Natural environment

With the clocks changing last weekend it also marks a time of change on the Reserve. The Ospreys have now arrived back on the Bay and have already been seen fishing off Findhorn village.

In the last few days Sandwich Terns have also returned from their over-wintering grounds in southern Africa. Look out for them sitting on the buoys off the piers.

Out on the Bay numbers of waders are changing. Oystercatchers have started to move inland to their breeding sites, whereas Redshank numbers have gone up as birds moving north stop off on the Bay. A few days ago there were over 1000 feeding on the southern end of the bay. At this time of year we also get large numbers of Ringed Plover and Dunlin stopping off on their journey back to their breeding grounds in the north.

The Pink-footed Geese are still around with nearly 20,000 counted at the dawn roost a few days ago, and many stay here during the day feeding on the salt marsh around the southern end of the Bay. By the end of April most of them will have departed.

In the woods along the River Findhorn there are Chiffchaffs in good numbers singing along with many other woodland birds. It is also a good time to see some of the early flora coming up on the woodland floor before the leaves appear and shade everything out.

There are large areas of Dog’s Mercury, Few-flowered Garlic, Great Wood-rush as well as the first few flowers of Wood Anemone appearing. In amongst them are also some Lesser Celandine, Green Alkanet and Common Field Speedwell.

As well as these native plants in the woods, unfortunately there are also large patches of Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed just starting to appear. These non-native and highly invasive species grow rapidly and quickly crowd out our native plants. Much work is being done to try and eradicate them, but it is an enormous task in some of the woodlands along our rivers.

Numbers of Common and Grey Seals have steadily increased in recent years. They can be seen at their haul-outs near the mouth of the bay nearly every day. As a result of this increase Findhorn Bay is now a designated haul-out site.

Moray Council Ranger Service in conjunction with Scottish Natural Heritage have produced an information board which is being put on a number of the Nature Reserve signs near the mouth of the Bay.

The advice is to enjoy the seals from a good distance, but do not get too close and keep dogs under close control at all times.

Over the last couple of weeks many of the waders have started to return to the Bay. Over 300 Curlew are being counted and Oystercatcher numbers are up around the 400 mark. Many of these birds will have local breeding sites. Good numbers of Redshank are also being seen although they are a bit down from a peak of 600+ a week or so ago. Other waders around include Dunlin, Knot, Sanderling, Black and Bar-tailed Godwit, a couple of Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and a few returning Turnstone.

On the beach and offshore then Terns are the most numerous birds at present with 300+ Common Tern, 130 Arctic and even 14 Little Tern (including 2 juveniles) on the beach recently. It isn’t certain where these Little Tern will have come from as there are no known breeding sites in Moray at the moment.

On shore in the Reserve many of the spring flowers have now gone over, but the heather around the beach car park area is starting to look good and will continue to flower through August. The star plant in flower at the moment though is the Green-flowered Helleborine (Epipactis phyllanthes). This is a type of orchid and is a rare plant. The site on the edge of the Reserve is the only reported one in Scotland, so how it got all the way to Findhorn is a bit of a mystery.

With the cold weather of late April now over, the start of May has seen warmer and (some) sunnier days. As a result flowers are starting to bloom again and the first butterflies of spring have emerged. At the same time many of our over-wintering birds have moved on and summer visitors have arrived.

In the woods beside the River Findhorn in the SW corner of the Reserve many early flowering plants are coming out before the light gets crowded out by the leaf canopy of the woodland. These include the blues of Green Alkanet and Wood Forget-me-not as well as Cow Parsley, Greater Stitchwort and Wood Anemones. Butterflies that can be seen include Green-veined Whites and Speckled Woods.

The saltmarsh is relatively quiet at the moment, but plenty of Scurvy Grass is in flower and a few Ringlet butterflies can be spotted.

In the coastal heathland near the beach car park there is plenty in flower. Most obvious is the Whin or Gorse and the Broom which both provide a bright splash of yellow. Smaller plants include Birds-foot Trefoil, Common Dog Violet, Thrift and Common Storksbill. On sunny days Small Copper butterflies and Dingy Skippers can be seen on the wing. The Skipper is easily overlooked but is a relatively rare butterfly this far north in Britain.

Amongst the birds on the Reserve, many of the wildfowl on the Bay have now departed although there are still good numbers of waders which have stopped off at Findhorn on their way north to breeding grounds. Latest counts included 50 Bar-tailed Godwit, 450 Dunlin, 600+ Ringed Plover and 270+ Knot. Summer arrivals include Swallows, House and Sand Martins, as well as Blackcaps, Whitethroats, Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers. However the star bird is a Grasshopper Warbler which is offering fine views beside the B9011 to Findhorn just north of Kinloss village. If you do go and look for it, then take care with the traffic as it is a very busy road.

Two Snow Geese dropped into the Bay on 27 March. They were seen on the salt marsh at the southern end along with about 2300 Pink-foot Geese and one Barnacle Goose. They stayed around for much of the day before departing west. They may be the same birds that were recently sighted in the Inverness area.

Both birds whilst on the ground appeared to be of the “blue morph” variety with relatively dark plumage below white heads and necks. However, once they were airborne one of them showed extensive areas of white on the body indicating an intermediate form between a blue and white morph.

Snow Geese are only very occasional visitors to the bay and are often mixed in with the Pink-footed Geese. One of the last sightings had been a “white morph” variety in October 2015.

We have had good numbers of waders on the Bay this winter. Numbers of Knot have been particularly noteworthy with a flock of 2000+ seen quite regularly. At low tide they can often be seen on the sandbar just opposite the piers in Findhorn Village. Black-tailed Godwit have also been present all winter, although only in small numbers. It is only fairly recently that these have been overwintering and are still a scarce bird to see in northern Scotland over winter. Bar-tailed Godwits though are much more common along our coastline and there has been a group of 100+ on the bay quite frequently recently.

The other main species of waders on the Bay are Dunlin (1200+), Redshank (650+), Oystercatcher (1300+) and Curlew (3-400). Most of these species are best seen in the southern part of the Bay at low water, particularly near water channels. Curlew though will feed fairly widely across the Bay.

Other waders to look out for in smaller numbers include Golden Plover, Sanderling, Ringed Plover and Turnstone.

Changes in wader numbers will start to occur in mid March as many of the Dunlin will depart. Oystercatchers will also start to disperse to their breeding grounds along with Curlew and a little later Redshank. Around April we can also expect to see influxes of species like Knot, Golden Plover and Ringed Plover on their migrations north to their breeding grounds.