Vane Farm - Fife

27th December 2011

Ah well Xmas been and gone, and the turkey sandwiches starting to lose their attraction. Time to get out and about, I decided. All was quiet in the 'shire so I thought I would head over to Vane Farm for a look and see if the White Tailed Eagles were still there.

On arrival I had a quick chat with one of the volunteers who let me know that they had been seen frequently on St. Serfs Island, which isn't that far from the bank anyway. Usual cup of tea and a scone to start the day, and there from the viewing galleries were the two White Tailed Eagles for all to see!

After a while they took off to their respective tree tops.

Another piece of news on my arrival was the presence of Smew in the bay, and sure enough there were a couple there. They are a lovely bird to look at and the plumage was in surprisingly good condition for the time of year

I walked down to the far hide but the only real activity was from 100+ Black headed Gulls

and the ever present Grey Heron, which played hide and seek in and out of a trench for a while

A few Wigeon appeared in the bay

and Teal, as always, were present

Going back towards the main hide there was even a Lesser Redpoll sitting enjoying the calm, frost free morning.

Back on the feed tree there was the obligatory collection of Goldfinch, Greenfinch and a Robin helping themselves to the nuts, seeds and suet balls put out by the RSPB volunteers

Other than the usual Curlew, Whoopers, Mallard, Greylags and Moorhens that frequent the place, the only other bird of note, on the day was a solitary Dunnock that appeared to delight some children nearby.

Back to the first hide for another look at the Smew, and the White Tailed Eagle, then home for lunch.

All in all a good day

Vane Farm

11th December 2012

Well the twitter lines were alive with the fact that the White Tailed Sea Eagle had returned to the RSPB reserve at Vane Farm, so gear was packed on Friday night ready for a trip out.

Up on Saturday morning to a fine but slippy covering of snow in the 'shire meant the journey took longer that usual for safety reasons. On arriving at Vane Farm, the teas shop discussion was centred around the White Tail and its return. Sadly, there was quite a thick fog hanging over Loch Leven making any viewing, even from the observation deck almost a waste of time.

Fortified by tea and home made scones I decided to walk down to the newly refurbished 3rd hide, both for a nosy, and also to see if thw Eagle was there, as that had been its last known location.

As I wandered down and over the new bridge to the hide, I couldn't believe my eyes when sitting 20m from me, on a little raised patch of land was the very bird. Its head swivelled round and it fixed me with its beady eyes. I stood holding my breath, scared to move, or even get my camera or binos out in case I scared it.

After about 5 minutes, a few swans flapped overhead and spooked the bird, which took off into the mist.

(c) Wikipedia

I went down to the hide but didn't see it again

The mist came and went, going from impenetrable to hardly wort seeing and all that was there to be seen was a couple of Whooper Swans

a few Curlew not up to much

and not much else.

I wandered back up to the other hides, only seeing a single Grey Heron

At the last hide I couldn't see anything at all, other than the usual greenfinch and chaffinch feeding on the feeders, but did speak to an interesting lady who is finishing off a photography course, and doing a photo-documentary of Vane farm. Some of her work can be found on Linda Reid Photography, on Facebook, and are definitely worth a look.

Well that was that for the day and a trip through the RSPB shop brought great excitement when I shared the news of my sighting, bringing on tweets from @Caroline_Rance, and also announced by me on @WL_Birder

All in all a quiet day but entirely worth it. Hopefully I will get to see it in better conditions and get a few decent photographs of my own.