One of northeast Scotland’s top wildlife watching sites is sporting a new bird hide in time for summer. Forvie national nature reserve, just north of Aberdeen, is famous for wading birds and geese.
The hide overlooks the Ythan estuary at Waulkmill, a vast area of mudflats, reed beds and nearby fields. Recent counts have found over 22,000 pink-footed geese use the estuary and nearby fields. Visitors also often see large numbers of other birds like lapwing, golden plover and redshank.
One of the reasons the hide’s location is terrific for bird-watching is the mud: the mud in front of the hide is vital to the food web of the Ythan estuary. It contains millions of tiny shrimps, worms and snails that are a vital source of food for migrating and overwintering birds.
Forvie reserve manager, Annabel Drysdale, said: “The hide is now really comfortable and light and airy inside. It’s a great spot for people to view the thousands of birds, including ospreys, which come to the Ythan every year.”
The new hide replaces one originally installed by the local council which was popular with visitors for many years. SNH, which manages the reserve, has now taken over looking after the hide.
The dunes of Forvie stretch along the North Sea coast. Lapping against the sand, the Ythan estuary runs along the edge of the reserve and is home to the largest colony of breeding eider ducks in the UK. Bird life is plentiful with the summer acrobatics of diving terns or the determined stabbing of the carrot-coloured beaks of wading oystercatchers, while inquisitive seals can be seen further out in the water. Full details of a walk around Ythan Estuary and Forvie Sands can be found on Walkhighlands.co.uk.