If only westerly wasn't the predominant wind in Britain... If South-Easterlies were regular, just imagine the amount of unusual, exciting birds that would turn up then! It just so happens that westerly really isn't a great wind when it comes to seeing the more uncommon birds, and so far this month (well at least here in Aberdeen), the wind seems to have stayed in that direction. However, it doesn't really matter that much, as today I still managed to have a great time watching some of the commoner british birds. Read on to find out more.
12th August
Its another beautiful morning in around Aberdeen. My Dad and I are on our way up to the Loch of Strathbeg for the second time in 7 days (having been there this time last week). Last week Strathbeg provided us with Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and over 10 Ruff. Would it be as good this time?
We arrived at Strathbeg to find hardly anyone around. Entering the visitor centre, we found David Parnaby, a warden there. He was busy writing the bird highlights of the month. He greeted us warmly, and explained what was around.
" It is fair to say that August has been a relatively quiet month so far, with just the usual passage waders and so forth stopping off here. The Wood Sand that was here last week is still present, and there are plenty of Dunlin and the odd Ruff. Besides the usual passage waders, there is a Little Egret pecking about, and there's over 10 Pink-footed Geese in the fields behind this part of the reserve. There should also be a Barnacle Goose amongst them."
We set up our equipment and started to search the reserve, not expecting anything unusual after hearing what David had said. The Little Egret that David had mentioned was actually very close, gracefully wading through the water. The views I got of it were lovely, and it never even thought of flying, it just stayed in one place. Little Egrets aren't exactly common here either, so to have such great views of one at Strathbeg was a privilege.
The Wood Sandpiper that we had seen the previous week appeared to be more elusive today than it had been before. However, we did spot it after a while, wading around at the far edge of the reserve as a Snipe (a nice year tick) roosted peacefully beside it. Just a couple of minutes after finding the Wood Sand, all the waders in view suddenly took the skies, including the Wood Sandpiper, which was easily distinctive in flight with its white rump. It was actually a beautiful sight to see all these waders in flight, reminiscent of a shimmering cloud in the sky; it made me think of the wonders and delights of nature; just how fantastic it can be. There were huge numbers of Lapwing, probably between 200 and 300 birds. Amongst them was the odd Dunlin, quite a scattering of Curlew, and a few Starling.
" Something's put them up," I said.
All three of us, alert as we were, searched for a bird of prey amongst the mass of waders, and sure enough, there was one; a Peregrine, hurtling towards them at full pace, with only one thing on its mind, a meal.
However, it couldn't stoop, as quite a few of the waders had gone up high to deliberately stop it from doing so. In the end it caught a starling, and decided that the best thing to do would be to have its meal on the muddy areas where the waders had previously been standing. This gave us a chance to examine it. It was, clearly a juvenile, as it was a very brown bird. It sat contently as it slowly ate up the starling it had caught. Whilst it was sat there, the waders it had scared off didn't dare come back. They had all moved off into the pools beyond the Savioch Tower. After it had consumed the Starling, it took off at high pace, and quickly went out of view. However, the waders didn't seem to realise that the coast was clear, and stayed where they were. At this point, my Dad and I left the visitor centre and went up to the nearby Tower Pool Hide to get a better view of the waders. Most of the waders were Lapwings and Curlews, as I have already pointed out. There were also around 7 or 8 Greenshank amongst them, 5 Ruff, and a couple of Black-tailed Godwit, but nothing particularly unusual as such. I was more impressed with the sheer number of waders on the reserve than the actual species amongst them. Also at Tower Pool Hide we managed to see 3 Marsh Harrier, an Osprey from a long way off, plus the small flock of Pink-footed Geese (there were 14 there plus one Barnacle) which David had previously mentioned.
By the time we had searched both the pools by the Visitor Centre and Tower Pool, we decided to make our way down to the Ythan Estuary, stopping near Inch Geck island. Luckily for us, we had managed to arrive whilst it was low tide. Waders were once again copious, literally everywhere you looked there was one feeding. The aim now was to find a slightly uncommoner wader amongst the hoards of the common Scolopacids . We scanned the area carefully, in hope that we would achieve our aim. However, to our annoyance, after about half an hour of examining each wader, they all suddenly took off (even bigger numbers than at Strathbeg).
" Peregrine again?" I said with an element of suprise.
And there was yet another one, this time being mobbed by crows.Terrified, the waders congregated in the skies and flew to safety, and unfortunately out of sight, the Peregrine giving up as the crows flew away and it realised there were no waders left.
It then started raining, so we drove down to Blackdog for yet another look for the Surf Scoter (the fourth time this year) in hope that persitent birding would pay off. When we came down to the beach, we found that there was no duck flock in sight, so we decided to head down towards Murcar, where they had been seen by Andrew
t a few days earlier. After walking a fair old way, we found an interesting freshwater, muddy pool just down by the beach. Checking it, we found some rather unusual (and perhaps noteworthy) waders on it, 2 Common Sandpipers, a Greenshank, and a juvenile Ringed Plover that was behaving very oddly. I thought finding these waders was particularly interesting, as who would expect to see a Greenshank on a beach?
After a mile or so's walking, we finally found a duck flock. But unfortunately they were a very long way off, and getting closer to them would mean walking another mile or so, which we didn't have time to do. So we decided that we would give up, and try again another day. Plus, the footy was on, which we didn't want to miss (although it wasn't worth watching in the end!).
So, overall it was quite a nice day's birding. My Dad and I look like we will be heading down towards Murcar in a couple of days to see if we can get a closer view of the Scoter flock and see if we can see the Surf Scoter (we haven;t given up yet!). Thanks for reading!:t:
12th August
Its another beautiful morning in around Aberdeen. My Dad and I are on our way up to the Loch of Strathbeg for the second time in 7 days (having been there this time last week). Last week Strathbeg provided us with Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and over 10 Ruff. Would it be as good this time?
We arrived at Strathbeg to find hardly anyone around. Entering the visitor centre, we found David Parnaby, a warden there. He was busy writing the bird highlights of the month. He greeted us warmly, and explained what was around.
" It is fair to say that August has been a relatively quiet month so far, with just the usual passage waders and so forth stopping off here. The Wood Sand that was here last week is still present, and there are plenty of Dunlin and the odd Ruff. Besides the usual passage waders, there is a Little Egret pecking about, and there's over 10 Pink-footed Geese in the fields behind this part of the reserve. There should also be a Barnacle Goose amongst them."
We set up our equipment and started to search the reserve, not expecting anything unusual after hearing what David had said. The Little Egret that David had mentioned was actually very close, gracefully wading through the water. The views I got of it were lovely, and it never even thought of flying, it just stayed in one place. Little Egrets aren't exactly common here either, so to have such great views of one at Strathbeg was a privilege.
The Wood Sandpiper that we had seen the previous week appeared to be more elusive today than it had been before. However, we did spot it after a while, wading around at the far edge of the reserve as a Snipe (a nice year tick) roosted peacefully beside it. Just a couple of minutes after finding the Wood Sand, all the waders in view suddenly took the skies, including the Wood Sandpiper, which was easily distinctive in flight with its white rump. It was actually a beautiful sight to see all these waders in flight, reminiscent of a shimmering cloud in the sky; it made me think of the wonders and delights of nature; just how fantastic it can be. There were huge numbers of Lapwing, probably between 200 and 300 birds. Amongst them was the odd Dunlin, quite a scattering of Curlew, and a few Starling.
" Something's put them up," I said.
All three of us, alert as we were, searched for a bird of prey amongst the mass of waders, and sure enough, there was one; a Peregrine, hurtling towards them at full pace, with only one thing on its mind, a meal.
However, it couldn't stoop, as quite a few of the waders had gone up high to deliberately stop it from doing so. In the end it caught a starling, and decided that the best thing to do would be to have its meal on the muddy areas where the waders had previously been standing. This gave us a chance to examine it. It was, clearly a juvenile, as it was a very brown bird. It sat contently as it slowly ate up the starling it had caught. Whilst it was sat there, the waders it had scared off didn't dare come back. They had all moved off into the pools beyond the Savioch Tower. After it had consumed the Starling, it took off at high pace, and quickly went out of view. However, the waders didn't seem to realise that the coast was clear, and stayed where they were. At this point, my Dad and I left the visitor centre and went up to the nearby Tower Pool Hide to get a better view of the waders. Most of the waders were Lapwings and Curlews, as I have already pointed out. There were also around 7 or 8 Greenshank amongst them, 5 Ruff, and a couple of Black-tailed Godwit, but nothing particularly unusual as such. I was more impressed with the sheer number of waders on the reserve than the actual species amongst them. Also at Tower Pool Hide we managed to see 3 Marsh Harrier, an Osprey from a long way off, plus the small flock of Pink-footed Geese (there were 14 there plus one Barnacle) which David had previously mentioned.
By the time we had searched both the pools by the Visitor Centre and Tower Pool, we decided to make our way down to the Ythan Estuary, stopping near Inch Geck island. Luckily for us, we had managed to arrive whilst it was low tide. Waders were once again copious, literally everywhere you looked there was one feeding. The aim now was to find a slightly uncommoner wader amongst the hoards of the common Scolopacids . We scanned the area carefully, in hope that we would achieve our aim. However, to our annoyance, after about half an hour of examining each wader, they all suddenly took off (even bigger numbers than at Strathbeg).
" Peregrine again?" I said with an element of suprise.
And there was yet another one, this time being mobbed by crows.Terrified, the waders congregated in the skies and flew to safety, and unfortunately out of sight, the Peregrine giving up as the crows flew away and it realised there were no waders left.
It then started raining, so we drove down to Blackdog for yet another look for the Surf Scoter (the fourth time this year) in hope that persitent birding would pay off. When we came down to the beach, we found that there was no duck flock in sight, so we decided to head down towards Murcar, where they had been seen by Andrew
t a few days earlier. After walking a fair old way, we found an interesting freshwater, muddy pool just down by the beach. Checking it, we found some rather unusual (and perhaps noteworthy) waders on it, 2 Common Sandpipers, a Greenshank, and a juvenile Ringed Plover that was behaving very oddly. I thought finding these waders was particularly interesting, as who would expect to see a Greenshank on a beach?After a mile or so's walking, we finally found a duck flock. But unfortunately they were a very long way off, and getting closer to them would mean walking another mile or so, which we didn't have time to do. So we decided that we would give up, and try again another day. Plus, the footy was on, which we didn't want to miss (although it wasn't worth watching in the end!).
So, overall it was quite a nice day's birding. My Dad and I look like we will be heading down towards Murcar in a couple of days to see if we can get a closer view of the Scoter flock and see if we can see the Surf Scoter (we haven;t given up yet!). Thanks for reading!:t:
