A good days birding today. The day didn't start so well (if you exclude my reports of my Dad and I going to the Ness, see Birds Fae Torry). At the Ythan there were a lot of waders, but they were just the commoner bunch, Dunlin, Curlew, Redshank and the odd Greenshank. The highlight of the Ythan however was a Peregrine sitting in a field near Meickle Loch eating a Redshank, the Redshank being identified as the Peregrine noticed us and flew off with its prey in its talons.
The Loch of Strathbeg, however, proved to be the best place to be today, especially at Tower Pool, as all the waders had moved away from Starnafin due to slightly the slightly flooded pools there. Wader wise there were about a dozen Ruff, 5 Greenshank, a couple of hundred Golden Plover, 2 Snipe, and around 1200 Lapwing. Other birds included 3 Marsh Harriers, some cracking views of a female Sparrowhawk sitting on a post very close to us, and a female Shoveler, and over 5 Buzzards. However, the main higlight at Tower Pool was the long-stay juvenile
White-tailed Eagle, known as Ralph. "Ralph" flew in from Savioch, sending all the waders around him up, which was what attracted our attention to him. He then landed on the pools, and proceeded to wash himself in the water, which was a rather fantastic site. He then flew away. He was honestly the biggest bird I have ever seen in the UK, barn-door is just the word to describe White-tailed Eagles. I have never seen a White-tailed Eagle before, let alone an eagle in Britain, so this was fantastic for me. Whilst at Tower Pool, the warden David Parnaby picked up a marsh tern on the loch, which was a long way off. David, my Dad and I were interested by this, and thus went down to see if we could see it on the actual Loch. So we went to the Loch, and scoured it for this marsh tern species. Eventually, although it was a long way off, we found it, and discovered it was a juvenile
Black Tern, not a common bird in these parts and the first I had ever seen in Britain. We only got around a minutes view of it, as eventually it flew out of our vision. A good days birding nonetheless though.