Caithness Birding (1 Viewer)

Over to Wick again this morning and the american wigeon is still on the river although as the tide was in and the ducks were much further upstream beyond the end of the footpath. Managed a few shots of the wigeon albeit through a fence. Good numbers of eurasian wigeon, a few common goldeneye and one glaucous gull there also.

Saturday 24th Feb 2007

I got up early and left the house at 7.00am to have a run about on the east side of Thurso for a change. This year all I seem to have gone out to search for is Geese so I fancied a change.


Castlehill

22 Wigeon
2 Great Northern Diver
Great Black Backed Gulls
Herring Gulls
Black Headed Gulls
Redshank
Oystercatcher
Starling
Wagtail
Jackdaw
Crow
Rook
Rock Pippit
6 Goldeneye
6 Curlew
4 Cormorant
Farm Piegeon
Sanderling
Purple Sandpiper
Turnstone

St Johns Pool

Chaffinch
Stonechat
Redwing
Great Tit
Whooper Swan (main Loch)
Black Headed Gull
Great Black Backed Gull
Lapwing
Mute Swan
Little Grebe
Teal
Oystercatcher
Snipe - first this year
Mallard
Pippit
Blackbird

Brough Harbour

Seals
Fulmar
Redshank
Rock Pippit
Oystercatcher
Cormorant
Shag
Gulliemot

Harrow

Grey Heron
80+ Curlew (never seen so many at once)
Oystercatcher
40 Shags
50 Redshank
Mallard
Pochard
Teal
Wigeon
Rock Pippit
Cormorant
20 Eider

Ham

Goldeneye
Little Grebe
Tufted Duck
Mallard
Mute Swan
Shelduck
Teal
Wigeon

West Mey Farm

350 White Fronted Geese

Inkstack, Barrock

100 Lapwing on shores on Loch Heilan
2 buzzrds on dung heap

Reiss

22 Whooper Swans

Geese - 26.02.07

Bardnaclavan / Oust Farm road

800 Geese spead over 3 fields

Neck Bands

CBA - orange
BJF - orange
SYZ - grey

Also

300 Lapwings in ploughed field before Bardnaclavan on main road.



Saw these on way home from work tonight so nipped into house grabbed binos, telescope and note book and went back to ID.

On way home from work last night

I saw

58 Whooper Swans at Achscrabster.

100s of Greylag Geese between Shebster and Achalone, they were in fields on both sides of the road.

Saw orange neck collar BJF again too. (It really looked like BUF again, maybe I was right the first time !!! :-O )

This morning

Thought that I would pop out this morning to see just how many swans and geese were on the back road today.

Only saw

5 Whooper Swans at Achscrabster today though.

50 Greylag Geese in a field at Westfield, no collars today.

I counted every one of 83 lapwings on a strip of ploughed field across the road from the Achalone turnoff. Goodness know how many I'd have come up with if I scanned the entire field.

I saw a female Marsh Harrier along the Broubster road and followed a Red Legged Partridge along the road before it took a detour through a fence. Amazing little bird, beautiful face.

I saw male and female stonechats on the Janetstown road and an Alba Wagtail on the downhill stretch back to the main road above Scrabster. There was a skene of geese flying over heading in the Westfield direction so dare say if I headed back I would see more geese in the fields but too cold and rainy to have a decent run around so I headed home for breakfast and a cuppa.

21st March

I forgot to tell you that I saw a whole lot of swans the other night.

I counted 122 Whooper Swans at Achscrabster. They were there for 3 days.

Not seen much exciting since, so not much to report for my magazine bit this month unfortunately.

Anyone got any exciting sightings for me?

All donations gratefully received.

I was out in Achvarasdal today, I heard a woodpecker pecking somewhere near the west area but it went silent when I went closer to get a look.

Lots of the usual stuff as well. A very nice day for birding.

Reay_Bonxie said:

I was out in Achvarasdal today, I heard a woodpecker pecking somewhere near the west area but it went silent when I went closer to get a look.

Lots of the usual stuff as well. A very nice day for birding.

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Do you know what kind of woodpecker you heard? Did he shout out his name, number and rank to you? I haven't seen a wood pecker.

Good sighting of tree creeper this afternoon. You live in a great location, you lucky beggar, you!

How is Mrs Rheghead keeping. How long til we get a new birder in our fold?

Say hi from me.

Keep in touch.

Rin x

Golden Plover at Shebster 17.04.07

I had the good fortune to spot a field of Golden Plover at Shebster, on the way to work this morning and I popped back out tonight to see if they were still there.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/rinard/GoldenPloveratShebster-17.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/rinard/Feeding-Golden-Plover-17.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/rinard/Single-Golden-Plover-17.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/rinard/Golden-Plover-at-Shebster--.jpg



Sorry for posting url but I cannot remember how to attach thumbnails ! So long since I uploaded photos to bird forum. I will need to give myself a wee refresher course !

There were some 400+ Golden Plovers there tonight scattered over two fields. They were in a ploughed field on one side of the road and a grass field on the opposite side of the road.

Willow Warbler - First for my garden

I had a 10 minute visit from a willow warbler this afternoon.

I thought that it was a chiff chaff at first but the legs were pink/orange not grey/brown and there was more yellow around the eye and shoulder and when I checked the books I saw my bird........ Willow Warbler.

This is a first for my garden and I am delighted.

Rin x

Sorry for the lack of reports, my birding and PC use have taken a big knock due to being busy at home. Hopefully not for much longer.
Here are some of my first migrants.

4 Manx Shearwater in Thurso Bay 10.04.07 + 11.04.07
2 Sandmartin in Scrabster 11.04.07
1 Swallow in Scrabster 11.04.07.
1 Wheatear at Harrow Harbour 11.04.07
2 Sandwich Tern in Thuso Bay 12.04.07
Rissos Dolphin in Thurso Bay 12.04.07
5 White beaked dolphins off of Lybster 15.04.07 (Colin Bird)
Great Skua in Thurso Bay 16.04.07

Also had 7 GN divers on 15.04.07 in Thurso Bay and 54 Purple sandpipers at Scrabster on 14.04.07, (both personal records)

Still 3 Iceland Gulls here in Scrabster. Plenty of Razorbills in the bay, not many Guillemots as of yet, lots of gannets passing through, a Common Scoter over the weekend and still plenty of Long tailed ducks, some in summer plumage. Also had 12 Linnet in my garden on Sunday which were a nice surprise. Daily sightings of the local Sparrowhawk and the local Kestrel is back after being absent for most of the winter. The bay is also awash with fulmars they are everywhere.

Hoping to get to Achsvarasdale over the weekend.

Reay_Bonxie said:

I was out in Achvarasdal today, I heard a woodpecker pecking somewhere near the west area but it went silent when I went closer to get a look.

Lots of the usual stuff as well. A very nice day for birding.

Click to expand...

Having never been on the PC I only found out about this on Wed from a local birder. He had been putting up nest boxes and the woodpecker is vandalising them. The question is how long will it stay, others think it is probably a migrant.

Nice to have you back Kas, i hope some of those are on there way over. iv had swallow and heard willow warbler.theres been sand martin seen and one or two chifchafs about. Plenty of guillimot, and puffins have started to come ashore. Hope you can find a bit of time for birding now.
Cheers

kas said:

Having never been on the PC I only found out about this on Wed from a local birder. He had been putting up nest boxes and the woodpecker is vandalising them. The question is how long will it stay, others think it is probably a migrant.

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That is interesting because today I heard a woodpecker pecking in Sandside Wood. It could be the same one I suppose?

Plenty of Tawny owl hootings in the wood also. It gets quite noisy here what with those collared doves and pheasant making their mating calls just now.
8-P

Its been a while

Well it has been a while since myself or anyone else posted but I will try to make more of an effort especially as it is my favourite time of the year.

On Tuesday (16th) got home early and witnessed migration from the house
3 Whoopers, 38 barnacle geese, 7 Pale-bellied brent Geese all flying in from the sea.
There was a slavonian grebe in the bay and an adult Glaucous Gull in fields nearby.
A trip to my local loch produced 46 Whooper swans.
Then in the evening there were Greylags flying overhead and various times and I think quite a lot due to the noise.

I saw my first Redwings on the 13th.

Another local birder saw some crackin birds at Castlehill.Grey Phalarope ,Grey Plover 2, Pom Skua adult, ArcticTerns c10 and a poss Sabine Gull juv.
The folowing day (17th) another birder went looking for the Grey phalrope and witnessed it flying low over the water into the wind, when an immature Peregrine flew across and after a couple of twists and turns took the Phalarope. However, it could not hang on to it and the Phalarope managed to get free and was last seen flying weakly away and may have come down on the sea. He does not know if it survived or not.

Recent Birds
There have been some good birds around these last few weeks, with the top bird being the Cattle Egret that was present for 2 weeks. Last seen Thurday the 4th of October. The 7th saw some good migration over St Johns Loch with 2 Lesser scaup (males); 1 Ring-necked duck (male); Greater scaup 70+; Barnacle goose 121 in 5 flights; Gadwall 28 plus Black tern (juv) all on St. John's loch today. The black tern stayed for at least a week and I must check to see if it is still present.
A med gull was at Castlehill on the 3rd.
St JOhns Loch had 4 Slavonians here plus had fieldfares, bramblings and Crossbill and a fly past Common scoter
Common Rosefinch and 2 Lesser Whitethroats were in the Groast are at the start of October and I am sure I saw a Ringed ouzel mentioned at Noss head then too as well as a yellow-browed warbler at along with lesser whitethroat and chiffchaff on the 5th. 5 Lapland bunting were noted over Yarrows at the end of September. Ionemosia saw 32 Greenland white fronted geese at Mey on the 10th.

Sorry it is a bit mixy matchy, and there is more as I have not found the birds seen seawatching by other birders.

Plenty of the normal birds around and I will try tp post in more detail over the following weeks, and try to remember anything else.

Nice to have you back in harness so to speak. It certainly has been a while.
I was waching Graylag heading south lunchtime and afternoon at work.
Barrie Hamill PMed me this afternoon saying there was a grey phallarope in Echna bay today.I wonder if it was yours. I shot out birding after work and never looked at the computer so i might have missed it. never mind theres allways first light.
Nice to have you back and be getting some news from over the water.

There seems to have been quite a few Grey Phalaropes popping up this week in Scotland Dafi.

This morning at 1am I was lying in bed nearly dozing off when I heard a handfull of Whoopers, followed shortly by Greylags, then more Whoopers and another 2 flocks of Greylags. Whoopers are being noted by quite a lot of people scattered round the county. I also saw Greylags at work today but there has been resident Greylags there since mid August, so not sure if they are the residents or newly arrived migrants.

First thing at work I also got my first 2 Long-tailed ducks of the winter, followed by another 8 in Thurso bay this evening. 200 Lapwing at work as well as a Kestrel and Buzzard.

4 Red-throated and 1 Great Northern Diver in Thurso bay this evening. Thousands of gulls scattered around Thurso bay area, but by the time I arrive home the daylight is rapidly fading, so no chance of scanning them all.

Another report of a Golden Eagle in the county today. There had been various reports of eagles of both species on the East side of the county this year. A experienced birder witnessed a 2nd year Golden Eagle attacking a Roe deer about a month ago over there. The goldie had a white tail hence why we think people have been reporting seeing White-tailed eagles. It is now thought there are 2 Golden Eagles here and I have spoken to a guy who has seen them together.

Raptors on the whole appear to be flourishing in the county. We now have a Sparrowhawk here visiting our garden, and a lot of people have commented on seeing them on a regular basis of late. One flew right into a shop window in the High Street this week.

I have never seen Peregrine Falcon as much as I have of late either, one nearly flew right into our upstairs sitting room window last month and we see one every few days around here. Short eared owls also are doing well (I think), we saw 6 on our bird race earlier this year and again my other half saw one in the garden 2 months ago, with one being seen just down the road on Monday night.

Mammal wise its looking good as well. I saw the Otter on Sunday.
Last Thursday I went inland to look for rutting Red deer Stags, we found one stag with 17 hinds, and 4 younger males nearby. No fighting though. Others have seen plenty of stags fighting. Only one grey seal pup so far but it was sadly dead, it should be kicking off any day now and I might see some this weekend. Again my friend has some fantastic photos of the grey bulls fighting on a beach where as many as 200 Greys gather. Common seals did not do well and we only saw 4 or 5 pups, quite a few commons have been injured of late, including one we picked up which was put down due to its injuries. It is thought there may be a struggle between species for food or territories.

Cetaceans seen this summer by myself or my seawatch buddy.

Harbour porpoise most calm days, and witnessed 3 Minkie Whales feeding at Whaligoe a fortnight ago. There had been 6 when the report came through, but it took half an hour to get there, by which time it was only 3. These 3 stayed for 2 days and a friend got some wonderful photos. Digiscoping is not any good for whales so I di not even try.

Minkies have been very very scarce this year, in fact we had far more Orca sightings this year, as well as Common dolphins, Humpback Whale, Rissos Dolphin, Atlantic White-sided dolphin, Bottlenosed dolphins, White-beaked dolphin, quite a few sperm whale sightings, as well as Basking sharks and a potrbeagle Shark.

A photo of our first for the county Cattle egret below.

Set off out today with one goal in mind, find a collared goose. I found 2 Greylags, one Grey HLV and Orange BTB.
They were in amongst a mixed flock of greylags and Pinkfeet around 1000 strong, with 81 Greenland white fronts at the other side. This was all at Loch of Mey.
28 or there about Whoopers at St Johns inc my first young ones of this winter, a report of 58 in a local field inc young.

8 Great Northern and 10 Red-throated divers in Dunnet bay as well as 4 late juvenile Arctic terns, a female Red-breasted meganser, Eiders, Long-tailed Ducks, Guillemots, Razorbills, a Puffin (sadly), Shags, Cormorants and a lot of Gulls, inc Great black-back, Herring, Common and Black headed.

Pochard, Mallard, Goldeneye, tufted ducks, Wigeon and Mute Swans on St Johns. Little Grebe, Teal and moorhen at Ham.

Other birds seen around the day, Starlings, Buzzard, Kestrel, Hooded Crow, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Stonechat, Collared dove, Rock Dove, Redshank, turnstone, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Yellow wagtail, Rock Pipit, Gannet, Black guillemot, Heron and probably something I have forgotten.

As I was writting I have got word back on the 2 Collars

HLV was ringed at Hallfredarstadabla, Hroarstunga, N-Mul in 1998, was in Auchterarder in 1999, Ayrshire in 2001, Fife and Stranraer in 2003.

BTB was ringed at Loch Eye in 2005 and was spotted about Easter Ross that same year.

Common and Grey seals seen as well.

I do not know if anyone else has been watching the super whooper migration on the wildfowl and wetlands trust website. The first whooper to make its migration south has arrived in Caithness this evening after landing in the Western Isles on Friday. He is near Loch Heilan.

On arrival to Lewis Fiachra flew right through an area at the centre of a controversial windfarm proposal. So this data is very important as migrating birds could be effected by such windfarms.
I am going to go and see if I can spot him tomorrow although I think it will be unlikely as I do not know how visible the transmitter will be and the fact he could head off again.



http://www.wwt.org.uk/superwhooper/573/super_whooper.html

kas said:

I do not know if anyone else has been watching the super whooper migration on the wildfowl and wetlands trust website. The first whooper to make its migration south has arrived in Caithness this evening after landing in the Western Isles on Friday. He is near Loch Heilan.

On arrival to Lewis Fiachra flew right through an area at the centre of a controversial windfarm proposal. So this data is very important as migrating birds could be effected by such windfarms.
I am going to go and see if I can spot him tomorrow although I think it will be unlikely as I do not know how visible the transmitter will be and the fact he could head off again.



http://www.wwt.org.uk/superwhooper/573/super_whooper.html

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Ah! this link is OK for me... I'll check it out later.

D