TOTAL UNBIRD.

Would you rather eat a muffin or meet a puffin?

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!

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?

I saw some gulls today.

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.

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!

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?

I thought I saw a starling today, but I was mistaken.