November 08, 2004
The owl and the whooper swan
As per usual recently a fairly non-birding weekend, although to be fair things are winding down now and the expectation for rarities is tailing off. JL had a report of a grey shrike sp on Saturday, but couldn't locate the bird, and he's now away to the fishing again, so the island's coverage is dramatically reduced.
Did the Whooper Swan census yesterday, something which our island isn't renowned for producing great numbers - something about swans preferring a certain type of fresh water (oligotrophic/something-or-other-else-otrophic) - and our lochs are the wrong -otrophic. Anyway, science apart, managed a very respectable count of two family parties, one a pair of adults and three young, the other a single adult and two young. A 100% improvement on last year's total.
Yesterday produced a flurry of activity - my two Shetland ponies arrived for grazing and habitat management duties; my new cattle grid arrived to keep wandering sheep off my land (last winter roaming sheep tore down all my chicken fencing), and last but by no means least a dog-walk at dusk produced a Long-eared Owl being mobbed by two Hooded Crows in and around the plantation. Excellent views of this owl from the road as it jinked and swerved midair to avoid the harasment being dished out from the crows.
Have finally made the effort to put my scope with window mount in the car, so will now be able to go out gull/duck watching at lunchtimes for the winter. Surely can turn up a King Eider or similar around Lerwick?
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Posted by Stercorarius at November 8, 2004 09:46 AM
What are you some kind of asshole? This is a birding site. Not a place for your lazy ass way of advertising your sleazy law practice if you can call it that!!!
Posted by: Jj at November 12, 2004 07:01 PM