Hurricane season!

Was awoken this morning with rain lashing against the window and wind howling round the house, not good mist netting weather! Stayed in bed with a cup of coffee and read up on the new BTO winter thrush survey, looking forward to doing this survey as it will fill the void left by the conclusion of the Atlas (when does it get published anyone know?)

House Martin and Swallow still in the area and small skiens of Pink Footed Geese being reported in the area, Marcus from e-birder had 4 Long Tailed Skuas in the Moray Firth this morning, I would be happy with 4 Long tailed tits in the garden today!

Coming into my favourite season so hopefully some interesting blogs coming up!

Good birding.

 

Ouzel, Eagle and Sandpiper (Curlew not Pec!)

Fantastic day tour today with Steve, highlights were Ring Ouzel x 2, Golden Eagle (distant) and bird of the day Curlew Sandpiper.

Weather was not the best with heavy rain showers and gale force winds, but 53 species was not a bad haul for the day.

 

 

Curlew Sandpiper (left) and Redshank

 Curlew Sandpiper

 

Curlew Sandpiper

 

Ring Ouzel (below)

 





Time to fly the nest.

Fantastic sight today of 20-30 House Martins swarming to the two nests on my house, each had two chicks still inside (must be second broods) Some birds would fly up and cling to outside of  nests whilst other clung to the wall or hovered very close by.  All birds calling loudly trying to entice the chicks out.

Unfortunately all evaded my nearby net!

Pesky Pec!

With a report of a Pectoral Sandpiper on my doorstep, Lynda and myself headed down to the west side of Findhorn Bay.  Now I must admit to not visiting this part of Findhorn Bay very often, this is due to the severe lack of parking spots.  But today we found a nice place not far from the path leading down to the bay so this may be put on my regular patch list.

Unfortunately the Pectoral looks to have either moved on or was out feeding on the vast expanse of exposed mud on the bay, however there was much to keep us both interested:

Osprey x4,  Black Tailed Godwit x 45, Canada Geese x 35, Whimbrel x1, Greenshank x 2, Knot 30+ and Pink Footed Geese 270!

A cracking couple of hours.



Findhorn Bay

 





And my favourite bird....... Lynda!

 

First taste of Autumn

Well it had to hapen, but not quite as early in the year as this!!  Temp  dropped to +2 last night and my car was covered in ice this morning! With reports of snow showers on Cairngorm and Ben Macdui looks like the summer is over!

Still relatively good numbers of Swallows  hanging around, however the numbers of House Martins have dropped off in the last few days.  A Wheatear just outside my garden area was a first and a low fly over of an Osprey was a nice reminder of long hot summer days (well one long hot summer day!)

Lots of seabirds getting recorded over the water at Tarbat Ness so will hopefully get out in the next few days to have a look at this side of the Moray Firth, reccing the area at Fort George....... I will keep you all posted! 

Nice commute to work!

On a recent tour of the Moray coast I decided as an "add on" to take my guests to a local loch to check out the Black Throated Divers.

Initially I thought we were out of luck, but thankfully the birds were at Loch side and showing very well, unfortunately the chick was not present, fledged and on the coast already?  I hope so.



A Taste of Summer

A beautiful start to the morning down at Findhorn Dunes.

 All quiet on the bird front however a fly-by Osprey and a few Juv Sandwich Terns were nice to see.
Plus the fantastic lighting made even the most common of birds look stunning.

Woodpigeon

Yellowhammer

As a post script to this entry, whilst in the garden tonight found a Garden Tiger Moth, stunning looking beastie!



 

Tiger Tiger!

Holidays are over!

Well the end of July means the end of my summer "down time" and I start preparing for the excitement of autumn and winter, possibly my favourite time up here on the Moray Coast.

Took Lynda across to Cromarty, to finally visit "the pantry" coffee shop and after a lovely coffee and slice of chocolate sponge we headed for the new RSPB hide at Udale Bay.

We were not disappointed, once again a hide with a "wow" factor.

Superb large viewing windows

Plenty of benches and opening windows.

The large viewing windows were excellent, but not suitable for digiscoping through, so my preference was for the opening windows.

Can't wait until the winter ducks, geese and waders pitch up!



First Pelagic of the season

And a cracking day out it proved to be.  Overcast so no glare to contend with, and the Minch almost flat calm.

Birds seen throughout the trip were; Gannet, Storm Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Bonxie, Tystie, Arctic Skua, Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffins, Raven and Hooded Crow in Stornoway, but highlight had to be a pod of about 50 Common Dolphin.  At one point the ferry was completely surrounded by these fantastic beasts.

Once again great company, many laughs and some brilliant birds.  Happy days and roll on the next trip in two weeks time!

Todays victims  clients, Roger and Lynne,

and no Roger I'm NOT having those optics on MY Blog! :-)

Stornoway Harbour

Common Dolphin, nice change from Bottle Nosed!

I hear the patter of tiny feet!

Before any of my family, or indeed Lynda, pass out reading the title, let me explain....... Philbert and Felicity our tame pheasants have had chicks! (ten to be exact)  Plus the Great Spotted Woodpecker has started bringing it's chick to the feeders as well.  Summer is well under way although by the rotten weather you would never know!

Felicity the proud mum, bringing her chicks to be fed

Young Great Spotted Woodpecker

This young woodpecker was drinking the water out of the cupped leaves on the beech hedge.  Never witnessed this behaviour before.