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| TOTAL UNBIRD. | ||
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| Would you rather eat a muffin or meet a puffin? | ||
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| On the way to purchase the Sunday newspapers this morning, I heard a piercing cry. Expecting some kind of Sparrowhawk, I was astonished when I saw the magnificent sight of the mighty Unbelievable Falcon swooping down with a earnestly struggling Underhen captured in its beak. I grabbed the camera from my manbag and snapped a terrific pic! But it didn't end there. The screeching Underhen was not going to lie down and take this - oh no! Its crazy hollers had alerted some cousins, and things suddenly looked rather ominous for the Falcon for on the horizon a vast army of Royal Underhens began a terrifying offensive. WOW! My camera was at the ready! Then all of a sudden there was another cry - a crass, ugly, ungainly yell - and from above a dirty gull flew down and stole my camera. Oh no! And it was then that I woke up, all greasy and sweaty, to the sound of gulls fighting outside. It was just a dream, oh my. But what a start to the day! | ||
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I've not been able to do much birding recently. This isn't because I'm watching the World Cup (birding is always more exciting than the World Cup of course!) but because my busy job as a pioneering engineer at the cutting edge of acoustic technology has taken much of my time. So so busy... no time to just sit around drinking tea at my workplace! Being the midsummer season, migratory birds are at a low ebb in NE Scotland, so I've only been seeing gulls, pigeons, common birds and the like. I thought I spotted a Ruddy Eared Owl resting on a post, but it turned out to be a trick of the light. I did manage to get a terrific close-up look at some nesting Grey Beaked Spallies not 1200 yards from my front door and spent some time weighing the chicks while the mother was gathering twigs. Each chick weighed just 12 grams. There's great excitement ahead though. Next week I travel to Germany to do a week of hardcore birding. I'm going to the Black Forest to try and see some Dull Treecreepers and Yellow Twist Swifts. More significant, strong rumours abound that a pair of non-native Pig Owls will be paying a visit. The Pig Owl - which hasn't been seen in the UK since 1979 (coincidentally, two years after George Lucas' "Star Wars" movie was first released) - is so-called due to the unusual markings on its beak which gives the appearance of a pig's snout. Some maverick birders claim the Asian variety have actual pig snouts in place of the beak! Imagine! So a fun week of birding from the middle of next week. It turns out that Germany is also hosting this accursed World Cup, but what does a dedicated birder like me care for such frivolity? | ||
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| I saw some gulls today. | ||
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| I was supposed to be going to Texas, USA tomorrow to explore for oil but because my driving licence has gone missing I can't. Although the trip away would have been good experience and helpful financially, it would also have meant missing lots of World Cup games and seeing really boring birds (just gulls and ptarmigans really), so I'm quite relieved. I spent most of day - when not working incredibly hard - dreaming of underhens. It's a classic. None have ever made it up to the north before, but Surrey had some prolonged sightings in 1988. Of course, in 1988 I was just a small boy aged 10 years and I didnae live in Surrey so I wasn't one of the lucky ones who got to see the gliding motions of this gilt-edged daffodil of the skies. I've seen the photographs though. One day, one day, I will see an underhen. Oh boy, what a day that will be. | ||
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| I was back in Dingwall for a day, to pick up some things from my mother's house and also - and more importantly - to see some of the birdlife up there. For years my mother's house was a no-go area for birds as for 15 years she had a massive black cat called Linford, who prowled on all wildlife in the vicinity. He killed anything that came near him, including an entire bird's nest with eggs, and a rare species that I can't actually mention for fear of getting in trouble with the RSPB. But he's gone now leaving my mother with just a single cat - a weak and timid female who poses no threat to visiting birds, and my mother now enjoys feeding the birds and watching them skip, hop and jump in her garden. It also gives me the chance to see "what's goin' down in Dingwall!" Well, plenty of blackbirds, common birds, puffing billbirds and sparrows as you would imagine, but I also got a terrific sighting of a Lady Jane Warbler, better known in countryside circles as a hedge warbler (but try telling Lewy that). Last year all that would have remained would have been its blood-soaked feathers as its body digested in Linford's stomach, but this year it was free to chirrup its famous singsong. Thank God for my mother's cat dying! I'm back in Aberdeen and happened to meet Lewy last night, along with his French bird. I tell you, Lewy better keep an eye on his French bird because like all birds I've got my keen eye on her. Oh yeah! | ||
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I have a beautiful photo of the thrush seen in my last entry (i.e. the exciting quiz I set) but I haven't figured out how to put it onto the computer yet. Hopefully soon!
It's been a disappointing few days birdwise, because my trip to Norway has been cancelled due to a dry hole (don't ask). While this is nice because I'll get to a watch the World Cup on Justin James Green's large new TV while drinking beer, but a shame that Norway's rich variety of birdlife will have to be spotted another time. A warmer day today, hopefully a good start to June after a dismal May, but the downside of this was that our units in our workplace were filled with pesky Blinkyflies. What awful pests these Blinkyflies are - always in your face and just being a general annoyance. So, no birds today - just Blinkyflies! | ||
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| Just for a bit of fun, can you guess what bird I saw today? I'll give you a clue. It was a small bird, uncommon, not seen usually in either the Ythan or Girdleness, is migratory and has a yellow-orange beak speckled in black, a green crest with green-blue wings, is streamlined with the wind and appears high up on the Royal Bird Index. Can you guess it? | ||
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| I thought I saw a starling today, but I was mistaken. | ||
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My mother was visiting for the day as she is hoping to buy a flat in Aberdeen so was viewing five properties. I came along to help, because as well as being a skilled engineer in the oil industry I am also involved in the property business and own two deluxe city centre properties. In fact, one overlooks Morrison's car park and Lewy is deeply jealous of the views of gulls and sandwiches I get from my kitchen window. Anyway, our flat hunting took us far and wide and by golly if I wasn't going to use this as an opportunity to spy birds in areas I don't usually find myself. Well, let me tell you that today did not disappoint. Finches galore! No Elder Finches of course, but another Double Back, a superb Reverse Twist Finch hippity-hopping across a lawn, and soaring over a patch of open land I'll be darned if I didn't spot the tell-tale yellow pinstripes of a plucky Ragbob Pine Finch. Who says the Pine Finches are only seen in West County marshes? So I've had finches coming out of my ears today - what a day! | ||
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I've been told that I'll be going to Norway in less than a couple of weeks, for my glamorous engineering career in oil exploration using pioneering acoustic technology, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to see some birds that you'd not usually expect to see around Aberdeen. So in between the vital pressure-testing on equipment conducted today, I did some serious reading on birds (and listening to the appropriate bird sound CDs too naturally). I'm most hoping to see the Stavangar White Pigeon, which is common just inland of the fjords, and if I'm lucky I may be able to make a visit to the famous Norwegian pine forests to get a glimpse of the rare Staring Owl, an owl whose stare is said in folklore to turn Norwegian children to real ice. Scary stuff! Who says birding is a walk in the park? | ||
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I met my friend and rival Lewy last night. He was lording over all the different types of birds he's seen recently, many of which I find to be suspect. I also think his methods potentially endanger nesting species more than they protect. His netting and capturing technique leaves a lot to be desired.
It's been a slow day. Some gulls were behaving strangely and I though perhaps a King-Beaked Hi-Falcon might have been disrupting them, but it turned out just to be the binmen. | ||
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| Until I get a car - hopefully within a couple of weeks - I have to take the bus home, or more often catch a lift from a workmate. Today my usual lift was going somewhere other than the city centre and I finished at a time that meant I'd have to wait about 50 minutes for my bus, so I took a short walk to the airport in the hope of catching a different bus to the city centre. How fortunate I did! While crossing a muddy car park in the industrial hinterlands north of Aberdeen, I chanced upon a blackbird (common Garden variety) being chased by a Under-Sandwich Oystercatcher. These two birds are not mates, but neither is the Oystercatcher a predator of blackbird, so I imagine they must have been playing. How lovely. I could have watched this delightful scene for hours, but I'm a busy man. Busy, unlike my friend Lewy. He's a professional birder and gets to spend all his time looking for birds. But soon I'll be working abroad and seeing peculiar birds he could only ever dream of! | ||
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| I play poker most Mondays, and tonight poker was held at a friend's flat. This friend has three cats, which is not bird-friendly as you might imagine! Tonight seemed an especially bright night and so when I was unfortunately knocked out of the game quite early on (my opponent caught a flush on the river when I'd had a straight on the flop) I took the opportunity to gaze out of his top floor window a while. Plenty of gulls and common birds, but a moment of excitement when I thought I'd heard the whooping cry of a Seacrest Twist-Wren. Could it be? Well no, it was just a false alarm of course. What would a Seacreat Twist-Wren (or any kind of Twist-Wren) be doing in the north in May?! Silly me! | ||
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| I've been busy as a moorhen the last couple of days, so free time has been at a premium. I own a flat on King Street that I'm preparing to rent out, but before this is possible it needs to be fixed and readied Most of this has been done, but the last couple of weeks have been especially busy, in combo with my new engineering job, so my main love of birding has suffered somewhat. Fortunately though, my King Street flat affords a great view of sea birds, and the variety of gulls observed is astounding! My friend, and rival, Lewy claims he saw a Blackened Spygull! However, he frequently lies. Today was a leaving night for a good friend of mine, Sandy. This involved dinner, in which I ate pheasant (exact species unspecified, though I suspect a common Garden Pheasant). But of great note was the excellent spotting of the now very rare Winchester Swallow. This ungainly creature was hovering around our restaurant as if unsure what to do with itself. Unfortunately, some other common birds starrted bullying it, and it flew away scared. Still, that makes bird 134 this year. That;s 7 more than Lewy! | ||
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| As everyone will know, my favourite among all bird life are owls. Owls are majestic creatures: fantastic paragons of terror and wisdom. Did you know that they can turn their head a full 360 degrees? By strange coincidence, I can also jump a full 360 degrees. I didn't see any owls today, but I did see Barcelona beat Arsenal 2-1. | ||
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| Today I had the pleasure of seeing a Moldovan Powersparrow. A real Moldovan! Quite by chance too, as I was on the 8.15am no. 27 bus to the airport, I was dreamily gazing through the steam-glazed windows, as I usually do in the mornings (more due to tiredness than actual birdspotting if truth be told). And lo and behold, within a messy thicket by the roadside, where one would usually expect to spy a falcon or a gull, there my little Moldovan was. Spry little fellow, he was hopping along a log, unaware of my watching eyes. The rest of my day was spent indoors, testing gauges and acoustic transmitters, so nothing to do with birds obviously! There being no windows, I didn't even have a chance for a lucky spot, and at lunch all I managed to see were common birds. Pah. But once I'm travelling the world and going offshore, then I'll be seeing all kinds of exotic birds. Good times ahead! | ||
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| After some drinking last night, it was a slow and lazy morning of newspapers, orange juice and two bars of chocolate (a Boost bar and Munchies). To be honest, I quite relished the prospect of making this morning an example for the rest of my day, but I had an appointment with two non bird-watching friends (yes, I do have some!), Rosie and Becky. They wanted to visit a location near Colliestion called Old Slains Castle, a location of special interest for me as it is a known haunt of many sea-birds, including the Elder Finch!
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