Girdleness in winter....it can be a desolate, bleak and birdless place. Desolate, bleak and birdless enough to drive a birder towards looking for sinensis cormorants or, god forbid, 'eiders with sails'. It's not always like that though....as Sunday provided one or two interesting bits and bobs.
Nigg bay was my first port of call, where I hoped to have a look at the 200 new trees that were supposed to be planted on Saturday. I was keen to see where these new trees (of 6 native species - part of some world record tree planting event, and including some much needed berry bearing varieties) had been put, cos they'll no doubt harbour the odd migrant and provide valuable breeding habitat. A couple of years ago, shelter belts wer planted around the sewage works and these now hold breeding willows warblers, chiffs, reed buntings, song thrushes. A further 200 trees could well entice all sorts of interesting breeding stuff. Anyway, I'm getting a wee bit ahead of myself, because as far as I could see there had been no trees planted at all!
So instead of hiding behind tree trunks and peering at owls and woodpeckers (and trying to avoid standing in gypsy shit), I ended up splashing around the remnants of the pool and flushing up a common snipe, and then heading along the railway embankment, where at last a woodcock tumbled its way onto the PYL, and very nearly into the path of an oncoming train.
Not a lot else in Nigg Bay so I went off for a seawatch. It was quiet, with very little movement, but what was out there was enough to keep the attention. One of the first things I got onto was a small 'white winged' gull - except it wasn't a white winged gull, as apart from the pure white wingtips it was a classic Kittiwake. It really got me going for a while as you might imagine, but kitti it was -either a partially albino or one with extremely worn primaries (it was quite a long way off). Also offshore was one of the afforementioned besailed eiders (displaying with other drake eiders), two long tailed ducks going north, and one great northern diver.
Greyhope bay was next and was also quiet apart from the couple of snow buntings that flew over to the north.
And finally, through the mid day gloom, I came face to face with a young seal that had hauled itself out of the water and right into the middle of the footpath. It tried to bite me. But then I was trying to teach it the Macarena.
124 Woodcock
106.89%
Monday, 7 December 2009
Monday, 30 November 2009
two halves
The first half was a dawn seawatch that I expected (like many other east coast based seawatchers this weekend?) would deliver a few little auks. Well, it didn't, but there was clealy a northerly movement of stuff, wildfowl especially, that made for an interesting if not bloody uncomfortable seawatch. The best of it was a Black throated diver.....by far the most difficult of the three regular divers up here, with generally fewer than twenty records per year for north east Scotland. A couple of years ago though, when similar conditions to this weekend dumped a gazillion little auks into the north sea, along with a few girdleness 'fillers' such as Brunnichs Guillemot and White billed diver, Blackthroats became relatively numerous....I think I had 7 past the ness back then. Also some quality in the form of a Black guillemot, a few longtailed ducks, common and velvet scoter, and singles of widgeon and Mallard.
BTD was also noteable in being bird no. 123 on my patch year list - my highest total for the ness which I shall no doubt celebrate at some point. Or maybe I'll just get drunk and claim thats the reason.
The second half was a visit to freinds in Glen Dye who fed us Pizza and then allowed us to walk it off in the woods behind their cottage. The walk was along a river so hearing bird calls was tricky with the swollen water, but there was no mistaking the female black grouse that we put up off the path in front of us. Very nice indeed.
So, the patch year list reads thus;
122 snow bunting
123 black throated diver
The sharp eyed among you may have noticed an extra bird creeping in there....I have counted up my official list and the numbers above are the correct ones....no Idea what I've missed out though.
BTD was also noteable in being bird no. 123 on my patch year list - my highest total for the ness which I shall no doubt celebrate at some point. Or maybe I'll just get drunk and claim thats the reason.
The second half was a visit to freinds in Glen Dye who fed us Pizza and then allowed us to walk it off in the woods behind their cottage. The walk was along a river so hearing bird calls was tricky with the swollen water, but there was no mistaking the female black grouse that we put up off the path in front of us. Very nice indeed.
So, the patch year list reads thus;
122 snow bunting
123 black throated diver
The sharp eyed among you may have noticed an extra bird creeping in there....I have counted up my official list and the numbers above are the correct ones....no Idea what I've missed out though.
Friday, 13 November 2009
snow buntings
A very confiding group of 8 snow buntings in the carpark at greyhope bay today. Snow buntings rule.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Waterston house
Work commitments took me to Waterston House over the 5th and 6th of November, to make use of the excellent library facilities. I'm not really a fan of hanging around indoors usually, but the pleasant atmosphere, brilliant gallery, helpful staff and of course the plethora of bird books could pretty much keep me happy for days. If you're ever in the area you should really drop in....and remember your wallet!
Of course it was no all hard, hard graft looking at county records of seaducks! I managed to squeeze in a wee bit of birding. On the thursday afternoon, not long after I arrived, I was very kindly taken out to twitch the red-rumped swallow that had been found by my old mucka John Harrison a few days before. We got very, very distant views of two swallows together (the rumper had been seen with a normal swallow)....and one of them appeared smaller and more compact....but it just wasn't to be unfortunately. This was a bit of a shame really as I am terribly fond of red-rumped swallows and I would have liked one on my british list. Cool as a flock of tree sparrows might be, they were no compensation.
The following morning, with about an hour of daylight available to us before more pressing (and far more boring) engagements, the afforementioned JH and I zoomed around the Aberlady area, picking up the very long staying lesser yellowlegs in Aberlady bay. We had another fruitless look for the swallow but to no avail (there was a pretty drastic change in temperature that day, which might explain why the rumper was not seen after the 5th) and then finished off our whistle stop tour at Ferny ness, where we failed with red necked grebe but got a bunch of slavs and other nice things like velvet scoter and long tailed duck.
The next few weekends will be taken up by a stag do and then a wedding, which should be very nice, but not particularly birdy.
Of course it was no all hard, hard graft looking at county records of seaducks! I managed to squeeze in a wee bit of birding. On the thursday afternoon, not long after I arrived, I was very kindly taken out to twitch the red-rumped swallow that had been found by my old mucka John Harrison a few days before. We got very, very distant views of two swallows together (the rumper had been seen with a normal swallow)....and one of them appeared smaller and more compact....but it just wasn't to be unfortunately. This was a bit of a shame really as I am terribly fond of red-rumped swallows and I would have liked one on my british list. Cool as a flock of tree sparrows might be, they were no compensation.
The following morning, with about an hour of daylight available to us before more pressing (and far more boring) engagements, the afforementioned JH and I zoomed around the Aberlady area, picking up the very long staying lesser yellowlegs in Aberlady bay. We had another fruitless look for the swallow but to no avail (there was a pretty drastic change in temperature that day, which might explain why the rumper was not seen after the 5th) and then finished off our whistle stop tour at Ferny ness, where we failed with red necked grebe but got a bunch of slavs and other nice things like velvet scoter and long tailed duck.
The next few weekends will be taken up by a stag do and then a wedding, which should be very nice, but not particularly birdy.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
flyover
Strictly Come Dancing USA, and its assorted hotties, interrupted last night by a flyover flock of whooper swans.....
Monday, 2 November 2009
oi! you're Barred...
Every so often I put my extremely high morals to one side and decide to twitch a bird. Sometimes it's just something I really want to see, such as the Upland sandpiper, back in....whenever it was, or other times, if I consider that seeing the bird would be of some educational value....ie a tricky species, I'll go and have a look at it.
Eastern Olivaceous warbler definitely falls into the later category.
Working in the same office as the guy that 'maintains' the grapevine means that occaisionally I'm privvy to info before it gets out. The original call about this bird was of 'an unidentified warbler' and 'like a large lesser whitethroat'. This immediately set me thinking of one of the Orphean warblers....Megatastic or what! Then news came through the the observers were convinced that the bird was now an olivaceous warbler sp.....well, not quite an Orphean but something I'd love to have a good look at if possible.
With the certainty that this was going to be a hippo worthy of the hour or so journey, a few of us from the office decided to go for it. On arrival, we were greeted by with the news that it was possibly a barred warbler....and with some photos of the bird emailed to Phil Crockett while we were on site, we all came to the agreement that this was the correct ID. We stuck around for a wee while and eventually I got good views of the bird (with Hugh Addlesee) and of course, it was a nailed on barred. Wierd or what? 2 good birders get good views and decent digital images, and yet come to a conclusion that seems to be horribly wrong. I'm certainly not criticising...after all, we all make mistakes, but I just can't see how the conclusion of eastern olly was come to. 2 bird theory, anyone?
Anyway, it was nice to see some old faces again....I could certainly get into twitching for the social element, and it was also almost worth taking the half day off for the awesome close ups of a merlin chasing a meadow pipit....which made it's escape by diving into the gorse in front of us while we waited for the warbler. It took a good ten minutes for the mepit to pluck up the courage to stick its heed out again.
And I suppose a barred warbler is ok really. Isn't it?
Oh and high to Nick as well...nice to meet you (although I think we've met before....). It's nice to know some local birders read the blog. Maybe I'll see you at the next biggie....
Eastern Olivaceous warbler definitely falls into the later category.
Working in the same office as the guy that 'maintains' the grapevine means that occaisionally I'm privvy to info before it gets out. The original call about this bird was of 'an unidentified warbler' and 'like a large lesser whitethroat'. This immediately set me thinking of one of the Orphean warblers....Megatastic or what! Then news came through the the observers were convinced that the bird was now an olivaceous warbler sp.....well, not quite an Orphean but something I'd love to have a good look at if possible.
With the certainty that this was going to be a hippo worthy of the hour or so journey, a few of us from the office decided to go for it. On arrival, we were greeted by with the news that it was possibly a barred warbler....and with some photos of the bird emailed to Phil Crockett while we were on site, we all came to the agreement that this was the correct ID. We stuck around for a wee while and eventually I got good views of the bird (with Hugh Addlesee) and of course, it was a nailed on barred. Wierd or what? 2 good birders get good views and decent digital images, and yet come to a conclusion that seems to be horribly wrong. I'm certainly not criticising...after all, we all make mistakes, but I just can't see how the conclusion of eastern olly was come to. 2 bird theory, anyone?
Anyway, it was nice to see some old faces again....I could certainly get into twitching for the social element, and it was also almost worth taking the half day off for the awesome close ups of a merlin chasing a meadow pipit....which made it's escape by diving into the gorse in front of us while we waited for the warbler. It took a good ten minutes for the mepit to pluck up the courage to stick its heed out again.
And I suppose a barred warbler is ok really. Isn't it?
Oh and high to Nick as well...nice to meet you (although I think we've met before....). It's nice to know some local birders read the blog. Maybe I'll see you at the next biggie....
Thanks to the dog walkers, and no thanks...
I had a couple of half arsed looks round the ness last week, starting on wednesday morning where there were really good numbers of thrushes around, including a mistle thrush, which is a bit of a goodie for the patch. Also a Blackcap finally made its rather tardy way onto the patch year list. I decided to work the more open spaces of the golf course and walled garden, in the off chance that a decent pipit or rare wheatear had made the journey north. Well, I was dead right to do so, but unfortunately only found out a few hours after getting to work, when Richard called in a, rather appropriately, Richards pipit.
I managed to get up pretty early on Saturday and plodded off to the ness with the intention of working the pools and railway embankment. Things started off well when a couple of dogs were let off the lead and sprang off straight into the pools....flushing a Jack snipe as they went. It's been a good few years since I've had one of these here, so I was pretty chuffed. I was slightly less chuffed when the dogs clocked me and made a bee line for where I was standing. One of them was a bit rubbish, but the other, an alsatian, was definitely an aggressive little fucker. Fortunately, it was wearing a muzzle, but in between bouts of jumping up on me and barking it would put its face to the floor and try to pull the muzzle off with its paws. All the while the owner was just standing, watching. I really had half a mind to give both man and dog a fucking good kicking, but a) thats not really fair on the dog, and b) you never really know who you'll end up messing with in Torry. I should imagine that knives are pretty commonplace and I'n not really into tangling with handy bastards with knives.
Anyway, I ended up on the ness proper and having bumped in Mr Schof, decided to give the battery a miss and have a look around where the aforementioned dicks pipit had been seen. As I approached the area another hoody/devil dog combo appeared on the horizon, and put up a wee bird in front of them. It flew towards me, skylark sized, pot bellied, and with a long, loose tail...and then dived into another patch of long grass. Eventually, both myself and the Schofs ended up getting pretty good views of it on the ground, and a few times in flight.....just a bit of a shame it never called.
Anyway, a further 4 additions to the patch year list, putting me on to a very respectable 120 birds
117 Blackcap
118 Mistle thrush
119 Jack snipe
120 Richards pipit
which equates to - 103.44%
I managed to get up pretty early on Saturday and plodded off to the ness with the intention of working the pools and railway embankment. Things started off well when a couple of dogs were let off the lead and sprang off straight into the pools....flushing a Jack snipe as they went. It's been a good few years since I've had one of these here, so I was pretty chuffed. I was slightly less chuffed when the dogs clocked me and made a bee line for where I was standing. One of them was a bit rubbish, but the other, an alsatian, was definitely an aggressive little fucker. Fortunately, it was wearing a muzzle, but in between bouts of jumping up on me and barking it would put its face to the floor and try to pull the muzzle off with its paws. All the while the owner was just standing, watching. I really had half a mind to give both man and dog a fucking good kicking, but a) thats not really fair on the dog, and b) you never really know who you'll end up messing with in Torry. I should imagine that knives are pretty commonplace and I'n not really into tangling with handy bastards with knives.
Anyway, I ended up on the ness proper and having bumped in Mr Schof, decided to give the battery a miss and have a look around where the aforementioned dicks pipit had been seen. As I approached the area another hoody/devil dog combo appeared on the horizon, and put up a wee bird in front of them. It flew towards me, skylark sized, pot bellied, and with a long, loose tail...and then dived into another patch of long grass. Eventually, both myself and the Schofs ended up getting pretty good views of it on the ground, and a few times in flight.....just a bit of a shame it never called.
Anyway, a further 4 additions to the patch year list, putting me on to a very respectable 120 birds
117 Blackcap
118 Mistle thrush
119 Jack snipe
120 Richards pipit
which equates to - 103.44%
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
