Stephen and Kate take a trip to RSPB Scotland's Lochwinnoch nature reserve. They're joined by Senior Conservation Officer Toby Wilson who has some tips for things to keep an eye out for as we head into winter. Warden Dan Snowdon shows off his new scrapes which are proving to be a home for all kinds of wildlife. The team also has all the latest nature news.
LINKS
If you want to see the scrapes at Lochwinnoch watch this video https://youtu.be/rChb6zIsFz8 This project is supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot. It’s also part of the wider Garnock Connections project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Find out more about the Birdcrime report here https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/BirdCrimeReportLaunched/
Info on the Nature of Scotland Awards https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/at-home-and-abroad/scotland/nature-of-scotland-awards/
Stephen and Kate take a trip to RSPB Scotland's Lochwinnoch nature reserve. They're joined by Senior Conservation Officer Toby Wilson who has some tips for things to keep an eye out for as we head into winter. Warden Dan Snowdon shows off his new scrapes which are proving to be a home for all kinds of wildlife. The team also has all the latest nature news.
LINKS
If you want to see the scrapes at Lochwinnoch watch this video https://youtu.be/rChb6zIsFz8 This project is supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot. It’s also part of the wider Garnock Connections project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Find out more about the Birdcrime report here https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/BirdCrimeReportLaunched/
Info on the Nature of Scotland Awards https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/at-home-and-abroad/scotland/nature-of-scotland-awards/
Intro 0:22
This is Nature News from RSPB Scotland.
Stephen Magee 0:34
Hello and welcome to our Podcast Nature News from RSPB Scotland. I'm Stephen Magee. This is where we bring you stories about nature, from global news to the little things we're noticing every day.
Kate Kirkwood 0:44
And I'm Kate Kirkwood. There's never been a time when staying in touch with nature and acting to protect it has been more important.
Stephen Magee 0:51
We are keen to hear your nature news. Whether it's the little moments you've experienced are your thoughts on the big issues affecting the planet. You can contact us on Twitter @RSPBScotland or you can email us at podcast.Scotland@RSPB.org.uk.
Kate Kirkwood 1:05
And please subscribe and leave us a review because helps other folk finders in the podcast jungle.
Stephen Magee 1:26
Hello, we are at Lochwinnoch.
Kate Kirkwood 1:30
First time for me, to my shame. This is my first trip.
Stephen Magee 1:34
It's a brilliant reserve. One of the nice things about lochwinnoch right is it's super easy to get here right there's a train station right beside it (you may hear a train at some point). It's easy to get to by road, right you know, there's the road right there, which you'll also be able to hear in the background. It's super central- in fact here's a train!
Train 1:50
Whooosh!
Stephen Magee 1:50
I love trains. It's one of those places, like, if you happen to live in central Scotland- super easy place to get to. And we are joined by senior Conservation Officer Toby Wilson. Hello Toby.
Toby Wilson 2:05
Hello. Thanks for having me.
Stephen Magee 2:06
So this is part of your patch, right?
Toby Wilson 2:08
It is yes, I don't manage it directly but very much part of our Central Scotland patch.
Stephen Magee 2:14
Right as ever, we start with our nature news. Kate?
Kate Kirkwood 2:17
Yeah, I've had a bit of a relocation so many of you will know that I have been a city dweller up until now. But I've moved out to a slightly more rural agricultural location. And of the many things that I've been going out and watching and looking at and seeing is that I've been listening to the Tawny Owls. So we have a pair of Tawny Owls. And the minute it starts to get dark, you can start to hear them calling. We've got a male and a female. So as I understand the male calls first, or the female calls first?
Toby Wilson 2:50
It actually can vary. So I think it's one of these things. It's always nice to have a hard and fast rule, but they're rarely is in nature. But yes, it's two different two different birds. Which is fantastic. Calling in the dark to each other. It's quite romantic, isn't it? You know, they can't see each other but they let out this so evocative noise.
Kate Kirkwood 3:10
Yeah, ours don't sound romantic. One is going I'm over here and the other one's going no, no, I'm over here. Come over.
Stephen Magee 3:17
Yeah, I have to say I did once camp underneath a tree that had one Tawny Owl in it, because they don't just twit twoo. They also go "EEECGH". And that Tawny Owl was sat in that tree all night right above my tent, and about every 30 seconds it would go "EEECGH" and it was less glamorous,
Kate Kirkwood 3:36
Nature's lovely, you just have to appreciate it.
Stephen Magee 3:38
Right Tawny Owls is good. My nature news is I was lucky enough to go down to Mersehead which in Dumfries and Galloway, one of our reserves down there, I was filming Barnacle Geese, and I saw a leucistic Barnacle Goose, which is a fancy word for a white one. So I don't know if you'll remember Sesame Street like one of these kids is not like the other? With the four boxes. This was like that, but turned up to 11 it was like 1999 black and white Barnacle Geese and one completely white one, but it was amazing to see.
Toby Wilson 4:10
And not self conscious about being different?
Stephen Magee 4:13
It seemed completely fine. It was just getting on with doing goose type stuff and didn't seem to feel it was left out. What about you, Toby?
Toby Wilson 4:21
So my nature news. Well, this time of year, everything can seem, sometimes a little bit bleak, you know all the leaves off the trees and everything. And everything can seem as if it's disappeared or died back, you get the birds out fine. But what I like doing, I've got an eight year old and a six year old and getting them out and looking under logs or stones and looking at the creepy crawlies. Going really down and getting on your hands and knees, and you can take from the initial appearance, there's nothing there, lift them up, and it's a little different world where you've got this centipedes and your millipedes and even your slugs all in this little microclimate under the rock. Always put them back very carefully after, you don't want to be crushing any of our creepy crawly friends,
Stephen Magee 5:04
I have to say I spent, I mean, my poor mum will testify to this, I spent almost all of my time between the ages of three and about eight doing exactly that just grubbing aboot.
Toby Wilson 5:19
It's important. Yeah, you've probably built up your immune system as well.
Kate Kirkwood 5:24
You don't have to handle them, you can just leave them where they are.
Stephen Magee 5:27
So it's not just about our nature news, it's also about things that are going on in the wider world as well. I have some good news to share from the wider world, which is I was lucky enough to go along to the Nature of Scotland Awards last week in Edinburgh, the first time it's been in person since COVID. It was a brilliant night, super glamorous, everybody dressed up. And the word inspirational is overused, right. But this was a genuinely inspirational night seeing all these projects, whether they're nominated or getting highly commended or winning awards. You're all doing brilliant stuff for nature, you know, and getting the recognition they deserve.
Kate Kirkwood 6:00
Absolutely. And it's such a great celebration as well. We don't always get to glam up, we're usually carting about and our wellies and our fleeces
Toby Wilson 6:10
As we are today.
Kate Kirkwood 6:11
I think it's just very nice to spend some time together with your colleagues, but also with other people who are passionate about the things that they do, and as you say, it's so inspirational, and always leaves me feeling really positive. Even if you can't get along to the awards hearing stories and watching short videos and hearing about the night really just fill you with joy at this time of year.
Stephen Magee 6:34
Right, on on the less positive side of human behaviour in relation to nature. The other big bit news of the past few weeks is the BirdCrime Report.
Kate Kirkwood 6:42
Yeah, it's really not very nice reading to be honest. And the reports of around 17 incidents in Scotland. It's just, it's, I mean, you kind of begin to despair a little bit with it. But I suppose the positive is that we are getting the reports we are getting investigations into these incidences. But I have to say one of the one of the more sad ones is about the the news of a poisoned Golden Eagle. And when you have these iconic birds, meeting their demise in such unfortunate ways...
Stephen Magee 7:15
Primarily to still have to, year after year after year, be producing BirdCrime Reports that, you know, it is dispiriting, but it's important work and all credit to the people, you know, our investigations team, investigations team more widely across RSPB across the UK, you know, all credit to them for the work they do. It's very difficult. On the more positive side in Scotland, at least, we do have the prospect of licencing for driven grouse shooting coming. And that will hopefully make a difference to this. But it's absolutely crucial that that commitment is delivered.
Toby Wilson 7:48
Absolutely. And we should have, as you say, Kate, left this in the past, you know, we shouldn't be dealing with this. You know, the overwhelming feeling across the population of the UK is this is abhorrent. And we shouldn't be doing this and is perpetrated by such a small, a tiny, group of individuals that the idea that we still should have to tolerate it is ridiculous.
Stephen Magee 8:19
We are here just to have a bit of chat, really, I think to be just about, like where we are with the seasons.
Kate Kirkwood 8:25
Exactly. Because things have been changing, haven't they? Been pretty damp and wet and miserable the last couple of days.
Stephen Magee 8:30
It is extremely damp and wet today, but at least it is a little bit colder.
Kate Kirkwood 8:34
Yes. Oh I don't know if you've seen it, but we've had frosts already. Yeah, really hard frosts.
Stephen Magee 8:40
We will talk about weather, we will talk about weather in a bit more detail later on. But Toby, what I really want to talk about is like, what kind of thing should folk be looking out for at this time of year?
Toby Wilson 8:51
Yeah, absolutely. Well it's a great time of year for movement. So we're in autumn, we're coming from autumn winter, this transition period. So you can see lots of things when you're out and about in the countryside, but even in your own garden. So I would say three things to look out for that I find exciting about this time of year. Firstly, if you're out and about anywhere near an estuary or big areas of farmland, watch out for these wonderful skeins of geese coming over and you'll see them in that V formation which is a classic formation. The most common ones if you're around kind of agricultural areas will be Pink-footed Geese, particularly in Scotland, you get large numbersof Pink-footed Geese coming in kind of autumn. And you'll hear them kind of "pinking" to each other as they're flying.
Kate Kirkwood 9:34
You often hear them coming before you see them, don't you.
Stephen Magee 9:36
My thing is, living in Edinburgh, you can go to put the bins out and you hear them.
Toby Wilson 9:41
Totally fantastic. And these birds tend to be, when you see them up in the air, they tend to be moving from their roosts, which is, when they tend to go it's largely at night, but where they go for a kind of some quiet time, to their feeding areas. So you'll see the roost could be, largely on estuaries, quiet areas where they can go and hunker down, they're not disturbed and they'll move to their feeding areas which often on, kind of, stubble fields, and that's where they really like, so you'll see them and that's when they're passing over. And sometimes it's great, particularly at dusk, and sometimes at dawn around the kind of, twilight period, that's when you'll get them. That's wonderful. So that's one of them, which is great. And the other thing, which is also kind of related to, kind of, twilight, it's really magical to go out at night, and you can sometimes hear this "tea, tea tea", and it's Redwings passing over. We get what's called, there's two, what we call our kind of winter thrushes.
Stephen Magee 10:31
Just to say for people Redwings are a thrush, they look a lot like thrush. Other they've got a red patch under the wing and a yellow stripe over the eye.
Toby Wilson 10:39
Yeah, so it's called a supercilium. But yeah, kind of essentially, kind of like an eye stripe. And a little bit smaller than Song Thush, and you tend to find them in flocks. And these tend to come over when it gets really cold in Scandinavia, and particularly, it's driven by berry crops. So when berry crops have run out, they get a bit hungry, and then they move over to Great Britain to Scotland and start looking for nice berries to eat. So you get the Redwings will come over, and they'll often migrate at night. So you won't be able to see them, you'll just hear them moving in the darkness above you, which is great. And they'll come, quite often, you'll get the Redwings, and then Fieldfares which are a bit bigger, greyer like a slightly different type of bird. But again, they're of these two, as I say, we call them the winter Thrushes, and they'll move in with us as well, kind of migrating during pretty much this time of year, kind of autumn. And then you'll see them a lot in winter. And sometimes if you're lucky, and you've got a big garden, and particularly if you've got lots of windfall apples left around, you'll see them in flocks, and they'll come and they like kind of slightly bigger open spaces. And you'll see them in in groups.
Kate Kirkwood 12:00
I know I've started seeing them. So I've had brief relocation into, sort of, more an agricultural area out of the city. And I can sort of usually tell whether it's a Fieldfare or a Redwing, I'm not quite sure when they're too far away. But they like the hawthorn berries on the fields and I saw a huge flock of them the other day when I was like walking the dog, and it's just, I was just like, I know what that is. I know it's one of two things, I was so excited because my bird ID is not the greatest.
Stephen Magee 12:15
But it's appropriate seasonal marker.
Toby Wilson 12:16
And they love the hedgerows as well. So absolutely. And this is why we always say to people, ranging from farms or even your own hedge, try and leave your hedge, don't cut your hedgerow too much! Leave those berries on because these birds, not just winter thrushes, but all blackbirds really need those those berriers. And then, perhaps closer to home, one of the things I think people really should keep an eye in any bits of woodland around kind of little scrubby areas is these wonderful flocks of tits. And you'll sometimes get Long-tailed Tits. As everyone knows, they're the ones that make everyone go "awww". The little fluff balls with the long tails.
Stephen and Kate 13:00
Flying teaspoons!
Toby Wilson 13:06
And quite often they're moving in family flocks, and they're very vocal, they love being together. And so they'll, kind of, call to each other kind of quite continuously. And so you think oh is that is that Long-tailed Tits, is it a family because they often move in families. But quite often you'll look up and actually there's a Blue Tit there, there's Great Tit there. And sometimes if you're lucky there's even a Goldcrest all moving in these little flocks. They're no longer territorial this time of year. So it's moving because the safety, you know, again, it's that classic, there's a number of eyes, so the so they can all look out. And they'll make like little alarm calls if you're approaching, but you'll see them moving and looking for little spiders and kind of little invertebrates in the trees, but moving as a little flock of mixed species.
Stephen Magee 13:49
Because I would say that is like a really noticeable thing about the changing seasons to me, but I always notice it through sound. So that's the first thing it's like, one of those big flocks of tits it's got Blue Tits in it and Coal Tits and Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits and all this stuff. It's just an awful lot of noise it comes to and then if you stand still it washes over you as they move through the stand of trees.
Toby Wilson 14:11
Yeah. And they can be quite confining, you know, they'll just move around doing their own thing and just moving through. And as I say it's like a little kind of-
Stephen Magee 14:11
We should say, confiding is, is a bit of a term of art, right? But essentially, it's fancy birder for you "doesn't run away".
Toby Wilson 14:25
Exactly, exactly that. They take you to their little world, which is always nice. So I think, you know, everyone sometimes thinks the trees look bit bare this time of year, and everything could look a bit bleak, but actually one of the things, in terms of seeing birds, it's obviously, without the leaves, birds are much more visible. And they know that as well, they know that they're more visible. So again, that's one of the reasons we think they move in these groups is because if they're out of the leaves, they haven't got any cover. So they're constantly having to watch out for predators. So that's another reason but yeah, keep your eye out for those particularly above you which is lovely.
Stephen Magee 15:08
Right, we've moved a little bit. We are in one of the hides looking out at some scrapes. Have I got that right? Dan are these scrapes?
Dan Snowdon 15:17
You have, yep. These are scrapes.
Stephen Magee 15:18
Okay. Dan is the warden here.
Dan Snowdon 15:20
I'm the warden, yeah.
Stephen Magee 15:21
Tell us about what we're looking at from the hide here. Because these aren't just any scrapes, right?
Dan Snowdon 15:28
They're not just any scrapes. So we're looking out over some really quite new habitat that we created in late 2021. And it was funded by the Scottish Government's nature restoration fund and delivered as part of a larger landscape scale project called Garnock Connections.
Stephen Magee 15:45
Yeah. Which is amazing. That's the whole catchment of the river Garnock, right?
Dan Snowdon 15:48
Yeah. And there was lots of habitat and heritage, kind of, projects delivered throughout the whole area all the way from here down to the coast. What we're looking at now is what we call a scrape. And that's really just a series of shallow depressions in the ground, that have shallow flooding, lots of wet edge, particularly for wader species to use. And as I say, they were delivered in late 2021. And they were successful immediately.
Stephen Magee 16:10
And Kate, for those who don't know what scrape is, what does it look like?
Kate Kirkwood 16:15
Well, some may describe it as a muddy puddle.
Stephen Magee 16:18
Yeah, because I think it looks like a series of big muddy puddles.
Kate Kirkwood 16:21
Big muddy puddles, very nice, muddy puddles. But no, what you can see is there are areas that have nice shallow pools, and then there's sort of muddy, gently sloping edges down towards the water, that are kind of all kind of churned up a little bit where you can see birds have been feeding, and then there's sort of grassy patches, and some reeds beginning to come through. But to the untrained eye, as I say, it looks a bit like a muddy puddle. But to me, someone who's learned about the importance of these wildlife and wetland scrapes, they are really beautiful.
Stephen Magee 16:55
And crucially, Toby, what does this look like to birds, the birds are meant to use it? What's the advantage of this for them from, a, like an ecological point of view?
Toby Wilson 17:03
This is like a restaurant to them. So this is an area where they come and they go on lots of lovely things to eat. So largely, there's a few things that make it good, and it is looking good. So credit to the reserves team here, are the birds that are generally attracted to these areas, or we're trying to attract these areas, like big open spaces. And the reason for that is they always have in mind that they're gonna get eaten. They don't like lots of trees and other cover around them. They like to be able to see what's around.
Stephen Magee 17:34
Because that might have like a Sparrowhawk in it?
Toby Wilson 17:36
Exactly. So that's where you create a scrape where there's big lines of sight, so they can see around them. And then what's really good is these, as Dan said, these shallow muddy pools where, what you want them to be able to do is access the food which is largely in the mud, or for some of the birds sitting like Wigeon, there'll be grazing birds as well. So there's sometimes grazers on these little grassy areas as well. But they want to be able to get into the shallow water, and the mud. And what they've done here beautifully is create that level of shallowness and open exposed mud.
Stephen Magee 18:09
Dan, since you did the work on this, what's turned up
Dan Snowdon 18:14
Loads of things, actually, more than we expected to be completely honest. So soon after it was done. The whole site was inundated with Snipes, which is a wader that we have all the time that we didn't normally see. We had hundreds of them feeding all over the mud, which was great. Then when we got into the spring, we had loads of breeding birds here we had Lapwing breeding, Little Ringed Plover breeding, which we'd never had before. And a whole series of new wader species that we've never really seen, the most exciting one of which was a Black-winged Stilt, which was only the 13th ever record for Scotland.
Stephen Magee 18:44
Yeah, just to be absolutely clear for everybody listening. That is a cracking bird to get here.
Kate Kirkwood 18:48
Absolutely stunning.
Toby Wilson 18:49
It looks very exotic.
Stephen Magee 18:50
They're crazy looking things, they've got these incredibly long legs, like Go Go Gadget giant legs? So stilts and then now, this time of year, what's using it now?
Dan Snowdon 19:05
Well the interesting thing about this time of year is that we're finding, not only are birds using it during the day, so we've got Lapwing, Snipe Greylag Geese in the area. Wigeon, like Toby mentioned grazing around the vegetation.
Stephen Magee 19:17
Top duck, Wigeon, if anybody wants to look up Wigeon, right, you know, gorgeous little guys little yellow splash of colour in their head, just really nice to see.
Dan Snowdon 19:25
But we're also finding, we had a suspicion that things were roosting here, because we could see droppings leftover in the morning. So we thought-
Stephen Magee 19:31
Your job's very glamorous isn't it?
Dan Snowdon 19:35
Well yeah... And so we stuck a trail camera out on a time lapse setting. And when we reviewed that in the morning, we could see that the scrape had been covered with hundreds of birds overnight, not a sign of them in the morning because they'd already left by the time we got in. But that's the other value of habitat like this ,is roosting space at night. So you might look at somewhere and think ah there's no wildlife on it, but that doesn't mean it's not teeming with wildlife at night.
Stephen Magee 19:58
Yeah, Toby. I remember when I was doing a bit of filming, I think it was here? No it was at (Loch) Leven, and chatting to the person who was looking after the ecology side of things there. She was saying, you have to think like a bird, not like a person. And that's kind of what this is, isn't is- by the way, as a rainbow comes, you know, in full focus in front of us absolutely gorgeous- And you have to think about it from, they might find uses for this that we haven't thought of.
Toby Wilson 20:27
Absolutely. Well, what again, I think, it's a very good point, because one of the things that we look at is, we just think about what it looks like, a lot of these birds will be touch feeders, as well. So actually, they'll be using their bills, they'll be probing into this soft mud and feeling their prey. So it won't be- some of them will be doing it by sight. But some of them will be doing it by literally, they'll have their bill in and they'll be going around and then they feel a response. So that means again, we can't see anything in it, but they will be able to look at it in as you say it a different way, or actually feel it in a different way.
Kate Kirkwood 21:01
Dear listeners, you should have just seen Stephen's face, sheer horror!
Stephen Magee 21:07
I'm just thinking about sticking your face into that stuff, and then feeling for little wiggly things is kind of cool though.
Kate Kirkwood 21:14
It's a bit like those party games that you play Halloween, when you stick your face in like cornflour or things like that.
Stephen Magee 21:22
Or the one where you had to you know, you'd always get like, bread with like syrup on it stuck to your face.
Kate Kirkwood 21:30
Oh, like a treacle scone?
Toby Wilson 21:33
That must be a Scottish thing. It's lucky dip. But instead of a little plastic toy for a prize, you get a worm.
Kate Kirkwood 21:40
Excellent.
Dan Snowdon 21:42
I've actually been joining in with the birds doing this over the summer. So we've been going out there, not sticking our faces in the mud, but we've been taking some mud and actually sifting through it to see what's in it, just to make sure there is some food in there.
Stephen Magee 21:54
And what've you found?
Dan Snowdon 21:55
Well, the main thing you're looking for is something called a bloodworm, which is a non-biting midge larvae. That's the favourite food and lots of wader species. So the assumption is, if you find lots of those, you're probably going to have a healthy area with lots of food. And we've been finding good numbers of those, which is a relief, to be honest.
Stephen Magee 22:11
Yeah. And actually, that's a really good way to think about this as well. It's like, when you do a bit of work, it's not finished, it's not locked off and done. It's constant looking at these kinds of habitats to make sure they're doing the job they're doing, right.
Dan Snowdon 22:26
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, nature really is attuned to dynamic changes, it's got to be the right kind of change, obviously. But if a habitat just stays static and stagnant, often it won't be as used by wildlife as if there was some small scale changes. So we will be going in and doing some small scale work on this probably every year, just to expose a bit more mud here. And maybe, you know, remove a bit of vegetation there and just keep it changing all the time.
Stephen Magee 22:51
It's amazing. It's not just a bit of mud.
Kate Kirkwood 22:53
No, just sitting here watching. We've got a heron.
Stephen Magee 22:58
Yeah Grey Heron there.
Dan Snowdon 22:59
There's a Wigeon at the back there as well.
Stephen Magee 23:00
There were Teal about earlier on, I can testify when I arrived here and got off the train I came out and had a quick look and a tonne of Mute Swans in the loch in the background.
Toby Wilson 23:09
I think just picking up on your point about change, I think it's also something to remember, as reserve managers is you can do a project and then think, okay, that's quite good, there's a bit of a response, but then you want to tweak it to make it better. And so a lot of the stuff that Dan will be doing is going Oh, that's good. You know, we brought birds in there. But I think we can do more, or I think, you know, we need to lower that bit there or expose a bit of mud there. And that will not only require their ongoing management, but also that kind of ongoing thinking of "I think this could be better.". And I think that drives a lot of the work we do.
Stephen Magee 23:43
Well Dan, thank you very much for showing it to us.
Dan Snowdon 23:45
Thank you.
Stephen Magee 23:57
So we have come down to one of the lochs at Lochwinnoch, Toby, what can you see?
Toby Wilson 24:04
So we got the Mew Swans most obviously. And essentially, they're the swans that people tend to see, you know, we call them Mute Swans, there's two types of swans we get, Whooper Swans that we tend to get about this time of year, actually, start arriving. But the ones that most people will see that we get all year round here are the Mute Swans big, essentially big, white and quiet, as the name would suggest, hence the Mute Swan. So it's got mute swans, we've got Mallard which is again, the classic duck.
Stephen Magee 24:33
That's your ducks in the park, right?
Kate Kirkwood 24:35
Common and garden duck.
Toby Wilson 24:38
Ah but nothing common about them! They are the common ones, but they are absolutely gorgeous, you know, male Mallard with this wonderful kind of green iridescence. It's so stunning but, and we've also got some Wigeon which are again slightly smaller than a Mallard and we tend to see them in Scotland in the winter, or kind of autumn and winter largely, and they are lovely kind of grey but with a kind of russet colour, and a lovely little kind of almost like mustard colour splash, you mentioned it earlier, on the head. So we've got those as well. I'm just having a look round.
Kate Kirkwood 25:14
I'm really enjoying watching the Mute Swans doing some synchronised swimming. They're dabbling. And they do this wonderful thing where obviously they're feeding off the bottom of the loch. But they've got their bottoms in the air, their tail feathers and their legs just gently paddling, I find it really, really pleasing to watch.
Stephen Magee 25:33
Watching them kind of floating along and preening at the same time is always very impressive.
Toby Wilson 25:39
And also on the loch, we've got a tern raft out, which was put out to try and attract nesting, or kind of, breeding terns and during the spring. But in the winter, it's been used as a bit of a roost or kind of loafing area. And that's just where they essentially birds go up to have a bit of a rest.
Stephen Magee 25:57
Is loafing area a technical term?
Toby Wilson 26:00
Loafing area is a technical term it's like a kind of teenager loafing around but this is what they're doing, so roosting, there's not much difference between the two of them. But roosting often is when they're kind of semi asleep. Whereas loafing is just when they're pottering around getting the energy, when it's a bit cold to be out, or, yeah, they're just building up the reserves to go out and then start feeding.
Stephen Magee 26:19
As my teenage children would be mortified to hear me say just chillin, just chilling.
Toby Wilson 26:26
So a Cormorant is out there chilling on the tern raft.
Stephen Magee 26:28
Excellent. I think, because one of the reasons I wanted to come down to Lochwinnoch. Right, was, you know, to talk about seasonal stuff. And we have seen like, you know, we've seen, you know, ducks that you only really get here in the winter and all that kind of stuff. You know, there were some birds that we did see in the feeders earlier on and stuff but actually, the thing I'm coming away with more than anything else is like, compared to a lot of the reserves, that RSPB Scotland's got, you know, compared to like Abernethy oup in the Cairngorms or something, Lochwinnoch is quite compact, right? It's not a massive reserve, but it is doing a huge amount with the footprint it's got.
Toby Wilson 27:04
Absolutely, it's got, and I think one of the things that helps with that is when you've got variety of habitats, so you've got some open water habitats which are great for the ducks, and we talked earlier about the scrapes and they're the kind of muddy puddles that we talked about which are really good for waders like the Snipe, and Lapwing, and, and other birds that are kind of wader species, but we've also got a bit of woodland here again, and that's where you get the, you know, the range of what we call passerines, so perching birds, so the tits, the Bullfinches, you know. So it's that mix of habitats that makes it- gives us that range of species that are brought in.
Stephen Magee 27:43
It's also what makes it a nice place to spend time as a person.
Kate Kirkwood 27:47
Absolutely. I think I'm a big fan of water. So anything that's got a water body. It's just very, very pleasing to just sit and watch. And it's so calming. And even though you can hear the train line and you can hear the road. And occasionally the the occasional plane going over from Glasgow Airport or from Prestwick. And it's just very calming, isn't it?
Toby Wilson 28:10
It is very good. I mean, 20 minutes on the train. 25 minutes on the train from Glasgow and you're out here.
Stephen Magee 28:16
If you needed any more incentive than that to visit, I can't think of it. Toby, thank you for showing us about today.
Toby Wilson 28:22
It's been a pleasure. Thanks very much for having me.
Stephen Magee 28:25
Now, don't forget. If you want to get in touch for any reason, let us know, you know, which bodies of water make you peaceful or anything else. You can get in touch with us on Twitter @RSPBScotland or you can email us at podcast.Scotland@rspb.org.uk.
Kate Kirkwood 28:42
And as always like and subscribe and share with all your friends and family. It helps people find us in the podcast jungle.
Stephen Magee 28:49
It does indeed. I think we will be back sometime in December with a look back at the year. Yeah, looking forward to looking back. But until then, thank you very much for listening and goodbye.
Kate Kirkwood 29:00
Bye