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Tayforth Birding (3 Viewers)

At Carsebreck on Monday, we saw something unusual. A Red Kite was swooping down at something that was just over the brow of the hill. On the first pass, it was flown at by an Oystercatcher, which it took no notice of. The second pass made another Oystercatcher rise up flapping in alarm before settling down again. On the third pass, this Oystercatcher was driven away and the Red Kite descended onto the place she(?) had been occupying. We didn't see what happened then, but I can imagine. I felt sorry for the Oystercatchers, but was also thrilled by the power and beauty of the Kite.

It was a day for raptors. We also saw a couple of Buzzards and a Kestrel on a wire that was there on the way in and on the way out. There were Reed Buntings all over. When I first added one of these birds to my year list (on April 27) I had to look up my book to identify it, but since then I've been seeing them everywhere I go. I also got a couple of new birds for my list: Red-legged Partridge and Sedge Warbler.

We cut it short because my wife was still recuperating from a cold (it'll be flu when I get it) and repaired to the Rapha Centre for coffee and a date slice.

Michael.
 
What a great experience that was for you MacGee, those memories live with you forever.

As I said, my pictures were cr@p - this is the best of them

D
 

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Well, 4getmenot and me went for a wee trip to Loch of the Lowes this afternoon. The female was about the nest, but in general the 2 remaining chicks were more or less left to their own devices (Boy, are Osprey chicks ugly!)
Plenty was to be seen though, besides the Ospreys. On the feeders we had siskin, chaffinch, great tit, coal tit, yellowhammer and great spotted woodpecker.
On the loch we had canada geese, moorhen, mallard and a great crested grebe. A few black headed gulls were flying about, too.

The best part was the Fungarth Walk that Delia had previously shown me. At the very start of the walk we had our first bullfinch sighting of this year. Always a bonus! Janie managed to point out a great-spotted woodpecker while we were about, too... quite chuffed with that, as we normally only ever see them at the feeders. Lots of other birds on the walk, pheasant, swallows, a family of starlings, more yellowhammers, more chaffinch and great tits, too.

All in all, it was a good afternoon, with the bullfinch being the highlight for me.
 
We arrived in Culross to find the tide in. A failure of staffwork there. There were some Eider and a Cormorant on the water. In the woods Larks and Meadow Pipits and a young Linnet. I thought I saw a Redstart too, but couldn't swear to it. In the meadows and grassy verges there were lots of butterflies and moths. Painted Ladies, Common Blues and Burnet Moths. On the way back some Rock Pipits, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls and Common Gulls. I stared at the Common Gulls for a while trying to get them to be Kittiwakes, but they wouldn't budge. Finally, with the tide going out, a Curlew (Bar-tailed Godwit?) on the water's edge. I'm going to need bigger binoculars.

Michael.
 
Well, i went to my local patch, Cullaloe today. All of the usual birds were to be seen. There was tufted duck, mallard, swans (plus 3 cygnets - although they started with 5, seem to have lost 2) coot and herons on the loch. One of the herons appeared to be a juvenile and the other a parent, i assume.
On the approach there was sedge warblers and plenty of swallows to be seen. I got a brief glimpse of a reed bunting and there was a wren just in front of the screen.

I'd asked for permission from the SWT last month to put up some feeders (on the condition that i kept them stocked) and we originally had 2 seed feeders and 1 small peanut feeder. They were all going down, but the peanut seemed the favourite. On monday 2 new peanut feeders arrived (Had ordered them from Haiths, along with a 25kg bag of peanuts) so i put them up beside the original, and moved the seed feeders to a seperate location.
The seed feeders are going down, but i've still yet to see them actually in use.
As for the peanut feeders... today i got the nicest surprise i could have! There was 4 great tits feeding away on the feeders, i turned to look at the herons on the loch and when i turned back the great tits were gone... to be replaced with a great spotted woodpecker! Kinda makes the expense for the feeders seem that little bit more worthwhile :)
I'm a very happy boy today :)
 
Thanks Delia.

I'll keep you updated with new birds on the feeders, but so far it's more or less the common ones.

On the peanut feeders we've had great tit, coal tit, blue tit, chaffinch and great spotted woodpecker
The seed feeders are a mystery right now... only once have i seen anything on the smallest seed feeder.. a lone great tit. I'm sure there's more to be seen, though!

We're probably gonna be replacing the seed food that we use, anyway... we made the mistake of getting cheap food, which has a pretty high wheat content. We're probably gonna replace it with some of Haiths huskfree mix.
 
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Loch Leven

Well, Janie and I decided to pop along to Vane Farm for a spot of birding yesterday. Little did we know that they were celebrating 40 years on the site and having an open day! The place was packed full of visitors. They'd actually closed off the main car park to all but disabled visitors and opened up a nearby field to use as a car park for the day (And it was pretty full!)
It was good to see so many people taking an interest, though. They had lots of fun things for kids going on, with quizzes, pond dipping, etc. Who knows... maybe some day soon those kids will end up being BF members! :)
As for the birds themselves, there was still plenty about, despite the huge human invasion. Tufted ducks absolutely everywhere, a few pochard mixed in with them. Lapwings all round the edges, along with a couple of grey herons. If Delia can remember the last trip, she'll recall the greylag geese with the goslings. I can safely say that the goslings made it ok. They're now huge! Won't be long now till they've fledged and gone. There was plenty of reed buntings to be seen at the edges, too.
We spoke to one of the guys from SNH who were there and got directions to their hide on the loch (Again, Delia will remember the conversation with the woman about the hide from the last visit).
Basically, go into Kinross and follow the signs for Kirkgate Park. Once in the park, drive right to the end where there's a graveyard. From there it's about a 500 yard walk along the path to the hide.
The hide is on the edge of a reed bed and there's plenty to see. Again, plenty of tufted duck there. There was also mute swans, black-headed gull, a large number of great-crested grebes, coot, mallard, etc. It certainly didn't disappoint (and it was a whole lot quieter than Vane Farm was!)
Well worth a visit if you're going to vane farm. Nice to have a hide on the other side of the loch, too.
Oh, incidentally... Fife Bird Club had a stand at Vane Farm, so we joined to get access to the hides. Apparently they're gonna be changing the locks to them soon, too.
 
i visited the opsprey nest on the pylon today hoping to see some chicks , but none are showing yet, last week i saw the male come in with a pike,he flew past the nest a good 500yds then turned and flew to the nest, i thought maybe two nests? but with the weight of the fish he is catching its no wonder he has to take such a big flight route

waiting
osp3.jpg


landing
osp1.jpg


mates
osp2.jpg
 
Well, Janie and i went to Cullaloe, my local patch again tonight. The aim was to will up the feeders we had there. When we got there, the branch which the peanut feeders were on had snapped (it was dead wood, and i guess gravity got the better of it - add the fact that something had tried to get in to one of the feeders, so confident a squirrel was about)
The seed feeders were fine, but completely empty (and we've still to get a decent glimpse of anyone on the larger of the two!). It didn't take us too long to fix up the feeders and attach them to more sturdy branches, though.
On the loch, the swans were about, as usual, with all 3 cygnets in tow. They're looking pretty healthy, which is good. The loch was pretty empty, though, but we think that's because it's relatively small and the swans will be driving everything away right now. There was still a few coot about including one juvenile, along with a couple of tufted ducks. The swallows were making the most of the suddenly clear weather and were darting about all over the surface of the loch.
We saw quite a few different birds around the reserve, though. There was the buzzard soaring overhead and the kestrel seen near the top of the small hill, hunting for prey. We also saw swifts, a song thrush, plenty of blackbirds, a whitethroat at the edge of the willows for a brief moment and we saw a male redstart. That's a first for me there, which is great! I think we're at 45 species seen there since mid May, which aint too bad going!
All in all, it wasn't a bad hour or so, considering we'd only gone along to fill up the feeders!

Oh yeah... we also heard a bird which we aint heard there before... in simple terms, it sound like an old-style telephone ring. It went Ring-ring, but then we never heard it again. I'm certainly open to thoughts on what that was!
 
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i visited the opsprey nest on the pylon today hoping to see some chicks , but none are showing yet, last week i saw the male come in with a pike,he flew past the nest a good 500yds then turned and flew to the nest, i thought maybe two nests? but with the weight of the fish he is catching its no wonder he has to take such a big flight route

waiting
osp3.jpg


landing
osp1.jpg


mates
osp2.jpg


Nice shots.Please keep us all updated on their progress ?:t:
 
Montrose Beach

Early morning text message announced the presence of a Roseate Tern at the ternery on the shore by the Glaxo site. It had been spotted by the guys guarding the nesting site. Their dedication is admirable!!
Nipped down and sat in the cold, the wind and drizzle but was eventually rewarded when the bird settled on the shore to preen. Little tern chicks now venturing out of their nests - great to see these birds nesting on local beaches again.
Roseate tern is a lifer for me. Great start to the week. Off to work now.
 
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Well, i've had a very busy (and very good!) birding day today.

I went to the Morton Lochs this afternoon, which was full of life. There was a couple of goldfinches on the drive to the loch.
There's a dabchick nesting in plain view of the hide on the south loch, which is nice. Quite funny to watch the male chasing anything and everything away... including a juvenile dabchick. I wonder if this is an attempt at a second brood?? Saw sedge warbler and willow warbler on the way to the south hide, and heard woodpeckers in the trees (but never saw them).
The red squirrels were about on the way to the north loch. There was one with a pine cone as big as his head in his mouth!
There was plenty of robins, wrens and great tits about on the way to the north hide. On the loch itself, it was pretty much all the usual suspects. Tufted duck, dabchick, mallard, greylag goose (Down to 2 goslings now, but they're almost indistinguishable from the adults, so will be gone soon), herons (6 in total, and 2 of those were obviously quite young)
On the drive back to the main road we had yet another heron (in the pig field, which had flooded!), mistle thrush and yellowhammer.
There was young frogs absolutely everywhere on the paths there, too.
The interesting part about the trip to the morton lochs wasn't bird related... it was a bat! Hunting, in the middle of the afternoon, just in front of me. I couldn't believe my eyes! First time i've ever seen one in proper daylight. I guess since the weather has been so bad the past few days, it was forced to come out during the day to hunt. I never realised how translucent the wings are on them. Huge difference between daytime and dusk/dark!

In the evening i met up with Janie (4getmenot, for those that don't know) and we went to Cullaloe, as we have a habit of doing on a monday evening. The swans are still about with their 3 cygnets, as was several coot and 1 juvenile (which is pretty close to fledging by now, i'd say) tufted ducks, and the return of the ruddy duck (Haven't seen him there for a few weeks now). I also got me a lifer! My first ever Kingfisher!. I'm one VERY happy boy tonight! :)
The buzzard was also about tonight, along with sedge warbler, blackbirds, wren, swift and swallows.
Janie also got her fix for the day there, too, with the sighting of the roe deer on the hill, which she's been trying to see for ages (I've seen them there a couple of times, but she has always missed them)
All in all, it was a very good day and i'm now tired, but happy :)
 
Well, today was another interesting day for me.
Went to the Scottish game fair with Janie today. Wasn't much in the way of birds about (not surprising for the number of guns and gundogs in such a small space!) but there was a good few sand martins which could be seen on the river. Looks like they're still nesting there, too
There was also a couple of oystercatchers about, but that's about it.
The main point of the game fair was a chance to test out and try different types and brands of binoculars at the same time. That turned out quite fruitful - i now have a pair of Minox BL 8x42's.

So, we decided to test them out proper this evening and went to Cullaloe. The timing must have been perfect (or the binoculars exceptionally good - which probably aint far off the mark) It had just stopped raining after a particularly heavy downpour when we headed along there. It just seemed to be the night for warblers along there. Straight off the bat, we had a sedge warbler parading right in front of the car... before we'd even got out! We had chiffchaff and willow warbler in amongst the willow scrub, and on the return we had whitethroat. There were also Reed buntings, robins, blackbirds, greenfinch, both song and mistle thrushes to be found.
The buzzard was on the telegraph pole next to the car park when we arrived, and quickly swooped off. Swallows were diving about all over the place.
On the loch itself there was the usual suspects of coot (including one juvenile) the mute swans (including 3 cygnets - they get bigger every visit... and i go there 2 or 3 times a week!) and a lone tufted duck.
It was a good trip, and the binoculars excelled themselves for me (although don't get me wrong, the old ones weren't bad for the price... the new ones cost more than double the amount!) and the sheer number of warblers was really quite impressive... they were all over the place, singing their little hearts out tongiht! :)
 
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i passed the osprey nest on the pylon last week and saw the male land with a large pike, he sat for about three mins then flew west carrying the pike, the female also flew the nest but landed in the field below the nest, she returned carrying a large branch to the nest, i only learned about this pair last winter so dont know a lot about their breeding success but it doesn,t look good, hopefully im wrong, on a lighter note while driving along the tealing to auchterhouse road yesterday a young swallow which looked like he was taking his first flight flew towards my car while i was driving, he was struggling to keep his balance and looked sure to be embedded on my grill, i hit the brakes and automaticly checked my rear view, there he was still flying erraticly but still flying ,he/she went right under my car and managed to keep off the ground ,i was very impessed
 
kawwauser said:
i only learned about this pair last winter so dont know a lot about their breeding success

The nest wasn't in use 2 years ago, but they fledged one chick last year.

Well done on missing the swallow though!

D
 
There are two youngsters this year on the pylon. Kinnordys local pair also have three this year which is great. Should be good in a few weeks time when they all start to fish at the loch.
 
I had what I call a 'good Osprey day'

First the pylon with mum and the 2 youngsters visible.

Then off to Kinnordy and 3 came in to fish.

Got some pictures too

D
 

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I had to go into Perth today and fancied some exercise, so called in at Quarrymill.

Loads of Wrens and Blackbirds and 2 sightings of Dipper (I'm sure they were different birds). A couple of Treecreepe (heard more though), Blue and Great Tits and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Lovely lunch there too!:-O

D
 

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