffinch
Woodpigeon
Great Tit
Wren
Pied Wagtail
Reed Bunting
Pheasant
Buzzard
Sparrowhawk
Swift
Skylark
Meadow Pipit
Swallow
Sand Martin
House Martin
Long-tailed Tit
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Carrion Crow
Rook
Lapwing
Pied Wagtail
Coal Tit
Lesser black-backed Gull
Oystercatcher
Herring Gull
Magpie
Redstart
Greenfinch
Blackcap
Linnet
Tawny Owl
Grey Wagtail
Wood Warbler
Treecreeper
Siskin
Bullfinch
Curlew
House Sparrow
Raven
Peregrine Falcon
White-Tailed Eagle
Lesser Redpoll
Pink-footed Goose
Redwing
Fieldfare
Goldcrest

49 species

TOTAL: 71 species

This list will be updated as new birds are seen. I'm confident more will be added as the seasons change and once the water level is dropped (should see wader species appearing)

Last updated 26/09/2007

Cullaloe Local Nature Reserve

2007-06-16T13:13:00.000+01:00

Well, I've decided to create a regular blog of the goings on at my local nature reserve. I'm by no means an expert in any field and i certainly am not going to make any claims to be. What i plan to do with this blog is provide information to interested readers on what's happening on the reserve and what can be seen.

First of all, let's discuss the reserve itself. I'll give you a bit of a history on the site. First and foremost, though, here's the link to the official site: Cullaloe LNR. The site is maintained in partnership with the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Fife Council. Most of the information about the site can be found on that website, but here's a brief summary:
The reserve was originally a reservoir supporting the local town of Burntisland, but became surplus to requirements. In 1986 the lower reservoir was drained of water, leaving a boggy, marshland. This marshland has been left to develop by itself, and over the past 20 years it has become a large willow carr area. Various species thrive on the reserve as a result, and it is well known for breeding sedge warbler and whitethroat. The smaller, upper reservoir still remains and is host to several wildfowl species, with coot, moorhen and mute swans being just some of the birds breeding on the loch. It is also home to the rare mudwort plant and the water level is lowered every 2 years to give the plantlife a chance to flourish. The reserve borders onto the B9157 road and traffic noise can be heard from the reserve (but it never drowns out the bird sound). There is a small conifer plantation (and i mean small, we're talking 10 trees here!) next to the loch and various woodland bird species can be found in this area.