Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
27/28th-September & 7th October
A Tale of Three Birds
Three very special birds.
Number 1
I went to Scotland hoping to see various birds again. The first bird to feature in this blog was not on my ''hoped for'' list. It wasn't a bird I expected to see and it wasn't even a year tick. But I had never seen one fly before. Previously they had always been deeply hidden in undergrowth. Often I had only seen bits of them! This experience made my Scottish week so memorable. That is the wonder of birds: always be ready for the unexpected...
...like a long-eared owl flying at dusk in a field next to your hotel...
Can you spot it? Right-hand side on a tree trunk. It liked to fly down to the roadside and watch the traffic...'ears' up!
This first set were taken in near darkness at 1600 ISO mainly at about 250-300th of a second so sharpness isn't perfect...but I think the photos are great given the light available.
The following evening the bird performed again. It was a little later. I pushed the ISO up to 5000, a level unprecedented for me. Here's the best of them. Again the bird started with a look at the road...
...and finally I found this one when the bird came quite close.
Number 2
Fast forward to October 7th when I decided that instead of going to Flamborough as planned I'd go to Haltwhistle in Northumberland to see a bee-eater. It was further than I realised and when I got there the reported location was deserted. However after about ten minutes a group of birders were seen on a footbridge. I headed over...
Number 3
Thursday October 11th: late afternoon on Seaton Common. Second attempt to catch the short-eared owls hunting...
ISO 2500 in fading light.
Well, that's it. I suppose you could call it the long and the short of it. Till the bee-eater came along.
252 UK 2018
22nd-29th September part 2
Scottish Adventure 2018
Part Two: Harris and Lewis and then back to the Highlands
[Photo taken on MV Loch Seaforth on crossing Stornoway to Ullapool]
Tuesday September 25th: we headed north to the Butt of Lewis - the island's northern tip. En route eagles were spotted. a golden sparring with a white-tailed.
At the Butt of Lewis we sheltered near Stevenson's lighthouse [grandfather of the writer Robert Louis]. The weather was quite wild.
Ringed plovers and turnstones were seen on the grass nearby.
Lots of shags were clinging to the rocks. Many flew past the headland.
In nearby Eoropie at the local community centre I was grateful for a carton of soup - very good price if you're up that way!! A buzzard was quartering the nearby meadow...
...black rabbits in the warren...
...and at the local nature reserve of Loch Stiaphat gulls were also sheltering.
In driving rain we called at the Carloway Broch where a few swallows were cruising the car park for insects - if there were any. It was pretty miserable!
Final call was at the Callanish Stones - an arrangement of standing stones set in a cruciform pattern with a central stone circle. They were erected in the late neolithic era.
We returned to Stornoway by the Peat Road, pausing near the town dump where many gulls and ravens eke out a living.
Wednesday 26th September: early morning walk down to the harbour in Stornoway.
Then, after breakfast, back along the Peat Road. Peat is still cut here for fuel as these stacks demonstrate.
A white-tailed eagle up on rocks along the Peat Road.
Our time on Lewis was drawing to an end. We headed for the Eye Peninsula near Stornoway and stopped by a lochan shortly before reaching Tiumpan Head. A group of recently arrived whooper swans were resting up.
Tiumpan Head: breeding ground for gannets and site of another Stevenson lighthouse - this one built by Robert's son David. Now automated the buildings house a kennels and cattery!
Bonxies seen from Tiumpan Head.
Great trip back to Ullapool - 12 storm petrels seen by me [more seen in toto], plus great, arctic and long-tailed skuas.
Thursday 27th September: another blustery day as we headed for the Moray coast. But first of all I was up early and took this image at 7.18 a.m.
Loch Spynie RSPB held a range of duck, red squirrel plus a surprise slavonian grebe. Little grebe gave me a photo I really like.
Spey Bay was quiet photographically but lots of goosanders with mergansers in the mix. Lossiemouth proved interesting. Goosanders on the river.
Incoming oyks!
Cormorant by the harbour mouth. Red-throated diver and diving gannets out in the bay.
RTD as the pager often abbreviates...
...and sandwich terns...
Plunge-diving gannets...
...and turnstones on Burghead harbour wall.
Findhorn Bay - driving out to the seafront some golden plover were seen among the shingle dunes - incredibly well camouflaged.
Friday 28th September: crested tit on the hotel feeders and then into the forest again. No capercaillie or ptarmigan this year alas but we had some great crossbill encounters at Badaguish near Loch Morlich.
Badaguish spider in the spruces.
A robin watched us having our lunch.
Back at our hotel roe deer ran across the field in the increasing twilight.
Then it was homeward bound on the Saturday 29th September. I called at Musselburgh hoping for the american white-winged scoter but no sign and there were plenty of birders looking. Lots of velvet scoter however...
...and a few guillemots.
I have excluded one rather special encounter from this posting. I hadn't even dreamt I'd see this bird on my trip and it forms half of my next blog, ''A Tale of Two Birds'' which I intend to post in a few days' time.
248 UK 2018
22nd-29th September 2018
Scottish Adventure 2018
Part One - Highlands and Skye
Saturday September 22nd: I pulled the car over near Broomhill Station near Nethy Bridge to photograph these fungi. Fly agaric - they are somewhat toxic and, apparently, hallucinogenic. First photo shows initial stage in its development.
Sunday September 23rd: I found more the following day on a woodland walk.
First crossbills in the forest.
Up the Findhorn valley
Red kite silhouette
Red deer climbing up over the ridge.
The weather can change extraordinarily quickly up the valley. Bright sunshine gave way first to rainbows...
...and then to this!
Red grouse at Lochindorb - merlin seen also perched distantly on a rock at the roadside.
Monday September 24th: Driving to Skye and ultimately on to Uig to take the ferry to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris & Lewis. First things first however... We pressed on as roadworks on the road to Kyle of Lochalsh were likely to delay us. View from one brief stop.
At Kyle of Lochalsh I saw guillemots and black guillemots near the harbour.
A stop near Breakish on the Isle of Skye where we saw a good selection of waders plus twite...
...and a grey wagtail jumped over the wall...
...some hooded crows flew in quite close...
...and a distant Brent goose.
We drove on until eagles were seen near Sligachan. White-tailed eagles.
Golden eagle at the same location - but more distant.
One bird put on a fine display diving down behind a ridge then zooming back up into the sky. As if it wanted us to see how wonderful it is to be a golden eagle!
As we headed north-west we saw more hooded crows.
Crossing the Little Minch to Tarbert was generally quiet. I was lucky to see 2 storm petrels during the crossing but they were away before I even blinked! A gannet's progress was more leisurely!
Part 2 will follow in a few days' time...
243 UK 2018
13th September ff 2018
Just ticking over...
Fairly quiet times so don't worry if you don't hear from me in the next couple of weeks. Not much about - a trip to Filey Dams last week [13th September] brought me a distant curlew sandpiper. Not a year tick but I had hoped it would be nice and close at Filey Dams. The bird stayed resolutely as far from the hides as possible. Really far!
In the photos also greenshank and green sandpiper sharing the distance. Better views of a blackwit.
Next outing with Sheila to Castle Lake, Bishop Middleham. I wasn't too excited about going remembering an earlier encounter with an unfriendly large brown bull [one side of the walk to the reserve is unfenced]. I was at its mercy. Ended up clambering clumsily over a stone wall. This time the field had sheep in it! The other downside is that the reserve is really a scope only site. Anyway we went. The bird co-operated so I got reasonable record shots of a juvenile pectoral sandpiper.
Next photo surprised me when I downloaded!
From there we went to Saltholme and saw curlew sand and little stint - scoped views on the causeway from the road only. Saltholme hide is shut still for improvements. And that, as they say, was it. Bought mealworm for Sheila's hedgehogs on the way home.
235 UK 2018
10th September 2018
The Day of the Pom
I went back! - September 10th - a Pomarine Skua special
Just had to have another look and I fancied getting closer to the bird when it might be lounging on the beach. No sign initially as I climbed onto the old gun emplacement to scan the area. Eventually I spotted a small huddle of birders who appeared to be watching three bait diggers out on the mud. Back at Tiggy I put the scope up and realised the pom was just sitting there happily with birders to one side and the bucket men on the other. I set off with camera and bins. Scope seemed unnecessary.
In the end I spent the day with the skua. Had to go back for another battery and I almost filled 2 32GB memory cards. An unforgettable day with an utterly confiding bird. One particular moment will live with me forever, I think. I was on the rocky shore with Paul Hackett and we were heading for the breakwater with the dunes behind me. Pom was having a fly round over the main beach area. The bird headed back low down, went behind the dune then swooped straight towards me passing my side just above head height then screamed high into the sky to circuit the breakwater masts. Forget the photography! This was so exciting...
I'll let the pictures tell the story with the occasional comment as I go along. A couple of other birds do creep in but it was very much the day of the pom!
View as I approached - iphone photo
Session One - Redcar end of the beach with various local birders including Peter Garbutt and Don Page. Getting lift-off for such a heavy fuselage as a pomarine skua can be very tiring...
And after all that, Pom sat down again.
Session Two: flight and a brief miscellany of other birds. Pom stood up and was away before we blinked!
Sea rocket cakile maritima
Sanderlings
Wheatear
Session Three: back to Tiggy for a coffee, scone, memory card and camera battery! Then down onto the sand left hand end of the beach. Pom came back, landed, settled down and waited for admirers. Unperturbed on a beach devoid of people and dogs apart from our little group of four birders. We were joined by Paul Hackett a well-known togger.
Final session - squatting on rocks and stuff along the rocky stretch that's at right angles to the breakwater. Pom on the rocks and a final farewell.
Coming in low...
Little is known in avian circles of the nesting story of a pom. Theories abound as to why this bird lingers at South Gare. Wing damage, a damaged foot meaning it can't put full weight on it and so on. In truth the bird is guarding an egg. What's more a pom egg continues to grow after it's been laid. Really big and brown. This is a world exclusive of a pom sitting on its grotesque egg.
Sorry! My little joke by the way!
I started taking bird photography seriously for one main reason: I wanted to photograph birds in flight. Bifs some people call them. And that is how I'll bring my Saga of the Pom to a conclusion: a few nice bifs.
Bird of the Year for me.
[Provisionally.....you never what may come in the next few months!]