This is a great golden digger wasp I think. Took photo in Fuerteventura during November 2011

Looked scary but apparently they do not sting and are a popular food for birds.

So, we haven't quite made the 120 species we were looking for, we did get one more though to make us up to 118 in total (woodcock was the 118 species.) But, I still think 118 is a good number for this year and hope we can do even better in 2012! We have had some excellent additions thanks to our visitors, volunteers, staff and seemingly resident photographers (you know who you are!) and many of these records would not have come about were it not for the passion, enthusiasm and sheer love of birds and wildlife that we have seen over the past 12 months, so thank you!

Highlights for me during November/December have included the family of four otters that we witnessed frolicking on the extremely flooded Aird Meadow on the 29th November. Not only could we see them so very close to the building, for at least an hour they were very visible (although sadly we had very few visitors as the village and road was flooded,) we could hear the mother calling to her cubs, followed by the whole family swimming off together into the distance. I have never seen such a spectacular and intimate view of otter behaviour and felt very lucky to have been a part of it.

December also proved to be a smashing month for hen harriers, with regular sightings over the Aird Meadow and the Barr Loch, at various times of day, giving smashing views and producing some excellent shots from our photographers. The photographs also helped us to recognise that we had seen at least three different male birds over the Aird Meadow, due to the variations in plumage that had been captured by different people throughout the month. This is excellent because, as many of you will already know, hen harriers are suffering a great deal in England, with only four successful breeding pairs this year.

Finally, this week just goes to show that you never know what you'll get on your bird feeder list, as we have had a whooper swan tucking in to all of our left-over fruit and veg at the visitor centre feeders. Normally a resident at Castle Semple Loch, 'Whoopy' has discovered the fruit, veg, seed and fresh grass that our feeding station has to offer and doesn't seem keen to go anywhere else for the time being!

For the most up-to-date information about sightings and interesting goings-on at Lochwinnoch, join our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RSPBLochwinnochNR)

Happy New Year to you all and we hope to see you in 2012!

- Paula

It will come as no surprise to most that birdwatchers like to keep lists. I myself am not a list keeper (not for birds anyway, perhaps for moths...) but can see why many find list keeping so enjoyable. Earlier in the year, RSPB Lochwinnoch started it's on list, looking back through the records for the year so far, to see how many species we could record on the reserve in one year. Part of the reason for this is that many people in the past used to comment that 'RSPB Lochwinnoch is a really nice place to visit, but you don't see many birds there.' This was our attempt to prove them wrong.

It has always been our belief that whilst we might not have huge numbers of a single species, like huge flocks of geese or waders, or a particularly iconic species like white tailed eagle or osprey, you could see a larger variety of species on the site in one day than you could at many other places. Without even trying, we probably record between 30-40 species of birds a day, not including other wildlife.

So, as you've probably gathered from the title of this blog, our total for the year so far is....117 species! This has included some remarkable sightings, some firsts for the reserve and some that have been a long time coming.

Who could forget the white tailed eagle that flew over the reserve in March, prominently displaying it's yellow wing tags before flying over the main road where I myself was lucky enough to see it - it was so big that it made the jackdaws that were mobbing it look like sparrows! This was a first for the reserve and that same month, we also had another first when a flock of greylag geese landed on the Aird Meadow loch and one of our regular birdwatching visitors commented that one of them looked unusual. On closer inspection it turned out to be a Taiga bean goose, and luckily a photographer was in the visitor centre with an incredibly long lens, and captured some excellent record shots of the bird.

The cold winter brought with it many species that we probably wouldn't normally see up close, and very large numbers of brambling were recorded over the winter months. Alongside them, at the feeders, were a number of redpolls, which are pretty common most years, but in amongst them was another first - a confirmed mealy redpoll. Lesser and mealy redpolls are pretty difficult to tell apart unless you see them side by side, and to prove we actually had one, that's exactly what we needed to show. We needed a picture showing the suspected mealy one next to a lesser redpoll. Luckily again, our star photographers were on the case and managed to do just that. Mealy redpoll = tick!

More recent records to bump up the numbers have included 3 tree sparrows, who hopped down to the feeding station for a quick bite before continuing onward with their journey - our first record on the reserve for 24 years! The most recent addition to the list was a bird that is probably pretty under-recorded - the woodcock - mostly because they are very secretive and like their diminutive cousins, snipe, you pretty much have to stand on them before they will fly away. Their camouflage is their best defence from predators, but obviously it wouldn't stop them from getting trampled!

So, all of these extra special highlights combined with the rest of our records from the year leave very few species that we might actually expect to find on the reserve before the 31st December, but there are three possibles that could make the year up to 120 species, and how brilliant would that be! So, get your ID books out, wrap up warm, grab your binoculars and help us to find:

Stonechat (likely to come down onto the Aird Meadow following a heavy snowfall up in the surrounding hills) www.rspb.org.uk/stonechat

Jack snipe (very similar to snipe but with some differences in the field) www.rspb.org.uk/jacksnipe

and, would you believe it, feral pigeon - a bird we very rarely see in Lochwinnoch village or on the reserve. Who'd have thought we be hoping for a feral pigeon on our list!

For most other species we've either missed our shot of seeing them this year (i.e. African migrants) or they are coastal birds and we'd need a really bad storm to blow them inland - not impossible but much less chance of these.

So, three birds to make us up to 120 species for the year - there's a challenge if ever I heard one!

- Paula

This wee guy sat on a tree for 5 minutes about 4 feet away. took picture on my mobile

Wildlife sightings at the reserve have continued to go from strength to strength over the past two weeks, with amazing otter sightings, once in 24 year sightings and the arrival of some of our first autumn and winter migrants.

Firstly, our autumn migrant species have started to arrive/pass through, with the first two whooper swans being seen near the beginning of October on Castle Semple loch, followed by a total of five on the 9th Oct (four on the reserve, the first for the season) then on the 12th October, we had 30 land very briefly on the Aird Meadow, before continuing on their journey. On the 13th and 14th we had our first fieldfares of the year, with 40 seen both days on the Aird Meadow. Our first redwing was also seen on the 13th along the Dubbs Water trail, but the most seen so far this month have been 14 birds on the Aird Meadow today (18th). We are also getting excellent numbers of duck arriving, with around 156 mallards today, up to 80 tufted ducks during the first few weeks of October with pochard, wigeon, teal and goldeneye all arriving in varying quantities.

Next, the fabulous otter sightings on the 8th October. A couple of our visitors were walking along the Dubbs Water trail and suddenly noticed not one, not two, not three but FOUR otters all swimming together! Amidst yells of 'otter!' and frantic scramblings, Mr Andy Stewart managed to get this picture:

Then, as if we hadn't had enough highlights on the reserve, on Sunday 16th Oct, Allan was in the visitor centre and noticed some rather unusual looking sparrows with a very distinctive black cheek spot and brown heads. Yes, you've guessed it, they were tree sparrows. Not only a rarity for this year but actually the first on the reserve since 1987, which our administration assistant commented was the year she was born! A total of four were seen at the feeders. Brilliant! 

Other highlights so far in October include:

A pintail on the 15th, a female hen harrier over the Barr Loch on the 13th and 16th, a kingfisher on the River Calder on the 5th, another jay sighting on the 6th, a male gadwall on the 10th and a female on the 18th. An immature/female shoveler on the Aird Meadow on the 18th. A pair of scaup on the 13th, 15th & 18th. A barn owl in the daytime on the 13th. 12 linnet and a single brambling on the 16th. A skylark on the 15th.

- Paula