I was asked why I hadn't done a blog recently

Someone asked me the other day why I had not done a blog for a few weeks.  I have to confess to being a bit flattered.  I didn't know my #My200BirdingYear would be missed.  
All the excuses I that sprang to mind seemed a little weak.  I had a cold at the beginning of July (no that was probably in June).  My sister and her partner visited ( not a good reason as we did some bird watching.  Jill's Buchan Birds and Beasts Studio was open to the public last week end and I was doing lots of work to help her prepare (not good enough - that week I saw a Green Sandpiper that was a new tick for the year list)
I think the real reason was that I had spent a lot of time going to places and not seeing the target bird (Green Sandpiper being the exception) so a blog would have been 'went there, didn't see a lot, came home' and quite boring.
So when I didn't have a cold at in the middle of the month I was going on my morning walks and seeing the usual sort of birds and wildlife 

Spotted Flycatcher

Fox

Female Bullfinch

Juv. Dunnock

When my sister visited we went to the Ythan and the Bullers of Buchan

Common Seal

Curlews

Juv. Kittiwake

Arctic Tern

Sandwich Tern

During the month everyone seems to have been seeing Manx Sheerwaters off the coast so I have spent the odd half hour at Kinnaird Head looking out to sea through my telescope and not seeing any at all.  
The other bird I did not see in July was a Mediterranean Gull.  Word came out the Margaret had seen it at Cairnbulg Harbour.  I go there nearly every day when I go to get the daily paper and hadn't seen one.  I was making special trips to the harbour to find it on 'my patch'.  On one occasion it was to meet Margaret who had just seen it.  No luck no Gull.  Later it came through the internet that it had been seen just a couple of miles  (if that) down the coast at Inverallochy Golf Course.  I had a few more goes at finding the bird in both locations without success.  I gave up when a report came through that it had been sen at the Loch of Strathbeg Lagoon on the 27th.  No one has seen it since.  On one of the days I did get a good Arctic Skua photo

Arctic Skua

The other birding thing to report is that I found a few colour ringed birds at Cairnbulg.  One was a Sanderling - third bird from the left in this photo.

Sanderling

 I have reported the sighting and been told that it the white one with a little flag could be an American ring.  I haven't had any feedback yet.

I found two Black-headed Gulls with rings.  One was a juvenile the other an adult, with a long lens and a heavy crop it is possible to read the lettering on the ring. 

Ring on an Adult Black-headed Gull

I have had feedback:-
'This bird was ringed by Grampian RG as age at least 2 years, sex unknown on 17-Jul-2014 23:00:00 at Ythan Estuary, Newburgh, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, UK'

The one success has been the Green Sandpiper.  On 23rd (the same day I took the Arctic Skua photo) I got a message from Jimmy that there had been a 'possible' sighting of one at the Loch of Strathbeg.  When I got there the visitors centre was shut, I had to peep through the artistic screen to see what was on and around the Starnafin Pool.  Here is an image of the screen I took a long time ago.

Trying to find one of those cut-outs at the right height for a telescope is not easy.

Not long after I arrived Alex turned up.  He had got the same message from Jimmy.  It was staring to get gloomy.  A midst was coming down and we were not finding the Green Sandpiper.  From the scene there was one patch of ground that we could not see.  It would have been foolish if we had left and not tried to find a view point that covered that bit.  We did find such a place by skirting round the barn and trampling through the undergrowth to a fence that provided the vantage point we were looking for.  But the Green Sandpiper was not to be seen.  Visibility continued to deteriorate.  We were just on the point of calling it a 'lost cause' when Alex saw the bird fly into the very patch of ground we had moved to cover.  It was not there long enough for either of us to get a photograph.  It flew further away to one of the islands in the wet ground beyond Starnafin Pool.  That flight was enough to confirm that it was indeed the Green Sandpiper, its white rump and two tone body clearly visible.   Again it did not stop there long but flew even further away.  There it settled down and there we were able to get a photo albeit leaving a lot to be desired.

Green Sandpiper

 Alex and I were able to leave Starnafin with a bit of a smile on our faces.

As is the way of these things the following day several people went to Strathbeg to see the Green Sandpiper but were not successful.  And as id the way of such things over the next few days I saw the bird on three different days during my early morning walk round Lonmay.

Total on list 198




 

Good News and Bad News

First the bad news.

Last night I did an audit of the bird species I have seen this year.   In my last post I stated that the total for the year was 195.  It is in fact 194.  The list of birds seen on the right hand side is correct it is just my adding up that has gone wrong.  I don't know when the mistake happened and I am not going to trawl through over seventy blog posts to try to find out.  I suppose the plus side is that I have done the counting now and not after I thought I had reached 200, celebrated and then found I was one short.

Now the good news.  The total is up to 195 again.

This evening just as I was about to sit down to some well earned tea I got a message to say that a Red-necked Phalarope was to be seen at the Loch of Strathbeg visitors centre.  Tea was put on hold.  Jill said she would wait till I got back.  (Luckily it was not a cooked meal that would spoil.).  I went as fast as I could, keeping to speed and safe driving limits to Strathbeg.  It is only ten minutes drive away, if that so there was every chance that I would see the bird.

Rushing into the visitors centre, that the RSPB staff had kept open for people to come and see this rarity I was greeted by 'Do you want the bad news?'  The Red-necked Phalarope had only just flown away.  zigzagging apparently towards the main Loch and gaining height.  Birds like this that are 'gaining height' as they fly away tend not to come back.  It seemed that this bird had only stopped at Strathbeg foe a 10 to 15 minute breather before continuing its journey.

After breeding these birds winter in the Pacific Ocean of the coast of Peru some 8,000 miles away.  I wasn't likely to follow it there.  Lesser mortals would have been despondent and gone home for tea.  I didn't.  I decided to stay for a little while to see if it did come back and to see what else was about.

The island in front of the VC was full of Common Terns and their chicks.  There was a constant too-ing and fro-ing of adult birds bringing in sand eels.  There were some good looking Ruff, Shelducks with their young and so on. Nothing to get too excited about. And all the time the RSPB staff and I were scanning around to try to relocate the Phalarope. 

Tufted Duck and Ducklings

Suddenly a shout went up. James had found the bird   No one had seen it return to the same stretch of water it was last seen in.  But sure enough there it was, the first Red-necked Phalarope I had ever seen.

Red-necked Phalarope

No one else seemed to have reacted to the rare bird message that had gone out.  Apart from the RSPB staff I was the only one there.  We watched it for some time.  Occasionally it did the sort of thing that Phalaropes do - pecking at the surface of the water - twirling round in a tight circle like a ballerina doing a pirouette.

Then Brian arrived just as the bird took to the air once more.  This time it did not go very far and Brian got to see it as well.

We stayed and watched it for some time.  It never left the water at one point it skirted along the edge

The one thing that struck was how small it was, bigger than a Chaffinch but smaller than a Blackbird.  On TV the bits I remember are close ups where you don't get an impression of size.  Above you can see it is dwarfed by the common tern.

Here are a couple of flight shots again showing how small the bird is.

So there you have it.  Number 195 a bird that breeds in the high arctic (a few do breed in Shetland and the Outer Hebridies) and winters in the Pacific Ocean.  I didn't think I would ever seen one.  To me it was one of those mystical birds you only see in nature programs on TV.  But there it was just three miles from where I live.

Total on list 195

Onehundredandeighty!!

Sunday 14th May started out well.

I came home from my morning walk with a tick for the year list.  It was just a 'heard' tick.  I did not see the Blackcap that was singing away.

Once I had got home I got the call that there was a Pied Flycatcher at Rattray.  Rattray is not far away so off I went.  No Pied Flycatcher in fact nothing of note to see unless you count the others who were looking for it as well.

Back home again and another call out.  This time it was a Wood Sandpiper at the Loch of Strathbeg.  Strathbeg is even closer to home than  Rattray so I had to go.  This time I was lucky.  The Wood Sandpiper was still there and I also saw a Ruff - one tick for the year list.

In the absence of any photos of the days ticks here are some others I took

Willow Warbler

Buzzard

Rabbit with nesting material

Female Bullfinch

Common Tern

Mute Swan and Cygnets

On 17th May I went to the Ythan Estuary to try out my new telescope and tripod.  Alex picked me up in the morning and as we both had to be back by lunchtime the time there was limited.  Alex's ulterior motive in doing the driving was three fold.  He wanted to see what the 'scope was like before he took the plunge to upgrade his equipment and he wanted to see if he could find a Roseate Tern among the Common. Arctic and Sandwich in the colony.  He also wanted to give he car a run as it was overheating.

It was a windy day and not very warm and soon our eyes were watering making it extremely difficult to see clearly.  The birds were not cooperating either.  They were mostly resting the sand with their heads tucked under there wing.  One of the main ways of telling Common, Arctic and Roseate terns apart is by bill colour and that was not possible.  The other trick that the terns played on us was to rise up into the air en mass, fly around and land again taking up their original posture of hiding their bill.  But they didn't land in the same place so you had to start again looking through the birds trying to find the Roseate.  It was a bit like a pack of cards being shuffled before you had a chance to see them all.  I haven't got a photo of the terns but i do have one of the seals that haul out at the mouth of the estuary.  The tern colony has been out of bound to the public for a long time the seal haul out area has only recently (this year) been designated as such and therefore officially out of bounds.  There has been a growing problem of people, some with dogs, trying to get close to the seals to take photos.  So close in fact that they have put themselves at risk and the disturbing the seals.  To find out more about the Ythan seals go to the Ythan Seal Watch Facebook page.

Seals at the Ythan Estuary

Anyway the good news about the trip was that I saw Little and Arctic Terns for the first time this year.

Total on list 180

RSPB Trip to Rattray and Strathbeg

I was asked to write the trip report for this event.  Here it is:-

RSPBAberdeen Members Group Trip Report 9^th May

Sunny Rattray and Strathbeg

The Trip started at the St Mary's car park at the South end of the Loch of Strathbeg. While we were waiting for people to arrive the opportunity was taken not just to catch up with everyone's news but to train bins and 'scopes on the Loch and surrounding fields. We were able to catch up with a hand full of farmland birds and a good selection of birds in and around the Loch. The Sedge Warblers were a first of the year for some and were good entertainment as they rose up out of the reeds fringing the Loch and glided back again.

As we were gathering I was told I had 'volunteered' to do this trip report and then told to make sure my spelling was correct. The reason I was given for 'volunteering' was that as I write a birding blog so I would be doing a trip report anyway. So shameless plug for my blog:– www.mikesbirding.blogspot.co.uk

From the meeting point we all crammed into as few cars as possible to make the journey down the track to Rattray Lighthouse cottages. The cottage gardens are a great migrant trap. Tim, who was leading the field trip said that the only resident birds were House Sparrow, Robin and Pied Wagtail, anything else would be a migrant and just passing through. We saw Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Linnet, Goldfinch, Swallows and Sand Martin

Gathering at the Lighthouse Cottages

The most spectacular sighting was a skein of over 100 Pink-footed Geese flying over our heads. 

From the cottages we headed for the beach. 

 

The usual sea birds were there but there was a passage of Whimbrel and Curlew flying North.

 

The other highlight, fortunately not caught on camera, was a 'mini Tsunami' sending several group members falling over each other in a rush for higher ground. Some of the group had already seen that the tide was coming in and had already escaped the waves. The more stoical members stood their ground but got wet feet.

By now it was lunch time so a long convoy proceeded to the Loch of Strathbeg Visitors Centre. The birding highlight here was a Little Ringed Plover and not one but two Great White Egrets. The no birding highlight was a tray of fine pieces provided by Julie and Jim Pickering.

The group then went to Tower Pool hide. It wasn't big enough for everyone to be seated! Birding highlights here were a pair of courting Herons, A Sparrowhawk fly past and a visit from a pair of Swifts.

Whitethroat seen from the Path to the Tower Pool hide

 

A total of sixty species were seen during the day:

Mute Swan, Pink-footed Goose, Greylag Goose, Shelduck, Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Gannet, Cormorant, Great White Egret, Buzzard, Moorhen, Coot, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Whimbrel, Curlew, Dunlin, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Swift, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Hooded Crow, Skylark, Sand Martin, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Wren, Starling, Stonechat, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Greenfinch, Linnet, Goldfinch, Siskin, Yellowhammer and Red Bunting.

Thanks must go to Tim Marshall who lead the group to such an impressive list and to Julie and Jim Pickering for the pieces.

Two new birds for the year list - Swift and Little Ringed Plover.  My photo of the plover was not good enough for the trip report but I'll put it up here.  

Little Ringed Plover

Total on list 174

Five a Day - I Wish...

In wish every day was like today.  Five new ticks for the 2017 year list.

Whitethroat, Ruff, Dotterel, Shore Lark and Brambling.

The first of my 5 a Day
I saw the Whitethroat on my morning walk down the old railway line to Cortes.  There is a campaign to restore the railway which is gathering momentum. If the campaign succeeds I wonder what will happen to the wildlife that has taken over the line

Whitethroat

Rowe Deer by the old railway line

The second of my 5 a day
After my walk and breakfast I went to the Loch of Strathbeg Visitor Centre. After the last few days it was the place to go.  Here was the Ruff.  Not, I was told the same one I did not see the day before. (no picture I'm afraid)

The third
This was a Dotterel.  Just as I got back home I got a call from Alex to say he had found three Dotterel and a flock of summer plumage Golden Plover at Coralhill  just a few miles up the road.  I put the shopping trip on hold ad hot-footed it up to Coralhill.  The first part of the drive is straight forward on public roads, albeit single track with passing places.  The last few hundred metres was along a farm track full of potholes and with a grass strip down the middle.  Fortunately the car managed to get there without grounding.  Alex was still there as was Kenny.  My first sighting of the Dotterel was through Kenny's telescope, after that I was able to pick them out with my 'scope.

Golden Plover hiding in a ploughed field

 

Dotterel behind the Golden Plover

Dotterel (heavily cropped photo)

The above photo is of a female Dotterel.  They are one of only a few bird species where the female is more brightly coloured than the male.  It is the male that does most of the incubation of the eggs and therefore has to be camouflaged.  The female job is just to lay the eggs and to be attractive to the males so they can afford to be more flamboyantly feathered.  They breed on the high mountain tops and are only seen in these lowland places on their way there.
News of their presence soon got out ( I posted it to the NE Scotland Rare birds 'Whatsapps' Group) so I left the site before everyone arrived and made it difficult to get out of the single track road and farm track system.  Anyway I had to get home to do for lunch and to do the shopping.  


The forth of the 5 a day
This was a Shore Lark or Horned Lark.   I got the 'Whatsapp' message about this bird just as I was to leave for my shopping trip.  Getting my priorities right I did the shopping first before heading out to Rattray where the Shore Larks had been seen.  I am not sure which track is in the worst condition the one at Coralhill of the one at Rattray.  Halfway along this track I met a birder coming the other way .  He told me that people had walked all the fields and could not find the birds.  I carried on anyway and met up with Alex and Kenny again.  They told the same story, the birds were not to be found.  I went with Alex to chase up a report of a Lesser Whitethroat seen t the Rattray Lighthouse Cottages.  We did see a Willow Warbler.

Willow Warbler

 And a baby Rabbit

We caught a glimpse of a bird that could have been a Whitethroat but were were that sure it could be counted.

Meanwhile Kenny left for home.  During our futile search around the Lighthouse cottages Kenny phoned, he was looking at the Shore Larks.  We got back to where Kenny was as quickly as the 'road' conditions would allow and looked through his telescope to see a Shore Lark.  After that it just disappeared blending in to its surrounding so perfectly that it could not bee seen.

The fifth of the 5 a Day
Kenny, Alex and me were getting into our cars when I got a message from Jill.  She had seen a Brambling in our garden.  I invited the others home for a drink and a look at the Brambling.  Needless to say when we got there the only sign of the Brambling was the photos Jill had taken.  This was the second time that a Brambling had been in our garden while I was out.  And I needed it for my year list.

Coffees were drunk good byes were said and I set to work cooking the tea.  All of a sudden under the bird feeders just outside the Kitchen window the female Brambling Jill had photographed appeared.  I had got my 'tick'.  It went before I could get my photo.  Twenty minutes later it returned.  Here is my photo

Female Brambling

It is the same bird that Jill saw it had a silver ring on its right leg.

Five 'ticks' in a day.  If ticks came that easily we would have to raise out target for the year to a lot higher than 200.

Total on list 164

Strathbeg - The Hot Spot

Nearly all the birding activity in the NE of Scotland has centred around the Loch of Strathbeg.
On 25th it was reported that a female American Wigeon had been at the Loch for a week and its identity had just been confirmed.  It is very similar 'our' resident Wigeon.  The two differences are that the American one has a wider wing bat seen in flight and it has a whiter 'armpit' or Axiliaries.  I have yet to see the bird or have it pointed out to me.  Needless to say every time I have been to Strathbeg in the last few days many birdwatchers have been closely examining the armpits of female Wigeon.

On 26th a report came in that three Cranes had just landed into Strathbeg.  Despite it being 20.43 I went to see them.  Strathbeg is only minutes away from home.  I met the volunteer warden who had reported them and he showed me where they were.  It was 21.00 and getting dark.  I could just make out the three grey shapes of the roosting Cranes in the distance.

A much enhanced photo of the roosting Cranes

James the volunteer warden left me to it as he thought he has seen a Glossy Ibis come in to land near the Tower Pool hide.

Earlier in the day I made a quick visit to Cairnbulg Harbour.  You may recall that on the 11th April I saw my first Wheatear of the year but could not get a decent photo.  At Cairnbulg I saw my first Wheatear on that site and got a photo'

Wheatear with White Wagtail in the background

On 27th It was reported that the Cranes had left the reserve in the morning going North.  In the afternoon reports came in of the Great White Egret being seen on the Reserve again.

On 28th the Bonaparte's Gull that I saw on the Sunday was back, the Glossy Ibis had been located and that the three Cranes were still around and a Yellow-legged Gull was seen.

On 29th I went to Strathbeg and...no rare birds were reported but I did get two new birds for the list..  I did have a good morning there.  I saw, and was able to photograph, Bearded Tit, Grey Heron, Little Gull, Common Tern, Marsh Harrier and a pair of Otters.

Female Bearded Tit

Grey Heron

Very Distant Marsh Harrier

Common Tern

Otters

On 30th I went to Strathbeg again.  This time I went to meet Brian.  The day before I thought I heard a Grasshopper Warbler.  Now my hearing is not a good as it used to be.  On of the effects of the deterioration is an inability to hear birds like the Grasshopper Warbler that is high pitched.  Brian was going to listen to locate the bird so that I could try to see it.  Before Brian arrived at Fen Hide I had a good look round.  The three Cranes were in a field on the opposite side of the Loch so I was able to get a slightly better photo than the one I took in the murk and gloom a couple of days before

Cranes

No its not much better at all is it.

The two Otters (I am assuming they are the same ones) came closer for a photo

Otters

And a Grey Heron came and posed for the camera.

Grey Heron

Then we went tramping though the bog and marsh that is the path between the Fen Hide and the Visitors Centre.  Wellington boots were the order of the day.  Brian kept on saying 'There I can here one' can you'  and I would reply 'No'.  The birds Brian was hearing were not coming out of the rushes or bushes to be seen.  Then, as we were making our way back to the car park Brian said 'Surely you can hear that it is so close'.  And I could.  This was a short burst of its reeling call, it was loud and obviously lower in pitch.  The bird in question then launched out of one low willow bush and dived into the next one.  So we saw as well as heard a Grasshopper Warbler.  Neither of us was able to react quickly enough to get a photo though.  The bird, Brian said started calling again.  This time a much longer reeling and clearly higher pitched as I could not hear it at all.  Later this month I am going to collect some hearing aids.  Hopefully I will be able to hear high pitched birds again and won't have to rely on someone else's ears.
Mission accomplished, I went home to sort out the mornings photos and catch up with writing this blog but not before a couple of other pictures

Roe Buck

Shelduck

Chaffinch

Just after lunch Alex phoned.  He was at Strathbeg and was looking at a Green-winged Teal and a Garganey.  He also told me that there was a Glossy Ibis around as well as the Cranes and a Ruff.  So I went back to Strathbeg.  At the Visitors Centre I was told that the Ruff had not been seen for sometime.  So I went off to the Tower Pool Hide where Alex was watching the two ducks.

I found the Green-winged Teal quite quickly. It was telescope distance away so the photo isn't great.

Green-winged Teal

The Garganey could not be found until a mixed flock of ducks, mostly Teal and Wigeon flew in.  The flock contained the male Garganey.  This time it was too far for even a bad photo.  I think it is somewhere in this cropped photo.

Ducks

Alex and I went back to the Visitor centre which by now was filling up with both birders and casual visitors.  The Cranes, now at least four in number, were much closer than they were at fen hide but in reality still too far for my 400mm lens

Cranes

 I tried to get a 'closer' shot using a 2x converter but either they aren't very good or I cannot use them very well.  The photos were all totally 'unsharp'

Cranes taken with a 400mm lens and 2x converter

The Bonaparte's Gull came to the front of the Visitors Centre so I called Brain knowing that he wanted it for his year list.  He came and got it ticked.  Birders were looking at Female Wigeon armpits to try and find the American it was seen early on in the day but not by me, Brian or Alex.  Two Marsh harriers were quartering the reed beds, two Great White Egrets were seen, a Glaucous Gull was on the reserve and later on in the afternoon when I had gone home a Little Ringed Plover was discovered.

All in all a fantastic day to be at Strathbeg.

Total on list 159