It's getting busy!

Hi Guys!

Sorry it's taken me so long to write another post! I've just been really busy lately! Everythings starting to happen at the loch so I've been going pretty early, and just too knackered when I get back to bother updating this!! If you want a more regularly updated blog documenting my work life, then visit the RSPB Loch Ruthven blog, which I update weekly!

All is going well at work and at home, and I'm really enjoying my job so far! There are now at least 8 pairs and 3 single Slavonian Grebes on the loch, so we've already improved on last year, when there were only 6 pairs! So let's hope that they all stay to breed! We also have lots of Common Sandpipers, Oystercatchers, Lapwing, Curlew, Common Gulls and Black-headed Gulls attempting to breed, and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers hanging around the loch most days. Add to that all of the small woodland and moorland birds singing and nesting, Cuckoos and Great-spotted Woodpeckers calling and Grasshopper Warblers reeling from the moorland and that's a lot of activity! We completed the first in a series of surveys of the moorland and woodland birds on the site last week, and will be installing the midge and mink traps next week, as well as beginning the full loch surveys to find nests and install nest cameras, so I'm going to be even more busy very soon!!

As for home, I'm really enjoying where I'm living and so glad that I chose this place to stay at! My housemates are so nice, and know how to have a good time! They are determined to show me the nightlife of Inverness and introduce me into their circle of friends :) And my workmates are just as nice! Went out with them today for a walk along a river, before wading through it as we couldn't find the bridge to the other side!! So we all got a bit wet, but it was a good adventure!! And I saw a Dipper! :D Also, I went to visit Jason on Fair Isle last weekend, and had a really brilliant time! Saw loads and loads of birds, including a lot that I hadn't seen before, so I was really happy! Especially since I got to ring a few birds too!! Living in Scotland really is doing a lot for my birding life list!! So many new birds since I've come here, and there are still so many I want to see!! Trip to the Cairngorms anyone?

Photos of all of this to follow shortly, unless you're on Facebook, in which case you can see them all right now, instead of waiting fore me to get around to actually putting them on here! Missing everyone lots, and really looking forward to visits from Jason, Jon and Tahnia soon! (I hope!) xxx