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Birds fae Torry (4 Viewers)

Nice thread Andrew, but considering the amount of time you must be spending looking out of your flat with a telescope, surely it's only a matter of time before the neighbours (see post#2, first photograph) get the polis round!
 
I shall do my best with the Kingie, although it seems to prefer Peterhead in the winter. Not sure why. I'll also try to avoid having my collar felt by the old bill.
 
The sea was quiet again today. Well, it probably made a bit of noise, burbling and crashing and stuff, but there weren't many birds flying over it, is what I mean. Or sitting on it come to that. But the usual Bottle-nosed Dolphins were still up to their old tricks. I know them better than I know my neighbours. Who I'm not spying on, in case Grampian Police are reading this.

So with not much happening one way, I thought I'd give city skyline a good grilling. And I soon started seeing raptors. I'd already had a Sparrowhawk soaring over the garden whilst I was hanging the washing out and now there were two over the city, making the pigeons flip their wig. They were quite close together at one stage, almost as if they were hunting in tandem, which seems a bit of an unlikely thing for Sparrowhawks to do. I also watched a distant Buzzard, soaring over the city centre. Another house tick was a Fieldfare flying in over the harbour.
 
There was a bit of mist and drizzle first thing so I thought I'd have a quick look round Girdle Ness to see if it had brought anything down. Err, no. Well, there was a pair of Stonechats at the Battery and my first two Redwings of the autumn. And there's still a few Robins about. A 'good' local bird was a Farmyard Goose honking away at Footdee. An immature Peregrine flew over the harbour mouth, the first I've seen for a while, and a Sparrowhawk was darting along the north shore. I scoped one later on in the day over the city centre. And *fanfare of trumpets* my first Dunnocks for the house list - two at once! And I got a text from my Mum telling me she was watching the Subalpine Warbler in Norfolk. A top day!

Tomorrow looks good though, if we get some proper rain overnight.
 
We've had some 'proper' rain here tonight Andrew - don't know which way it's going though.

Oh and BTW you're needed in another thread:-O

D
 
Well, I think we only got a bit of the proper rain but it was still a good, damp, dark and misty morning here. Surely this would have brought something in. Off down the road to Girdle Ness, and a Redwing was in the Whitebeams that I passed on the way, offering at least a glimmer of hope. The allotments were a bit quiet though, with just a few Dunnocks hopping about, and so I carried on to the Battery. Clearly there'd been a few thrushes come in, with perhaps 20 each of Blackbird and Redwing and half a dozen or more Song Thrushes. A Wheatear was on the golf course and a Golden Plover was heard calling. Alas, the hoped for warblers weren't sneaking about the bushes. A species that seemed to be everywhere was Rock Pipit, which are usually fairly common here anyway but a flock of 24 in the lighthouse field suggested that at least some had arrived from elsewhere. On the south side, the gorse turned up a bit of a mega (well almost) in the shape of a Whinchat, embarrassingly enough my first of the year. There was also a female Stonechat to add to one on Greyhope Bay.

Then, a text providing me with the interesting information that the allotments, previously referred to as 'a bit quiet', were in fact harbouring a Common Rosefinch. That's nice, I thought. I bet I probably walked right past it. Anyway, about turn and back up the hill. I had a good wander round, met a few other birders, and didn't see anything. Not even a dull looking juvenile Greenfinch or Linnet I could string. Eventually, I met up with Richard Schofield, who'd been more observant than me in finding the bird earlier, and we wandered through the middle of the allotments towards where a few folk have put up feeders. And there, perched on the fence was the Common Rosefinch. Although I actually prefer to call them Scarlet Rosefinches myself. But then again, maybe they should really be called Not Very Common Brownfinches. That's a bit more on the money. But it gave decent views for a few minutes and was actually rather neat, in a streaky brown kind of way. Then it flew off with a few sparrows.

As I can see the allotments from my flat, I guess the challenge now is to scope it for the house list.
 
Curse the title of this thread Andrew!

Whilst painting a fence yesterday, my brain kept repeating the catchy words of "Birds fae Torry" like a metronome!

Now I have typed this, it will probably do so again for an hour or two!
 
'Birds fae Torry' is actually a code that enables me to subliminally control people. Glad to hear you're under my power Andrew. You can put the gun down now.

This morning a few glances from the flat produced an exciting flat tick: a Golden Plover sneaking about on the golf course. A couple of Buzzards were scoped very distantly - on Donside in fact. 'The usual' Sparrowhawk was soaring over the city centre and a Swallow flew west. The 'inevitable' Bottle-nosed Dolphins were again moseying, as dolphins do, at the harbour mouth.

I had quite a good walk round Girdle Ness and didn't see a lot, but took a few pictures of various bits which I thought I could incorporate into a sort of virtual tour of 'Aberdeen's premier migrant hotspot'. It might take me a while to do this though!

In case you're wondering what I actually did see, err, well, I looked for the Common Rosefinch but no show. It might still be worth looking for though. A Golden Plover was hanging with the Oystercatchers on the north shore and four Redwings were at the Battery. 2 Purple Sandpipers and 2 Ringed Plovers were on Greyhope Bay and 3 Knot were below the foghorn. There's officially 'nothing' on the sea at the moment but I did cop 17 Wigeon going south. Then a protracted amble round Tullos Hill turned up nowt but a Buzzard, a female Stonechat and a Roe Deer. Add to this a couple of Goldcrests, a Red Admiral and a Painted Lady and you can see that it's been a good solid and rewarding day of local patch working, serving as a model to less experienced birders who might be tempted by big rares in far away places. Just say no kids.
 
Add to this a couple of Goldcrests, a Red Admiral and a Painted Lady and you can see that it's been a good solid and rewarding day of local patch working, serving as a model to less experienced birders who might be tempted by big rares in far away places. Just say no kids.

You never give up, do you?

Just might make me nasty enough to express my opinion of English folk who head North and then adopt the dialect. A tad pretentious, don't you think? ;)
 
The Allotments

First stop on our virtual tour is the Allotments, on the north side of Girdle Ness next to Greyhope Road. And they're not called the Allotments because you see 'a lot' of birds there. Despite not often seeing much there (until yesterday, see above) I always reckon there's something lurking, probably a Lanceolated Warbler narrowly avoiding being butchered by the spade head of one of the rustic old boys who have their plots there.
 

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First stop on our virtual tour is the Allotments, on the north side of Girdle Ness next to Greyhope Road. And they're not called the Allotments because you see 'a lot' of birds there. Despite not often seeing much there (until yesterday, see above) I always reckon there's something lurking, probably a Lanceolated Warbler narrowly avoiding being butchered by the spade head of one of the rustic old boys who have their plots there.

Have you signed up for one yet? You will be growing your own vegetables now you are near some allotments, won't you?
 

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