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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birds fae Torry (21 Viewers)

Migrants 0 indeed!

I've been on wheatear alert for about a fortnight now. I had a look back over some first arrival dates for wheatear in NE scotland and they seem to have quite a wide window - most are around 20th - 30th March, but some were as early as mid March, and some were as late as 6th April - so things are late, but not quite as late as we need to worry about them!
 
More devoidness on t'hill today. A singing redwing, a stock dove and a very obliging drake Great Spotted Pecker the 'highlights'. Seems to have been a bit of an arrival of blackbirds & robins from somewhere.
 
A summer migrant at last - a sandwich tern north past the foghorn this morning....

Also, two greylag geese flew in and settled on the water in Nigg bay.
 
Sean Minns and I saw a first-winter Iceland Gull that looked pretty good for Kumlien's late evening today. It settled for a while on the outer breakwater (on the south side) before continuing round the headland.
 
Jane Turner said:
looks like a chunky dolphin with a White-beak.
Click to expand...

It was definitely more gull-like than that - in fact, exactly as below, but less blurry! There were dark markings in the primaries, but it was impossible to discern details.

I had a quick look at Donmouth this evening on the off-chance, but not much doing.
 

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Just keeping you on your toes :).

Oopsy managed to link to Micky Maher's excellent Whitebeaked Dolphin shot..(as Jane correctly identified)..just to make Hugh a bit jealous :).

Sean :)
 
No sign of any interesting gulls today, although I did see a few dolphins (Bottlenose) in the usual areas. The only summery thing was a Sandwich Tern in Aberdeen Bay. It was good to have Linnets back and there seemed to be quite a lot of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits, which I guess were moving through. 22 Common Scoters were on the far side of the North Pier - an unusual location for a flock. Also dotted about on various bits of the sea were a Red-breasted Merganser, 14 Red-throated Divers and four Long-tailed Ducks. A couple of Harbour Porpoises were off the Coo and two Grey Wagtails were around St Fittick's.
 
Had another scoot round late afternoon, in very clear but very cool conditions. The exciting highlight were a pair of Shovelers, in with the Eiders on Greyhope Bay. Two Sandwich Terns went north, along with quite large numbers of commoner seabirds. Other stuff included 17 Common Scoters, five Red-throated Divers and five Long-tailed Ducks. There was a fairly obvious scattering of Blackbirds and a couple of Song Thrushes, so clearly there's a bit of migration happening at the moment. Nothing very summery though.
 
I couldnt repeat Andrews shoveler related heroics this morning, but I did have some compensation in a pair of Tufted ducks going north.

Not a lot else of note - 2 sandwich terns, but otherwise, still migrants 0.
 
For Info

The East Grampian Coastal Partnership AGM and Annual Seminar will be held next Wednesday offering a chance to discuss Aberdeen Harbour’s case for expansion and what this means to you and our effort to promote Green tourism

The event will take place on Wednesday, April 17. To register contact [email protected] or phone 01224 295308.
 
Thanks for keeping us abreast Ian - will be interested to hear what's discussed.

There were still a couple of Long-tailed Ducks on the river by the Victoria Bridge this morning. Also three Goosander and a Red-breasted Merganser in the same area.
 
Still quite chilly here this morning, and still rather wintry in terms of birds. The only new species for the year was Golden Plover: two were trotting nervously about Greyhope Bay. Sandwich Terns were up to four and the Common Scoter flock now numbers at least 41. The only other stuff of note were single Long-tailed Duck, Goosander and Red-breasted Mergansers. It's supposed to get a bit warmer from tomorrow so maybe that'll help move things along.
 
Migrants! At last! Lots of redwing around (at least 25) and a few fieldfare, blackbird, and robin. Also a goldcrest ant two long-tailed tits at the sewage works, and a lapwing south.

Best of all though, a male wheatear in Nigg bay.

Possibly other things around too, but the wind and rain this morning made things awkward.
 
had a look round this afternoon - saw the male wheatear at greyhope bay but other than 3 sandwhich terns no other migrants seen

did find a washed up porpoise carcass in the southern corner of greyhope bay though! far smaller than I thought it'd be, but then it was missing its head....

i moved it above the high tide line so should be still around if people are interested - I've contacted the strandings people so we'll see if they pick it up for autopsy or not
 

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