Scottish Wildlife Volunteer !

Yesterday morning was my first day on volunteer duty at the Loch of the Lowes.

www.swt.org.com

I have been meaning to take part in this worth while job for a few years, but for one reason or another for the past few years I always seemed to be away. I was away this year for the month of February in Zimbabwe, so now the next few months were clear. I went along to the Start of the Season meeting, to find a dedicated number of people all eager and willing to offer their time to man the hides, day and night to protect the Osprey and their eggs.

There had been a great deal of improvements to the shop. There was now an area where one could sit and watch out of large full length windows looking out to a cleared section, in which there were several bird feeding boxes. There were so many birds to see, from Great Tits to Woodpeekers, Wrens and Robins being some of the species. A beautiful red squirrel delighted us all by sitting and eating the nuts he manged to get out of the various boxes.

On one of the walls a very large Video Cam was sited, and it showed all the action at and on the nest. The picture was so clear, and I was able to get a really good look at these magnificent birds at long last. There was a great deal of interactive material for people to enjoy, specially for children.

Anyway I got up early and set off with warm gloves, scarf, and extra warm jacket , and my flask of tea, bananas and oat biscuits to eat. On arrival I was met by Andrea who took me to the Hide, She showed me how the Log-in Book worked and how to contact her on the mobile phone. She also attached the high powered binoculars to the bar in the hide, so that we could use them and so that they were not removed!

There was an Osprey on the nest I could see through one of the binos. It was the female, and sitting on a nearby tree watching her was her mate.My stint proved rather uneventful, just the ususal, the male taking over the guarding of the 3 eggs while she went off, and then her return later on. The male then took off to find some fish for her. My time at the hide went by very quickly, and there were a number of people who popped in for a look. As well as the Osprey there are several other birds to see various ducks, swans and swallows being some of them. So there is plenty to see and lots going on all the time.

I am booked in again and I am looking forward to it very much indeed.