Eagles to Dolphins!

Full day guiding today Starting off at Lochindorb then Findhorn Valley- Farr Road the over to Black Isle.

It was one of those days where all the target species turned out on cue and showed off to anyone that cared to look in their direction.

At Lochindorb the Red Grouse were more numerous than I have seen in many months, the males strutting and calling to each other, all looking stunning in the early morning sunlight.

Male and female Red Grouse

Male Red Grouse

Female Red Grouse

Highlight of the day was when a White Tailed Eagle was seen soaring alongside a Golden Eagle and both being buzzed by a pergrine!

White Tailed Eagle 

White Tailed Eagle

All in all a brilliant day out, supporting cast included: Male Brambling at a feeder in Tomatin, Red Deer Rutting at Findhorn Valley and Breaching Bottle nosed Dolphins on the Moray Firth.

A hide with the Wow factor!

Visited the new hide at RSPB Insch Marshes today and was very impressed with the layout and full length windows, it would be a close call for favourite hide between Insch, Fowlsheugh and the new Parrinder hides at Titchwell.  They certainly are producing some stunning designs.

Birdwise it was fairly quiet, with gale force winds and drizzly rain all afternoon.  A male Pintail was with the Wigoen at the far side of the reserve, Long tailed tits and Treecreepers showed extremely well in front of the hide, and star bird of the day was a male Hen Harrier feeding at North End of Reserve.

Definately a place to re-visit in the very near future.

Winter doth Approach!

Enticed out by the lack of gale force winds and for once a clear sky I headed for my patch at Findhorn.

It was a beautiful start to the day with the snow capped mountains across the Moray firth hinting of the on set of winter.

Birds were fairly scarce best news was the vast increase of Long tailed ducks and a fairly close fly-by of a male Velvet Scoter. 

However when it's quiet like this it makes you appreciate the common stuff so often overlooked.

Male House sparrow

Robin

Winter cometh.

Norfolk Part 1 Unblocking the bogey!!

A life time ambition was realised with a recent trip to RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk, and although the actual reserve was smaller than I had imagined, it was by far better birdwise than I could have hoped for plus the relatively compact size and excellent hide locations means there are no real blind spots on the scrape complex.

This blog entry is for me un-bloking my bogey bird, The Bittern, now I have been in the correct habitats at the correct times but never conected..... until now!

The bird flew down a clearing in the reed bed and that alone would have been enough, but it then circled and landed slap bang in front of the Bittern Hide!! It gave brilliant views however the lighting was very poor hence the grainy shots, but grainy or not they are the unblocking pics of my bogey bird!

At one point I actually thought we had a real life Bittern in the hide, however it turned out to be a lady called Jane giving a perfect redition of the "wiggle wiggle wiggle stab" motion of the feeding bird... Well done Jane!

Bittern at RSPB Minsmere

Probably my favourite picture, play spot the bird!!

The old and the new.

Just back from a fantastic 5 days in Norfolk, that included unblocking  my bogey bird and a chance twitch for a lifer.. more to be told in a later blog!

However one morning over breakfast I got around to talking about binoculars and how I  almost had a trip down memory lane by purchasing  a pair of my first ever binoculars off e-bay, a set of Prinz 10x50 porro prisms.

At this point Hazell remarked to Bernard (and thank you both for looking after me and Lynda so well!) "is that not the type we have" and lo and behold a pair of Prinz 10x50 appeared.  Happy memories and a real treat to compare the "then" and "now" and much as I loved my Prinz I will stick with the Swaro's!

Long Billed Dowitcher - Lifer number 2!!

This little beauty turned up at Lossiemouth Estuary, after dipping on it yesterday I connected with it twice today once myself and the second time with Keith and Fran from Wolverhampton.

A lot smaller than I imagined and was bullied a bit by the Wigeon, at one point a single Wigeon chased the Dowitcher up stream for a few hundred yards before chasing it back downstream again!

A top start to the day.

Long Billed Dowitcher

Sandhill Crane - A Lifer!

Went down to Strathbeg and St Combs with Lynda today to try for the Sandhill Crane. Pitching up at the main RSPB hide at Strathbeg we heard the dreaded statement, it flew about ten minutes ago and cannot be relocated!!
We stayed in the hide watching Greenshank and Spotted Redshank and then the  call came, the bird had been re-located at usual field at St Combs, a quick dash soon located a line of birders in a stubble field.

And here are the results :-)

Sandhill Crane - St Combs

A golden start to the day

Down at my local patch at Findhorn Dunes, started the day off with a flock of roosting Golden Plovers on the shingle beach. Light levels were still very low but happy with the couple of quick digiscoped shots below.

I was expecting a few migrants after the recent heavy rains and strong winds however not much about: a flock of 15 Coal tit, another flock of 7 Skylark one Pale bellied Brent Goose and Wheatear where the highlights.

Ansers on a postcard (get it? Anser?!)

Okay not a quiz, but genuine question.

What do you reckeon to this wee goose seen 17/9/11 in Moray? Lots of pointers to Ross's but note the grey (not black) wing feathers.

Autumn is here!

Managed a trip on my own today for a couple of hours,down to Findhorn bay which seems to be about my travel limits!

Beautiful day, flat calm and quite mild.

Seawatching produced an Adult winter Little Gull which is uncommon in this area plus plenty of Gannets feeding close to shore.

Another nice bonus was the two Wheatears hopping around in the dunes.

Also on Findhorn bay, 14 Whooper Swans and 3 Grey Plover.

A nice few hours.

Wheatears at Findhorn