Scotland Trip - Day Two

I was hoping to have had this post written last night, but was just too tired! Anyway, here goes....

Monday 11th April - Day Two

After breakfast, and a look at the weather forecast, we decided to head over to the west coast. The drive was absolutely spectacular - driving through glens and past snow-topped mountains. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, there were a few heavy showers (one we sat out in a cafe), but as the afternoon went on the weather got better and was wall to wall sunshine.

At about 11:30 we pulled up in the layby overlooking Gruinard Island - where White-tailed Eagles can be seen roosting on the island.... though not today!

aka 'Anthrax Island'

Over all we spent and hour and a half here without a whiff of an Eagle. The sea was productive though, with 30+ Great Northern Divers, a summer plumage Slav Grebe and 6+ Black Guillemots.

One of the divers gave us a bit of a headache - it was always very distant but showed a pale bill which it held pointing upwards.... White-billed!!!?? The only thing that put me off was how dark its rear neck and mantle looked, but that may have just been down to this distance?? A White-billed has been reported here before and after us, so I reckon this was it. Anyway, here's a diver that was easily identifiable....

Summer plumaged Great Northern... nice!

Also here we added Hooded Crow (4+) and Rock Dove to our trip list.

After we realised our Eagle chances were looking bleak, we continued south along the A832, stopping at regular intervals for a scan. The scenery was just stunning...

Wow!

The view in the lower photo got better when I picked up an adult White-tailed Eagle soaring distantly further up the coast being mobbed my Ravens. Luckily it came our way, and we were watching it for a good five minutes as it kept getting closer - what a bird! We lost it as it went behind some mountain tops to the east of us.

We had another White-tailed a little later on too, right above the road - this one being an immature. It didn't half move; it was right above our car - then in about two minutes appeared to be two miles away! Impressive!!

Other birds we noted during our regular stops were another summer plumaged Slav Grebe, a further ten Great Northern Divers, a couple of Eider and four more Rock Dove.

As we started to head back east, the nearer to Inverness we got, the more regular Red Kites were - awsesome! Better still was an Osprey soaring low over the road, which revealed a nest on a nearby electricity pylon. Crossing the bridge in Inverness, a flock of c1000 Pink-feet made a dull green field a lot more exciting!

By the time we had eaten in Inverness, the sun was setting. We stopped at layby 151 (on A9) briefly, where a mostly white Mountain Hare, and fly over Hooded Crow and Osprey (complete with fish) were the higlights.

Bun and Karen at 'Layby 151'

We decided to take an evening drive up the Findhorn Valley after this stop... bird wise a flock of Golden Plovers and a couple of roding Woodcock were the best, but mammals stole the show with this Mountain Hare...

Still with white bits on its ears

And several hundred Red Deer grazing beside the river...

It was quite a sight!

We headed back to the B and B, preparing ourselves for a very early wake up the following morning... (stay tuned!)

Scotland Trip - Day One

Well we are back - and am pleased to report that we haven't missed much on patch! I'm even more pleased to report that we had an excellent time in Scotland - plenty of birds, plenty of sunshine, plenty of laughter and plenty of stunning scenery.

Bun and I picked up Karen at 21:30 on Saturday, and just after 23:00 were in Bristol where we met Nick Page. We loaded our stuff into his car (a Vauxhall Corsa!!) and continued driving north. Due to the size of our transport, I didn't take my telescope - so almost all of my photos were taken hand held with my Panasonic Lumix.

Sunday 10th April - Day One

We arrived at our first site at about 04:50. This site was well south of the Cairngorm National Park, so we decided to use it to break the journey up a little. The plan was to have an hour's kip before it got light, but I stepped out of the car to have a pee and that all changed...

In the pitch black, Curlew, Lapwing, Red-legged and Grey Partridge and Red Grouse were calling, with Snipe drumming over our heads... then I could pick out the distant sound of Black Grouse lekking - we had struck gold!!! Just standing by the road in the dark listening to all these sounds was magic, and an incredible way to start our trip.

As it began to get a little lighter, we drove on a little further and could see in the murk the shapes of male Black Grouse beside the road, with the white of their tails already standing out. As it got lighter we could soon see nine male and three female Black Grouse going at it - what an experience...

Photos aren't great as it remained dull

And here's a little video...

If this wasn't enough already, a Short-eared Owl appeared and began displaying over the valley, several skeins of Pink-feet flew over north and we saw another three male Black Grouse a little further east along the road.

We saw many thousand Pinkfeet in about five skeins

And another little video...

We headed on from here and continued on with our journey. The further north we drove, the more regular Oystercatchers and Curlew became - especially the former, they are all over the place! On the road side verges, on roundabouts - everywhere!

With this day being the day with the lightest wind forecasted, we decided to head straight up to the Cairngorms. Although we did stop at a few places en-route, including a cafe where the bacon in our rolls contained more salt than the salt pots on the table did - yuk!

We also called in at Loch Morlich on the way to the top, here a migrant Greenshank flew around calling, but there was little else on the loch...

Loch Morlich

We arrived at the car park at the foot of the Cairngorm funicular railway... having been awake for about 26 hours already we decided against walking up and took the railway...

Little did we know, this was the last day of skiing up here, and the weather was absolutely glorious - I swear it was WARM on the very top of the Cairngorms... all I was wearing was a t-shirt and a light fleece and was too hot!!!

Anyway, the weather and the fact it was the end of the season up here meant there were HUNDREDS of skiers - and most of the team weren't confident about seeing Ptarmigan at all. Persistence paid off though, as after about twenty minutes of scanning two of these 'mountain Grouse' were located on the slopes above the Ptarmigan Restaurant. They were just beside the only path which goes up the mountain from base camp - which was rather lucky!

There's one in this pic, can you see it?

A bit clearer - the lower shot was taken with my Nikon through Bun's scope

The view was stunning, and although it never looks anywhere near as spectacular through photos, I'm still going to post several of them...

In the top photo; Karen Bun and Nick

It was time to head back down, so we got back on the 'train' to head down...

With the lack of wind, we then headed to Curr Woods hoping for some Crossbills. There wasn't much here at all really - although it was soon clear just how bloody common Chaffinches are up here - and how different they sound to the Chaffinches 'down south!'. A singing Tree Pipit was nice - I was surprised to see one here already.

After much patience, we did hear some Parrot Crossbills in the distance - but didn't see them at all.

We tried viewing the same woods from another vantage point - and from here could see a couple of Crossbills sat up in some larch trees. There were just too distant to do anything with though. We did see our first Red Squirrel here - and see it well we did...

Nice!!

We were all feeling really tired, but couldn't resist a drive down the Findhorn Valley, which was very near to our accommodation in Tomatin. The Findhorn Valley is one of my favourite places on this planet...

Just stunning!

We could see plenty of Red Deer up on the hill tops, but few birds. The team's weariness was starting to show now...

Still keen though!!

We then spent the next half hour trying to find somewhere to eat - which is harder than it sounds! We finally found a place in Aviemore - and can honestly say we will never be going back to it again!!! To be fair though the pizza's weren't all that bad.

Over dinner we were practically falling asleep, so went on to our Guest House to crash out...

This proved an excellent choice of accommodation

Check back to this blog over the next few days for the rest of the trip's action....

Bon Voyage

Avid and long-term readers of this blog will know that every winter I usually enjoy a birding trip to Norfolk with some of my fellow 'patchers'. Last winter this never happened, but instead, tonight we are driving up to Scotland for some birding fun! There's no lifers up here for me, but I've just not been to Scotland for 8 or 9 years - a return trip is definitely overdue!

Anyway, before I go, I really should update this blog with what little birding I've had chance to do over the last week...and I have two nights of moth trapping to update everyone on- wooopeee!

Birds first, and let's re-wind a week to last Saturday when Bun and I enjoyed an afternoon stroll through Black Hole Marsh and Colyford Common....

On Black Hole Marsh, a Little Ringed Plover (found by Ian Mc earlier in the day) showed on a spit from the hide. The only other summer migrants we noted were 20 Sand Martins and a Swallow.

The LRP - our second of the spring so far

From Colyford Common hide, a redhead Goosander on the river was a bit of a surprise - we couldn't enjoy it for long though as it soon swam up river and out of sight.

Sunday was a day of work, with no birding. Though I was very pleased to hear the Iceland Gull had returned, with Phil getting this cracking photo of it (see HERE). You can see what I meant when I said it still had quite a dusky and well marked head!

On Monday and Tuesday, well I can't actually remember what I did! So I can't have seen any decent birds!

Wednesday morning I spent a couple of hours on Beer Head first thing - it was dire!! Later on in the day, only my second House Martin of the year flew over my front garden. Swallows suddenly got a lot more obvious too. A couple of Sandwich Terns were fishing off the sea front early afternoon.

Thursday morning was another Beer Head morning, with the light northerly wind I knew it was going to be decent even before I got there.

Unfortunately I didn't have all that much time, so spent all the time I did have on the east side of the head - around all the bushes. The highlight was without doubt the two Redstarts (one of each sex) that were in The Summit bushes. The male quickly flew off north, and I caught up with him at first in The Sheepwalk, then again in The Dell. He was never approachable though, which is why the best photo I have of him is this...

Stonking bird!

Phylloscopus warblers were passing through in force too, with 50 Willow Warblers and 15 Chiffchaffs noted during my hour and a bit I was here. I just wish I had more time to look - I reckon there must have been a Pied Fly lurking somewhere!

Yesterday, an hour's birding revealed very little - and today I have/will be doing none. So that's the birding up to date :-)

Before I write about my two moth catches, butterflies are out in force now. Over the last few days I've seen my first Comma, Brimstone and Orange-tips, as well as plenty of these...

Small Tortoiseshells

Ok, it's time to clean up the moths! Last Friday night (1st April) I caught 30 moths of 11 species. No new species for this year, but several new for the year:

1 V-Pug
1 Streamer
2 Oak Beauty
1 Dotted Border
1 Early Thorn
16 Common Quaker
1 Twin-spotted Quaker
2 Small Quaker
2 Hebrew Character
2 Clouded Drab
1 Early Grey

Here are a couple of photos...

Streamer

V-pug

Last night, I trapped 34 moths of 8 species, same goes - no new ones but a couple new for the year:

1 Early Thorn
1 Brindled Beauty
1 Lunar Marbled Brown
8 Common Quaker
7 Small Quaker
8 Hebrew Character
2 Clouded Drab
6 Early Grey

Right, that's enough laptop work...time to get packing! Expect a bit of a monster post on my return....

Colour-ringed Gulls

Sorry for the lack of blog updates - 'free time' is not something I've had much of recently.

Instead of writing a monster post now detailing the last five days of my life, I'll break it down into smaller posts - tackling different subject matters with each post. And this post is going to be all about.... colour-ringed Gulls! Bet you are all jumping for joy :-)

Herring Gull Orange MG6T

This bird has been around the Axe all winter, I think I've seen him/her about three or four times - with the last day of March being the most recent. Orange MG6T has his/her own web page with all the sightings (though not all of mine), a map and even some photos.... http://www.ntgg.org.uk/cgi-bin/map.cgi?p=recmap&t=r&r=GC86809

Notice in the pictures how the 'orange' ring actually looks very red! But apparently it is orange!?

Herring Gull White O.AX2

This bird was ringed in Guernsey at Chouet Landfill by Paul Veron and his team on 27/05/10. On 14/7/10 I saw him on the Estuary, so seeing him again a couple of days ago (on 4th) begs the question whether he has been here all winter?

Great Black-backed Gull Yellow O.HH2

I saw this bird by the tram sheds also on 4th April, and it is another Gull with a ring on thanks to Paul and his Guernsey Gull ringing team. It was ringed as a chick at Crevichon (which is somewhere on Guernsey) on 22/06/10. After it fledged it wasn't seen again until it was back on Guernsey on 18/3/11 - but it clearly didn't stay long!

Yellow O.HH2 on 4/4/11 - Axe Estuary

Yellow O.HH2 on 22/06/10 - somewhere on Guernsey! Thanks for the photo Paul :-)

Every Little Helps...

So Tescos have well and truly taken over Seaton - and I don't just mean on the land! This morning I had my first proper sea watch of the year, and I'm pleased to say one of the biggest worries of the Seaton sea watcher is no more (for now anyway!).

Many sea watching localities have 'markers' - very useful when you are trying to get fellow sea watchers on to passing birds..."it's coming up to pink buoy 51", or "just going past red trawler E-341", or "just passing the offshore rocks"....not in Seaton!!

We usually have about half a dozen identical black flags, and if were are lucky the occasional small fishing boat! But thanks to Tescos, we now have...

Although it is hard to see in this misty pic, there's a massive floating pontoon out there, with a green flag and that huge yellow marker in the foreground

This boat is always out there - complete with lights!

And every now and then, we will have this....

This boat is literally about three miles long - it's bloody HUGE!

Well I'm sure you can tell from all this gibberish and random photos that it wasn't the most exciting sea watch! A Manx Shearwater west at 08:30 was easily the highlight - our first of the year. Other than this; 17 Gannet, 11 Fulmar, 1 Kittiwake and 3 Sandwich Tern were all that went into the notebook.

On the Estuary for most of today, an Avocet has graced the mud. This species is only just about annual for us, so it's always good to see one...

Photo taken during a rain shower

I've been disappointed with the Gulls today; 30 Lesser Black-backs and a second-winter Med being the best. At one stage, I even got bored of Gull watching, so pointed my Lumix at an unsuspecting Blackwit...

The yellow-red-yellow combo of rings on its right leg tell us it's an Axe Estuary ringed bird

Lastly, whilst driving along a woodland track I came to a drastic halt! For a weird moment I thought I'd been transported to Scotland as a large black game bird came walking through the undergrowth! But no, it was just a Pheasant - a rather funky looking one though...

Maybe in a couple of weeks!??

Gulls And More Summer Migrants

The weather totally changed overnight, with the high pressure and blue skies of recent days replaced with rain and mist! A drastic change in weather conditions during migration periods usually means something happens on the birding front, so this morning I chose to leave 15 minutes early for band practice so I could give the Estuary the once over.

A scan with my bins over the rather small collection of big Gulls just north of Coronation Corner revealed the very exciting sight of an immature white winger! I quickly assembled my telescope to see...

...a first-winter Iceland Gull :-)

This is the first Iceland Gull (seen) on the Axe since August 2009. As you can see it was a very well marked individual with a fair bit of streaking around the eye and head, and some dark markings still on the scapulars and coverts.

It spent a few minutes in the water, before flying a short distance and landing amongst the main gathering of Gulls...

Note the second summer Med in the foreground!

After watching it for about 25 minutes, and just as Ian Mc pulled up, it took to the air and flew off north. Despite looking for it this afternoon, there's been no sign of it since :-(

Today has seen a fair bit of Gull action, with up to 40 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the Estuary and six Med Gulls...

All six of today's Med Gulls - the only adult was the metal ringed bird

The weather conditions really did 'feel' good today for some migration action, but aside ten Sand Martins, a Swallow and two singing Willow Warblers at Lower Bruckland Ponds late morning, it wasn't until I got to Black Hole Marsh mid afternoon that I noticed some actual passage.

Here 20 Sand Martins, several Meadow Pipits and a surprise flock of eight Ringed Plovers flew north over. Afterwards at Seaton Marshes I saw just four hirundines, but one of these was my first House Martin of 2011. It was with two Sand Martins and a Swallow feeding low over the southern part of the reserve.

To complete today's post, the Bewick's Swan is still in the valley, and during a quick sea watch late afternoon, my first Sandwich Tern of the year came in and flew around for a few minutes looking totally lost in the sea mist!...

Sorry about the awful photo, but as you should know by now - it never normally stops me! :-)