Last Day of January

Well I did not do it.  I did not find the 111th bird for my year list.  But I still enjoyed myself.  I got very wet and was blown all over the place, I survived so who cares.I did a whistle stop tour of sites around the area to see if I could find number 111.

My first stop was to Strichen Community Park.  The link is to thier Facebook page.  The park is centred around the lake and has extensive woodland and a walk up to Strichen Stone Circle.  Today I restricted my visit to a walk round the lake.  There are always Mallard  and Moorhens there.  Usually there are Mute Swans but not today.  There was one Goldeneye and two male Goosanders.

Moorhen

Goosanders

Goldeneye

I had to force myself on to my next destination and not stop at the tearoom.

Pitfour Lake is only a few miles from Strichen.  It is much bigger, the lake and the grounds, than the community park and it is privately owned and run as a fly fishing club.  The history of the Pitfour Estate is fascinating.  Now the current owner has opened up the estate to the public, created paths and done a great deal to encourage wildlife.

Today I came across more Goosanders, at least three males and a female.  Mute swans were feeding in the rapeseed field along with Mallards and Moorhens, there was even a Long-tailed duck on the lake.

Mute Swans

Moorhens

Long-tailed Duck

Tufted Ducks

Cormorant

On other visits I have seen Dippers, Little Grebes, Red-breasted Mergansers and other water birds.  I didn't go into the woodland area today but that too holds a great variety of bird life.  Nothing tremendously rare but a joy to visit.

The fishing club have put a bird feeder in a tree nearby and today there were Blue Tits and Great Tits

But I had not got my 110th bird for the year.  I thought that I might have come across a Coot but no, all the birds I had seen were already on the list.

Where to next?  I figured that with the wind direction the cliffs to the South of Peterhead would have been sheltered and may have Fulmar or at a pinch Kittiwakes.  So as t got darker because the sun was going down and because the rain was really setting in I went to the Bullers o' Buchan.  You will see if you follow the link that this is a great place for nesting seabirds.  The cliff seascape is also spectacular.  In the 18th century it was visited by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell on their tour of Scotland.

Alas I miscalculated.  The seas were pounding the cliffs.  No seabird intent on self preservation would have spent any time there

Still no worries.  Coot, Fulmar and Kittiwake will all be added to the list in the weeks to come.

Total on list 110