Wildlife watch Sights show the reserve is thriving
Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Falls of Clyde Wildlife Reserve Seasonal Ranger Sarah Cooper was happy to spot some wildlife while clearing paths on the reserve
Our team of hard-working volunteers were doing some path scraping on the Corehouse side of the river recently.
After the wet weather we had not long ago, the paths had become wet and muddy underfoot in places – hopefully now they should be much more pleasant to walk on!
Although we were working hard, we still managed to see some wildlife.
Our work was first interrupted by some very loud, croaky calls and when we squinted through the trees to see the culprits we found it was jays!
It’s not every day that we get to see a jay, so that was quite exciting.
There were actually four of them, and it seemed that one pair were having a bit of a squabble with the other pair.
Eventually the losing pair were chased upstream and the others returned to their perch, victorious.
We also saw a dipper very close to the jays, calling loudly, to add to the cacophony – perhaps the dipper was shouting at the jays to pipe down!
As if we hadn’t had enough drama for one day, we were taking a break to eat our lunch when we heard other birds starting to call.
At least two with highpitched calls were hiding in the canopy close to us – they were sparrowhawks!
Perhaps their presence explained why it went quiet all of a sudden.
As a bonus to our bird sightings throughout the day, we found a skull next to the path, which we believe was a goldcrest.
The goldcrest and firecrest are, together, the UK’S smallest birds.
As you may have guessed, the goldcrest has a bright yellow crest on its head, with the firecrest having more of an orange one.
It was wonderful to see such different species together on the reserve – a sure sign that wildlife is thriving here.