New Year in North East Scotland

We decided to do something different for the New Year and booked a last minute cottage in Wick in the far North-East of Scotland, the cottage called 'The Waves' was amazing:

http://www.cottages.com/cottages/the-waves-29153

It has a nice sun room which overlooks it's own bay from where I saw the following:

Eider Duck, Common Scoter, Red-throated Diver, Cormorant, Shag, Gannet, Fulmar, Kittiwake, Grey Heron, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Turnstone, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull, Guillemot, Mallard, Carrion Crow, Hooded Crow, Jackdaw, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Woodpigeon, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Blackbird.

View from the Sun Room

Like all of my trips away this one was not a birding trip, it was a family trip from which I took my usual 1 day for myself to go birding, that said my binoculars go everywhere with me..

On the 29th we visited John O'Groats as it was only 15 miles North. Upon arrival I was amazed by how close the Orkney Isles are, I had no idea they would look as if they were just across the bay!  The wind was strong and the waves were crashing over the harbour which was amazing.

 

We all went for a walk along the coast towards Duncansby Head, the first birds I saw were Eider Duck which I always enjoy, a duck I very rarely get to see.

Eider Duck

There were a total of 9 Eider duck in 3 groups, each group comprised of 1 x Male and 2 x Female, I was also great to see Long-tailed Duck amongst them.  Plenty of Shag and 4 Red-throated Diver.  My biggest surprise were a flock of Purple Sandpiper, I've only ever seen them in groups of 2-4, there must have been about 30 of them scouring the tide line with the Turnstones.

Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper

Turnstone

There were a group of Grey Seal which were following us along the shore constantly popping up to check on us.  We found out why from a local dog walker, the high tides from the strong winds had stranded a Seal Pup high up on back (8ft).  She showed me where it was so I picked it up and carried it back to the shore line to allow the parents to call it back to the water.

Grey Seal

My day out 'Geeking' was going to be the 1st but that obviously didn't happen for obvious reasons so it was deferred to the 2nd.

1st stop was Loch Watten, it was absolutely freezing with a strong wind, species seen were: Widgeon, Teal, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Little Grebe, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Mallard, Blackbird.

From there I moved on to Loch Scarmclate where there were large mixed flocks of Fieldfare, Redwing and Linnet in the fields around the loch. On the loch were Mute Swan, Whooper Swan, Tufted Duck and Mallard.

Next stop was RSPB Broubster Leans which is a very large site however viewing is from a single track road with only a single layby which can house 3 vehicles.  I didn't see too much here although Hen Harrier and Short-Eared Owl are present.  Sightings were Whooper Swan, Greylag Goose and a massive flock of Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Goldfinch.

I then went on to Scrabster Head as I'd been for a walk the day before where I seen Rock Dove and Black Guillemot, other species noted were Redshank, Black-headed Gull, Rock Pipit, Robin, Blackbird and 3 displaying and cronking Raven.

Rock Dove

Black Guillemot

My last stop due to failing light was Thurso Harbour, , on route I had almost performed an Emergency Stop due to seeing a flock of large brown Geese, out came the binoculars to reveal my first lifer of 2016, the Greenland White-fronted Goose - chuffed...

Greenland White-fronted Goose

On arriving at Thurso Harbour I was greeted again by a bitterly cold and biting wind however I had great views of a very close Great Northern Diver although my record shot does that no justice but the light truly was horrendous.

 Great Northern Diver

Back at the cottage the following morning I was treated to some amazing views of a Grey Seal mother and pup playing in the shallows about 25 meters in from of the sunroom, this is a cottage I highly recommend if you intend to visit the North-East of Scotland.

Grey Seal

Grey SEal

Grey Seal 

We left on the 3rd and no surprise a few days later Little Auk were turning up all along the coast, this would represent a long sought after lifer for me but I suppose it's good to still have some to chase.

1st Outing of 2015 - Dorset - Day 1

The wife and I were invited to a friends for New Year - in Dorset! I obviously started hatching plans for both my 2014 (end) and 2015 (start) year lists...... However....as we used to say in the Army (I'm sure they still say it), 'No plan survives first contact'  To start with the head gasket went on the car, so, I bought a second hand one the following day but the head gasket went on that one 24hrs later!!!!

 

Anyway, this weekend I returned to Dorset in a nice shiny hire car (to scrap the 2nd car) with 2 days geeking re-planned.

 

Day 1 was spent with the nice people from the Upton/Poole RSPB group on their monthly field trip, I stumbled across this event when checking out local sightings.  The weather was forecast to be treacherous with high winds and heavy rain. It was windy alright but fortunately the rain held off.

 

I rose nice and early and headed to Shell Bay on Studland where the group were meeting, I took the longer route and went via RSPB Arne as there had been some great reports from the day before, namely 8 Spotted Redshank, Avocets in their 100's and a few Spoonbill.  I had check the tide table, low tide was at 07:00 so I arrived at 08:00 with the hope it had started to make its way back in, it hadn't.  Being the first outing of the 2015, every species is new :)  Middlebere contained approx. 120 Eurasian Teal, 30 Eurasian Widgeon and a fair number of Curlew and Redshank, I was unable to find any Spotted Redshank though.  I only stayed for about 20 minutes as I had to get to Sandbanks.  On the way back to the car I added Green Woodpecker and Long-tailed Tit.

 

I arrived at Shell Bay to strong winds and rain, it didn't look promising.  Still, about 10 members of the group had turned up and were willing to brave the elements so the guided walk was on.

We headed for the beach which we planned to follow, the first birds were Shag, then somebody picked up some birds flying towards us - 5 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, that was me happy.  I couldn't believe it when I heard some Terns screeching, but there they were, 3 Sandwich Terns patrolling up and down the shoreline with a group of Black-headed Gulls, I'd seen reports of 1 overwintering but never thought we'd find it , never mind 3..!

Our walk along the beach also presented us with Pied Wagtail, Sparrowhawk, Meadow Pipit, Cormorant, Sanderling and a further ~20 Dark-bellied Brents, a good start I thought.

 

We took a walk over to Brands Bay next, I didn't know there was a hide there, this time last year I stood in the bitter cold and wind, eyes streaming, looking for a Surf Scoter... No need this time, 10 happy campers squashed snugly into the hide for a scan of the Bay.

 

There were quite a few Shelduck, a couple of Eurasian Teal, a Little Egret and what looked like 3 Red-necked Grebe although the view wasn't good enough for me to be content they weren't Great  Crested. One of the group (with Eagle eyed vision) then picked up a duck across the bay, I was the only one who'd brought a scope so was asked to have a look, it was a cracking male Pintail.

 

We all headed back to the cars to take a drive up to Middle Beach, we spent some time scanning the open water below us, the Black-necked Grebe never disappoint here at this time of year, we quickly got onto a group of 7, lovely little birds.  There were some great beasts of Great Black-backed Gulls on the water, we also had a Red-necked Grebe in with 3 Great Crested Grebe which I found bizarre seeing on salt water.  Somebody found a small raft of duck so I put the scope on and there were 8 female Long-tailed Duck with an extremely handsome male.

 

After way too much excitement (for me anyway), we went to look for the Ring-necked Parakeets, I wasn't overly bothered what with living in London during the week.  We didn't manage to locate the Parakeets but I did managed to find a female Common Scoter quite close in on the water, one of the group had Goldcrest too.

 

The group called it a day at that point and we all went to the Middle Beach café for a nice brew, I managed a sausage sandwich too :o)  When we returned to the cars, I could resist one last look at the Long-tailed Duck.  I failed to relocate them but did find a Great Northern Diver.

 

I'd like to thank the Upton/Poole branch of the RSPB for allowing me to join them for their walk, I had a great morning with some very friendly people and got to see some fantastic birds which would not have been possible without their local knowledge of the area.

Twitching - The Final Post

Well I decided to go for the Black Grouse, the Surf Scoter and Long-tailed Tit as first considered. I was up at 06:00 with a little help from the missus, made a flask and set off for Worlds End. The journey up was painless enough, I suppose I missed the morning commuter traffic and managed to arrive for around 09:15. I travelled along the moor road from Minera towards Worlds End as far as the Offa's Dyke Path but failed to see anything even though I'd painstakingly scrutinised every lekking ground. On the 2 return trip I decided to stop and just scan the area with the binos instead of checking the lekking ground with the scope. Whilst scanning I caught a glimpse of a Buzzard flying low, his presence put up a Grouse which I followed to ground. It sat out in relative open and excitedly I got the scope out but it turned out to be a Red Grouse, still a good find as I needed one for the year list.

130. Red Grouse

The Buzzard continued surveying the area so I followed him, he put another Grouse up which I followed noting the main features, the most obvious of which was the white bars across the top of the wings. I was unsure if this was a red or black at this time but on consulting Collins realised it must have been a Black Grouse, this was sufficient for me though as Black Grouse is a lifer for me so I wouldn't count it unless I could positively identify it. Luckily whilst scanning again a male rose up and flew toward me, he landed on the edge of a clearing and although still about 1km away I could clearly identify him as a male Black Grouse. I attempted to get some phone-scoped photos but the wind was too strong to hold the telescope still, this is the best I could manage so won't be counting it for the Big Bird Race.

Black Grouse

 

Happy with my find I could have stayed longer to look for more but I wanted to get up to Pensarn to look for the Surf Scoter. I pulled up at the beach car park and was blown away by the number of off-shore windmills, there must have been over 100. Now I knew that finding the Surf Scoter would not be easy to find being out to sea but I lost all hope of success when I took my first look through the binos. There were loads of ducks, all Common Scoter, I estimated there to be about 2500, so real needle in a haystack time plus I didn't really know what I was looking form other than from the bill and white neck but had no idea what would be obvious from this distance.  After some painstaking searching and some guidance to some local birders, I managed to get on to 2 Surf Scoters. They were quite obvious once you'd seen them and then relatively easy to pick our. I took loads of phone-scoped photos but again there was a strong wind and the Scoters were about 1.2kms out so the shots were not good, I took loads of the area where the Surf Scoter were but they do not show up.

 

129. Common Scoter

129. Common Scoter

129. Common Scoter

 

I had a number of Oystercatcher and a few Ringed Plover.

 

 Ringed Plover

 

On the route home I checked Bird Guides and saw the news of a Ruddy Shelduck at Doxey Marsh in Staffordshire which I need for the year. I arrived at the Doxey but the skies had opened up and I couldn't be bothered with walking round and getting soaked so I made the decision to go for the Long-tailed Duck at Sutton Park as I could swing by on the way back without too much impact to the time. It took a while to get through Walsall but I got there in the end, as I pulled up to park I could see the Long-tailed Duck about 20m out! Great views through the binos but the light wasn't that great for photos as it was now about 16:30 and the sun was low and I was facing it. I still managed a couple of shots though.

 

131. Long-tailed Duck

131. Long-tailed Duck

131. Long-tailed Duck

 

So I guess that's it for the Big Bird Race 2013 as I won't get out between now and Friday as I'll be back at work. I managed to photograph 131 species that can be identified in the photo. I have had other but not so you can identify like the Black Grouse above. I think the aim of the race has partly paid off as I do understand the settings of the camera a little but I've not been out enough or had chance to play with the camera enough. I've not even looked at photo editing software but will eventually get round to it. It's been a good year as it's made me think more about what I'm seeing and has forced me back into note taking which I had given up on. I will have to rename the blog next week as I'm not going to start another, nothing worse than coming across a blog via Google only to find it finished over a year ago.

 

I saw 22 new species in the UK during the course of the Big Bird Race, of which I've managed to photograph 19 so not too bad, those missing are Black Grouse, Rough-legged Buzzard and Goshawk.

 

Well, adieu for now, see you again next week under a different title of which I will have to have a think.



 



Round Britain Tour - Day 8

We arose nice and early this morning but didn't need to overly rush as there was not commute to consider, the first port of call was the beach across the road. It was still the beginnings of dawn when we hit the sand dunes. The 4 of us spread ourselves in an extended line and started walking towards the area for which the majority of sighting reports were about to see if any of us could locate the Shorelark we were looking for last night. After about an hour having walked up and back down the beach along both the sand dunes and the shoreline, we bumped into a local birder who had seen them, he informed us that they'd flown in our direction but we had neither seen nor heard them. During our hunt for the Shorelark we had a flock of 8 Snow Bunting fly over, they were very skittish, I managed to follow one to ground but only at distance, any time I attempted to approach by even a few meters it would move along so this was the best shot I could manage, not very good I'm afraid but you tell it's a Snow Bunting.

114. Snow Bunting

We did have some great views of Mediterranean Gull flying along the coast line with some great overhead views, additionally there were plenty of Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull. We were treated some great views of Grey Seal again, I couldn't believe how close the be tide line it was, I think he was just curious as to what was going on.

Grey Seal

We continued to walk up and down the beach on our quest for Shorelark for the next 2 hours and was joined but more local birders. At about the 2.5 hour point I heard one of our team shout that they had them however by the time I got there they had flown and could not be relocated so I dipped them which was frustrating as Shorelark would have been a lifer for me, another time maybe...

 

After what felt like a waste of a morning - and precious daylight for 1 species, we called took a vote to move on as we were way down on numbers compared to previous years of the Round Britain Tour.

 

Our next target location was Blakeney Point for Long-tailed Duck with a few stops along the way to pick off a few more species required for the trip. First port of call was a field which is apparently reliable for Whooper Swan, I have no idea where this was though! On arrival we could see a vast number of Swans in this field and had to endure todays extreme cold, wind and drizzle to get half decent views. The field contained a mixture of Bewick,s and Whooper Swan, about 48/11 split.

 

104. Whooper Swan

105. Bewick's Swan

105. Bewick's Swan

 

I know the numbering is out - AGAIN or maybe STILL?? It's because some are taken with my DSLR and some photos are Phone-scoped, I've just dealt with them in the order they sit in the folder.

 

Happy to have Whooper Swan we moved to yet another field in the middle of nowhere; probably wasn't the middle of nowhere, I just didn't know where we were. Anyhow, we stopped here for a large flock of geese, hoping for Bean Goose however they were all Greylag. The field behind though turned up a large flock of Pink-footed Goose and as a complete bonus, 2 Common Crane which made me very happy as it was almost pitch black when we'd seen them in Dorset with that occasion being a first for me. This sat much more comfortably with me.

 

106. Common Crane

107. Pink-footed Goose

 

I was really happy with today's events so far, although no lifers; which I don't go birding for specifically, however this trip was indeed all about maximising the opportunity to use the knowledge of Lee Evans to unlock some of my blocker birds. I have tried in the past for Common Crane on numerous occasions, obviously unsuccessfully, so to know see them twice in the space of a few days was amazing.

 

Our next stop was a bit of a shot to nothing - Holt for the long staying Parrot Crossbill... When we arrived we had to try and squeeze the car in amongst all the other vehicles while remaining conscious not to block access points, exit points for cars already present or to present a nuisance to the road users passing the area. With the car safely stowed we headed on down to the area frequented by the Parrot Crossbill, luckily there was already a gathering of about 15 people, they pointed out where the birds were but it was impossible to find them as they were right in the tops of the conifers and motionless so nothing to get your eye onto. Also they were a few rows of trees back which meant they were obscured unless you had exactly the right viewing angle.

Eventually after some painstaking stalking and adjusting of position I located them in my scope, todays 1st and only lifer, Parrot Crossbill. Locating them did require me to move back about 20 meters in order to be able to focus. We were treated to some fantastic views of a few males and females which we got to watch moving around slowly within the treetops, bonus of this though is it enabled me to focus the scope and get some snap with the phone.

 

108. Parrot Crossbill

 

Happy with our achievements we headed back to the car but on route some Common Crossbill flew over and landed in some trees to our front, this was great news for me as I'd missed them on our visit to the Forest of Dean for the Two-bars. I had seen them fly over but I like to be able to positively identify them for me to count them. So I was now happy after some great views of a male sat proudly atop a fir tree (no good with tree recognition - birds are difficult enough).

109. Common Crossbill

 

So one last stop on our route to Blakeney and this was to yet another field which was on the boundary of Blakeney, in which was a vast flock of Dark-bellied Brent Goose, there were a few Black Brant, a couple of Pale-bellied and a partial leucistic - all forms together, that could have saved a few hours in Devon.

 

110. Dark-bellied Brent Goose

 

So finally at Blakeney we parked up in a layby and took the footpath in, this was extremely boggy with the continuous drizzle we'd had today but was certainly worth it. As usual, we arrived to a group of birders after the same prize as us and there they were, 2 Long-tailed Duck, out in the channel within a decent distance. I didn't manage any photos though as they didn't sit still for a second due to being mobbed by a Great Black-back Gull who seemed content on them being lunch. We also managed to add Great Northern Diver, Bar-tailed Godwit and Red-breasted Merganser to today's tally, I never tire of seeing Red-breasted Merganser, such handsome birds.

 

Final stop for the day was Titchwell Marsh, the target being Ruff. The site was very busy but I suppose it is Saturday and of course the RSPB's flagship reserve. This was my first ever visit and I was impressed, I will definitely return and take in the site at a more leisurely pace. I could not believe just how close I was to waders, enabled me to get some half decent shots of them, primarily Black-tailed Godwit and Bar-tailed Godwit, was a great opportunity to see them together for comparison purposes, such size difference.

 

111. Golden Plover

112. Bar-tailed Godwit

112. Bar-tailed Godwit

113. Black-tailed Godwit

113. Black-tailed Godwit

 

We found a number of Ruff scurrying about within the Golden Plover and I got a couple of shots but they were way too poor for identification. They were too distant with poor light through the drizzle and it was difficult to hold the camera still in the wind to successfully capture anything that wasn't close.

 

We continued on to the beach to look for Eider, we found a few Red-throated Diver an rafts of Common Scoter, I'd estimate around 200 but unfortunately no Eider.  We had Pintail, Avocet and Knot on the way back to the vehicle.

 

115. Knot

 

The light had almost gone now so we hurried back to the car with the hope of taking in one last sight. We got in the car no a moment too soon, as we were reversing the heavens opened, I felt sorry for those still at the beach, there was no way they didn't get soaked through.

 

Our last stop was at an undisclosed location where, from the car we were treated to some amazing albeit distant views of 5 Hen Harrier, 1 male and 4 female/juvenile, flying around and displaying. I've only seen Hen Harrier 3 times and at this time realised that I'd only seen female/juveniles before, these were my first males. They are gorgeous birds of prey, it's difficult to understand how such a beautiful creature could be so intensely persecuted.

 

The light now completed gone we decided to head on over to North Wales in preparation for tomorrows exploits and our last day.

 

I saw a total of 63 species today of which 1 was a lifer and I'm now at 164 for the trip:

 

1. Mallard

2. Herring Gull

3. Lesser Black-backed Gull

4. Black-headed Gull

5. Mediterranean Gull

6. Cormorant

7. Redshank

8. Snow Bunting

9. Skylark

10. Carrion Crow

11. Magpie

12. House Sparrow

13. Starling

14. Blackbird

15. Bewick's Swan

16. Whooper Swan

17. Rook

18. Jackdaw

19. Common Gull

20. Woodpigeon

21. Mute Swan

22. Greylag Goose

23. Egyptian Goose

24. Lapwing

25. Little Egret

26. Golden Plover

27. Common Crane

28. Pink-footed Goose

29. Red-legged Partridge

30. Parrot Crossbill

31. Common Crossbill

32. Dark-bellied Brent Goose

33. Glossy Ibis

34. Shelduck

35. Greenfinch

36. Grey Plover

37.Oystercatcher

38. Bar-tailed Godwit

39. Great Black-backed Gull

40. Red-breasted Merganser

41. Great Northern Diver

42. Long-tailed Duck

43. Goldeneye

44. Curlew

45. Linnet

46. Teal

47. Moorhen

48. Kestrel

49. Grey Partridge

50. Common Buzzard

51. Black-tailed Godwit

52. Ruff

53. Avocet

54. Gadwall

55. Pintail

56. Common Scoter

57. Knot

58. Pochard

59. Tufted Duck

60. Turnstone

61. Red-throated Diver

62. Pale-bellied Brent Goose

63. Hen Harrier