Vane Farm Visit

 

It's been a while since I last visited Vane Farm (aka RSPB Loch Leven) nature reserve in Fife and I can't really think why I left it so long. It is a great reserve with lots of different habitats and less than twenty minutes drive from my house.
Anyway on a bright sunny day last week I took a little trip to Vane Farm, armed with my binoculars, telescope, camcorder and a small camera (plus a packed lunch of course........even though they have a good café at the reserve).
It was mid morning when I got there and I headed straight to the hides down by Loch Leven, surprisingly I had the place to myself. I went into the first hide and had a scan over the loch, however apart from a few ducks that were quite far away there did not appear much to see, so I moved on.
I had a quick scan over the ponds outside the first hide just in case there were some dragonflies or damselflies about but no joy so  had to content myself with watching a few whirligig beetles, pond skaters and sticklebacks in the pond for a few minutes before moving on.
As I walked along the path towards the second hide I thought to myself "what a wonderful day".......it was sunny, the insects were buzzing about, swallows were swooping around, finches were chirping in the meadows........so I took a picture:

Path to the Hides at Vane Farm

As I moved along the path I noticed a couple of swallows had perched up on the wooden fence, busily preening, totally oblivious of my presence.......then one noticed me and flew off, whilst the other ignored me and posed for the camera:


Two Swallows Preening

Then there was one

Swallow Posing

Just before I got to the second hide I heard a Sedge Warbler singing away, belting out its scratchy tune. I checked the top of posts and bushes for the bird (as that's usually where you'll find them) and spotted it on top of a willowherb plant. I did not want to get too close in case I scared it off and hoped that it would stay there until I got my camcorder out.................and it did, so turn up the sound for this one:

As you may have noticed the Sedge Warbler was trying to catch bees that were visiting the flowers.......and singing at the same time, that's multi-tasking!!
I left the Sedge Warbler which was still singing away when I approached the second of the three hides. I noticed the hide door was open, which was unusual as nobody else was about, and as I entered the hide I noticed a bird perched in the corner which was trying desperately to fly out through the closed windows. It was a Pied Wagtail and it looked as though it had been in there for a while and was pretty stressed. It did not want to fly out the door and kept trying to get out of the closed windows so I put down my camcorder then tried to open a window for the bird to leave. Of course it would not go past me to the open window so I had to prop it open and step back:

 

With the Wagtail free I could sit down and get on with my bird watching.....well I could have if there were any birds to see!! Apart from a Heron in the distance and a very tired looking Pied Wagtail there was very little to see from this hide, so I moved on to the next hide.
As I approached the third hide (known as the Carden hide) which overlooks a large wader scrape I could see that it looked much more interesting with a large number of waders gathered on a small spit of land:

Approaching the Carden Hide

Once in the hide the first thing that caught my eye was a Grey Heron busily fishing at the side of the hide.....I grabbed a quick snap with my little camera:

Grey Heron

I then turned my attention to the line of waders a little further out on this little spit of land poking into the water of the scrape. With my binoculars they all looked like Curlew so I set up my telescope to get a better look:

View from Carden Hide

 As I scanned along the waders I noticed that one was definitely not a Curlew, it was far too dark and had the wrong shaped beak..............it was in fact a Glossy Ibis!!
I had heard that one had been seen in the area but I had sort of forgot about it until now. This is a bird that is normally on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, etc. not Loch Leven. I know they can occasional be seen down in the south coast of England but in Scotland they are quite rare.
Unfortunately it was a bit far out for my little camera but I did manage to get it on my camcorder (watch out for the aerial mastery of a swallow having a drink at the start of the clip):

 It's not the best video of a Glossy Ibis and doesn't really show off the iridescent colours of the bird's plumage but it was the best I could achieve at the time.
I was then joined in the hide by a very pleasant family who later told me that they were up visiting Scotland from St Albans. They were very excited about seeing the Glossy Ibis and made good use of my telescope. They said that they had a friend who was a keen birdwatcher and that he would not believe them when they tell him they have seen a Glossy Ibis in Scotland.
Well I can confirm that this family from St Albans most definitely saw a Glossy Ibis in Scotland:

Glossy Ibis spotters from St Albans

When I said that the previous clip was the best video of a Glossy Ibis I could get, that might not been quite right because the bird took flight and moved a little closer to the hide to feed (but not much). You can judge for yourselves if these clips are any better:

The Ibis flew into the long grass.......... so after a quick bite of lunch I decided it was time to move on myself.
On the way back from the hides I took a slight detour through a wildflower meadow and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of lovely plants that were there:

Path through Wildflower Meadow

Wildfllowers in Meadow

 I think I managed to identify a few of the more obvious wild flowers (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong):


Field Scabious

Viper's Bugloss (sorry about the shadow)

Cornflower



Bird's Foot Trefoil and Tufted Vetch

Grasses in Wildflower Meadow

Large White leaving Hardhead (Black Knapweed)

 As well as all the wild flowers attracting insects and butterflies, the birds were attracted by the insects and the seeds from the grasses. So the skies above the meadow were full of Swallows and occasionally I would disturb a small flock of finches which were feeding in amongst the grasses. They would fly off, chirping as they go, swirl around then land within the long grass a few yards further away. It was a very pleasant walk through the meadow and highly recommended.
I strolled back to the RSPB Centre and had a refreshing tub of ice-cream from the café before continuing with the next part of my trip. Heading in the opposite direction from the hides and the loch you can take a path that winds its way through woodlands up the side of Benarty Hill until you eventually reach the summit. From here you can get a fantastic view back down to the loch with the whole reserve laid out in front of you. That was my aim but with the very hot weather I wasn't too sure I would make it to the top.


Hillside Path

As I walked along an open part of the hillside path I was being 'buzzed' by a large Dragonfly that kept darting over my head then flying away, only to return a few seconds later to buzz me again. I tried to capture this crazy creature on camera but it was far too fast, super-charged by the sun's rays. I also tried to film it with my camcorder but this also proved very difficult. Here are the few clips I got (I apologise in advance for the quality) I have slowed the video down to a quarter of the actual speed in the hope that you can see the Dragonfly:

The Dragonfly finally gave up and I continued on my way up the hillside path. I passed through some pretty woodlands, where the dappled sunlight made for some nice photographs:

 

Bridge across the Burn



Path Through the Woods

From up here you could clearly see the wader scrape in front of the Carden hide where I had previously spotted the Glossy Ibis:

Wader Scrape from Benarty Hill

I continued to climb the hill up through the woodlands but it seemed to be getting even hotter than before and I had to make a decision on whether to continue or not. I knew that the final climb up the hill was not in the shade of woodlands but across a gorse and bracken moor and decided that it would be best to leave it to another (cooler) day, so I chickened out and started to head back down the hill.
I like to keep an eye out for 'quirky' things and on the way down I found a couple of items that took my fancy........ a mossy log (great habitat for beasties) and a bit of natural sculpture (with a little help from a chainsaw):

I love mossy logs

Natural sculpture (maybe Honey Badger?)

When I am out for a walk I prefer to go back a different route than the one I came so I could not refuse the following offer:

Right up my street

Of course I went off the beaten track, and it was a pleasant walk through more dappled woods with some woodland flowers on view:

Dappled Woodland



Foxglove

Track unbeaten

This track took me safely back down to the RSPB Centre and I had a quick look round the shop (eying up the expensive binoculars which I can not afford) before heading back to my car.
On the way home I drove up and over the Cleish Hills road which afforded me a spectacular view back towards Loch Leven:

Loch Leven from Cleish Hills

I really enjoyed my day at RSPB Loch Leven and this time I promised myself that I would not leave it too long before I returned..........after all I still have to finish climbing Benarty Hill

Take Care

TeddyEdward