In total, 11 species today. (well, 13 if you include the dead starling, and the soon to be dead racing pigeon!). All the usual stuff, and a pair of curlews moving south in the morning. The only other thing of any note at all, was a squashed up moth that was one of those yellow underwing things. I'll plump for lesser yellow underwing, cos its the only one I can remember at the moment.
Finally, I've made it offshore for June!! Bit of a relief getting out here eventually, but the euphoria soon waned, as soon as i started seawatching. Nothing more to report than a few great and arctic skuas, one of which came extremely close to the side of the rig, giving great close ups. As is sometimes the case out here, my “work” can be distracted by slight movements in my periferal vision, as I look down the scope. These are moments of great excitement for me, as they indicate the presence of a passerine on the rig. So, when it happened today, i was rather disappointed to look down and see a racing pigeon plodding about at my feet! I was going to grab it and see if the chef could do anything with it, but it proved a little too nimble for me. So I had to make do with scampi.
A quick and enjoyable trip to donmouth today, where wader passage seems finally to be under way, with groups of 6 Curlew and 10 Dunlin hanging around, and lots of terns, kittiwakes, and other stuff offshore. Had a lot of fun playing around with the new toy, with varying results. This Reed bunting allowed a close aproach, and this partially albino pied wagtail, with an almost pure white tail was on show.
What a wonderfully beautiful hot hot day! Back to the Yellowhammers, at Kinmuck, where the birdlife was predictable, and the highlight was a hatch of Ringlets. This is probably not a particularly rare butterfly, but Kinmuck is the site where I saw my first ones last year, and remains the only place I have ever seen them. I tried to get a picture with the new fangled digital camera I bought the other day, but to no avail….so no pretty pictures to look at yet!
Oh, dear neglected blog, what have you missed over the last few weeks?
Well, not a lot, to be perfectly honest…..we took some time off from
the yellowhammers, as there would have been a very quiet period when
the birds were inbetween broods. We have been to the field sites a
couple of times, and have started to find nests again, so things should
be back to normal soon. We also headed out to the Ythan a few times,
but it has been extremely dull. Until today.
Having spent the last two days waiting for a helicopter to take
me offshore, which never came because of the fog out to sea, I had
become a little restless, to say the least!! Claire immediately
remedied this by picking me up from the Heliport and zooming me off to
Newmacher, to see the resident Common rosefinch. What a stonker! It
took a little time to catch up with, but was well worth the wait.
Unfortunately, the bird didn't sing, but thats a minor quibble really,
as it showed really well. Did i mention the fact that it was completely
stonking?!!
Needless to say that was the perfect tonic. We had to get back to
town, as we had a game of badminton planned, so off we went, and were
soon enjoying a game in the west end of town. One hour ( and about 3
pints of sweat) later, we were heading home, when I noticed a strange
silhouette drifting over the road…….fortunately, we managed to
drive right underneath it, but by then, I already knew it was a Hobby!
A great bird for up here, and a NE Scotland tick for me ( the second of
the day!) It was a great surprise, but in pounding the dashboard in
celebration I almost set the airbag off!
All we needed to end the pefect day would be for France to beat
Portugal in the semi final! What have I done to deserve this luck?
On thursday, we ( Claire, Dave and I ) went up a great big hill in search of some high level stuff. Unfortunately, we missed our main quarry, which was Dotterel, but had a great day all the same. It was a lovely hot day, with barely a cloud in the sky, and the views were absolutely stunning. The long and reasonably arduous climb produced the mid level goodies, like Red grouse and Ring ouzel, and up on the top, despite the very small numbers of birds, we still got Raven, ( feeding young ), Golden plover, and, thanks to Claires eagle eyes, cracking views of a female Ptarmigan. The Ptarmigan, full of faith in its camouflage, sat tight while Claire got within a few yards, and posed for some great pictures.
We came down in time for a great lunch at the Hungry Highlander, in Braemar ( great food, crappy name!) and even got back to town in time for the England game!
I am currently enjoying an ice cold beer, after a very warm day birding up Deeside! First stop was Dinnet oakwood, where in early May, i had missed Wood warbler….Not so this time, though, as Daves keen eyes soon picked up a bird, that turned into a pair, being kept very busy feeding some young in the nest. One of the birds was colour ringed, probably at this site last year. Although Dinnet was quiet, there were plenty of other things there, Redstarts, Tree pipits, Redpoll, and Claire was lucky enough to flush a Woodcock while trying to photograph a Great spotted woodpecker.
Next up was a visit to a site where we hoped we might come across some Crossbills. We only heard some, distant, and probably not Common crossbill, but were not too disappointed. The site is in a beautiful area, and usually turns up something interesting. Today, raptor watching turned up at least 4 buzzards, probably two Ospreys, and 1 cracking female Goshawk, while the nearby loch had breeding Little grebe, and Widgeon. Other birds present on the hillsides were a distant Cuckoo, Coal tits feeding young in the nest, and a lovely male Redstart, sitting out in the open and singing its head off, while we all enjoyed scope views.
Looking forward to getting right up onto the tops on thursday!
I didn't see very much today, cos it was foggy. A great spotted woodpecker, flying over the motorway on the way home was the best sighting today! Can anyone else hear the sound of that barrel being scraped?
After a slow start, involving a long watch where I saw pretty much sod all, Barras began to turn up the goods today. At least 3 more pairs, at various stages, were found, amongst other things. First up was the Quail, which ( according to Dave, I didn't hear it cos I was elsewhere) sang heartily for about half an hour. Next up was a Short eared owl (also a Dave only bird). Having been ever present last year, this is surprisingly the first time either of us have seen it this year, so were both hoping that its still around, but just keeping a low profile.
Bird of the day though went to an Osprey, that drifted reet over my head, in a westerly direction. This was a Barras tick for us both ( a quick phone call and some garbled directions managed to get dave onto the bird) and was vindication for our countless “our best chance of a good bird will be a flyover raptor” conversations.
But lets be honest. We were both really hoping for a Honey buzzard!
I spent a thouroughly enjoyable morning watching a pair of Yellowhammers, coming and going from the nest, with food for the young, and foraging within a few metres of me. It was a beautiful sunny day, and bird activity was very high all morning. In the c.100 metres of hedgerow i was observing, there were; Yellowhammer, 1 pair, Chaffinch, 2 pairs, Blackbird, Dunnock, Song thrush, Whitethroat, Tree sparrow, Starling, and Goldfinch, all one pair each, all toing and froing with food for their young, making for a very busy scene!
Between us, we got so much good data, we decided an afternoon or birding was on the cards, so we went up to Blackdog and the ythan, to see what was around. Which amounted to not a lot at all, really! 2 Whimbrels, and about 40 Barwits on the ythan, the ever present Osprey, and a rather unseasonal drake Goldeneye at the mouth of the river.