Caithness Birding (1 Viewer)

HI everyone I have been thinking about this for a while and since the org pages (not forum) have come to a standstill, I thought the few of us that are on here, could post our sightings. I hope you dont mind.

After work I went in search of the Surf Scoter spotted in an Eider flock in Dunnet bay this morning, but got no joy due to a heavy Swell and the eiders being quite far off shore.

However all was not lost as their was still plenty about on the beach and in the bay.

1 Sanderling in amonst 10 Ringed plover
14 Common Scoters, All female,
1 Scaup,
30 Long-tailed ducks in the surf which was brilliant to watch,
150 Greylags flying over head,
23 RB Megansers
50-60 Twite
3 Curlew
200 Eider off shore (approx)
20 Shags
4 Cormorants
6 Hooded Crows
16 Oystercatchers
4 Gannets
hundreds of gulls, but due to fading light I did not have time to count, just the usual GBB, Common, Herring & BH.
and a 3 Dunlin at Castlehill.

I am surprised there was no divers as there is a few Red-Throats in Thurso bay and have been for weeks.

Now Iain please tell us the 70 species you managed to bag today, and we can all go green with envy.

Thank you very much for suggesting this forum for us to keep our records in birdforum.net, this is the perfect place for us all to catch up with what is going on in our area.

I thought that I would go out and do my Plover survey today and as I was going to Wick I had a look out to Noss Head first and boy do I wish that I was doing my survey out there!

I saw some 150+ Lapwings at Papigoe, a Common Scoter at Staxigoe Harbour, a huge flock of 150+ mixed gulls at Noss Head, 4 Gannets at Broadhaven but not very much else around that area which I am sure is down to the heavy rain and dark dreary day. (I didn't want to go far so only saw these from the car.)

I then went onto Wester Loch which is my survey area and there I saw -

90 Great Black Back Gulls
140 Herring Gulls
1 solitary duck which was too far out to ID on this dreary day
I didn't see any lapwings or plovers so I hope that I have better luck next time

I finished my round trip with a stop off at Castlehill and saw loads there -

large numbers of long tail ducks
2 red throated divers
Ringed Plovers
Herring Gulls
GBB Gulls
large numbers of Eider Ducks M/F

Great day all round.

I spoke to Mary today and she said that the Surf Scoter wasn't there this morning either so maybe it has left to meet the rest of his group. Keep me posted.

Looking forward to reading everyones reports.

Happy birding.

Today I was checking out the seal colonies so its only what birds I saw whilst doing this although I did check for the Surf Scoter but couldnt even find the eider flocks, did see nice human surfers though.

500+ Gannets, they were everywhere between Dunnet and Duncansby
15 Manx Shearwater
250 Greylags in total, with orange neck band AAX.
100 Redwings at Duncansby head
70 Twite at Duncansby & 50 at Sanick
Bagged the 2 RT divers at Castlehill.
Raven
2 Kestrels
2 Buzzards
12 GBB Gulls tucking into a daed grey seal
funniest thing was a Guillemot and Eider in amonst 150 Shags on a rock face, with a fulmar sleeping just above
as well as all the usual suspects but the highlight had to be a Peregrine above our house this morning., Kevs discovery, he was roaring "come and look at this" he's learning. :t:

Hi Kas,

With the day off on Friday and after a couple of days of easterly winds I decided to check out points east. My plan was to start at Duncansby Hd and work south through to Wick then home.

A Surf Scoter was reported on Thursday from Dunnet Bay so I would call in there first on my way to Duncansby. Only problem at Dunnet was the thick fog at 8 a.m. and although I could make out a large flock of eider and long-tailed duck off mid-sands I didn't fancy my chance of picking out the scoter. At the east end of the bay was a single Great Northern Diver and 6 Red-breasted merganser.

Dunnet beach was better with 9 Sanderling at 2 Snow Bunting virtually at my feet with the usual supporting cast of gulls and waders.

St. John's Loch had 150+ Tufted Duck, a few Mallard and Teal, a f. Common Scoter and 13 Whooper Swans.

Duncansby Hd was fairly quiet though a few Gannets fishing close inshore were as impressive as ever. Around Jo'G though there were hundreds of Blackbirds, Redwings and quiet a few Goldcrest.

At Skirza another Snow Bunting was luck to escape a persuing Hooded Crow but the chase made for a spectacular aerial display. Vast numbers of gulls moving N through Freswick Bay mostly Herring Gull, Common Gull and Kittiwake.

The water level at Loch of Wester was as high as I've ever seen it and the adjacent field held 30+ Meadow Pipits, 3 White Wagtails and 20 Linnet. At Quoys of Reiss there were 300 Golden Plover.

Noss Hd was dead so I moved on to South Hd and sat at the Trinkie. This was far better with a constant northward passage including 300+ Gannet, 500+ Guillemot and 300 Razorbill. Also 20 Long-tailed Duck, 300 Kittiwake, 1 Great Skua and 3 Manx Shearwater.

On the way home I got one Swallow and a Raven with an unfortunate meadow pipit.

The day hadn't turned up anything spectacular and I guess I could have added a few more if I'd covered some different habitat but it was great fun.

The full list was

1 Great Northern Diver
2 Northern Fulmar
3 Manx Shearwater
4 Northern Gannet
5 Great Cormorant
6 European Shag
7 Grey Heron
8 Mute Swan
9 Whooper Swan
10 Pink-footed Goose
11 Greylag Goose
12 Eurasian Wigeon
13 Eurasian Teal
14 Mallard
15 Tufted Duck
16 Common Eider
17 Long-tailed Duck
18 Common Scoter
19 Common Goldeneye
20 Red-breasted Merganser
21 Eurasian Buzzard
22 Eurasian Kestrel
23 Pheasant
24 Eurasian Oystercatcher
25 Northern Lapwing
26 Eurasian Golden-Plover
27 Common Ringed Plover
28 Eurasian Curlew
29 Common Redshank
30 Ruddy Turnstone
31 Sanderling
32 Dunlin
33 Great Skua
34 Common Gull
35 Great Black-backed Gull
36 European Herring Gull
37 Black-headed Gull
38 Kittiwake
39 Guillemot
40 Razorbill
41 Rock/Feral Pigeon
42 Common Wood-Pigeon
43 Eurasian Collared-Dove
44 Eurasian Skylark
45 Barn Swallow
46 Pied/White Wagtail (alba and yarrellii)
47 Meadow Pipit
48 Rock Pipit
49 Goldcrest
50 Winter Wren
51 Dunnock
52 Eurasian Blackbird
53 Redwing
54 Mistle Thrush
55 European Robin
56 European Stonechat
57 Eurasian Blue Tit
58 Eurasian Jackdaw
59 Rook
60 Carrion Crow
61 Hooded Crow
62 Common Raven
63 European Starling
64 House Sparrow
65 Chaffinch
66 European Greenfinch
67 European Goldfinch
68 Eurasian Linnet
69 Reed Bunting
70 Snow Bunting

Cheers
Iain

Hi Kas, Looks like you've had another good day. Surprised I never connected with Twite on Friday.

You'll make a birder of Kev yet!

Cheers
Iain

My Garden - 22.10.06 9.00am

Great excitement for me......these are all in my garden as I type.

50+ House Sparrows
40+ Starlings
1 Rook
6 Collared Doves
1 Dunnock
1 Wren (first ever in my garden)
1 very pale scruffy Blue Tit (first for months)

Easily pleased. o

Forgot to mention that yesterday I am sure that it was Tree Sparrows that were in the bushes on the Lyth Road after I turned left off the road after the Wester Bridge. I will check this again next time I am in that area.

Have you seen any Tree Sparrows there Iain?

Disappointed that there were no Golden Plovers at Wester yesterday that would have been excellent, especially for my survey.

Stan said that he and Julian saw approx 2,000 at Rattar on the way home from twitching the Pallis's Warbler the other Friday. Now that would have been a sight worth seeing.

Keep the posts coming.

kas said:

500+ Gannets, they were everywhere between Dunnet and Duncansby
15 Manx Shearwater

funniest thing was a Guillemot and Eider in amonst 150 Shags on a rock face, with a fulmar sleeping just above

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I have never seen Manx Shearwater so would have loved that. Where about were they?

I love watching the Gannets fishing, they strike the water like they are falling out of the air and will hit the seabird and get stuck there forever. The most awesome sight I have ever seen since starting birding was the Gannets on Bass Rock. That is embedded in my memory forever......spectacular.

kas said:

250 Greylags in total, with orange neck band AAX.

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Did you report the neckband?

Yes I reported the neckband, details of its banding can be found here.
http://www.eastdalesringinggroup.org.uk/greylag.htm#links

I never got out today, but had a great day from the house.

First thing I spotted this morning wasa winter plumage Slavonian Grabe at the harbour., and the highlight being my first Whooper swans of the autumn. A group of 13 flew in from the North West over the bay towards Dunnet Head. They were accompanied by 19 Geese but too far away for me to ID. I also heard a large number of Greylags over the house at 2am in the morning.

Others today included
1 Red breasted Meganser
2 Common Scoters
10 Eider
40 Long-tailed Ducks
2 Red-throated Divers
too many Guillemots for my liking, many in the harbour and in the surf. They should be at sea.
1 Razorbill
1 Cormorant
Many Shags
2 Black Guillemots
50 Redshank
10 Ringed plover
2 Curlew
Many Oystercatchers
2 Turnstone
Common Gulls
GBB Gulls
Herring Gulls
BH Gulls
Rooks
3 Hooded Crows
5 Jackdaws
1 Rock Pipit
2 Robins fighting
2 Blackbirds
1 Wren
17 Starlings
21 House Sparrow
5 Greenfinch
Plenty of Gannets off shore

2 Common seals and a Grey seal as well.

Noticed a Surf Scoter turned up down the Moray way.

Orange neck banded Greylag AAX

Got the details of greylag AAX, very kindly from Brian Haines.

It is an adult male (age 6 in ringing speak;this basically means that it was at least 2 years old at the time of initial capture), was ringed at Nosterfield, North Yorkshire on 2nd March 2003.

Since then it was seen at various sites in North Yorkshire in 2003/2004, and was later seen in April 2004 in Iceland. It was seen in Iceland again in 2005 & 2006 but not subsequently in the UK until this sighting last weekend.

My friens brother is still saying about the Golden Eagle I mentioned at the SOC meeting. It disappeared last week but reappeared on Sunday. Apparantly they have a Buzzard there as well, so they are confident it is an immature eagle.

I had a call out at teatime about a pup up west. I could not believe the amount of raptors I managed to see whilst going up considering the light was fading fast. 6 Kestrels and 5 Buzzards. I suspect this was the first chance they had to hunt all day due to the heavy rain. 2 Grey Herons at Armadale.

I nearly killed 2 Pheasants at Russ's house, so if you heard the sreech of brakes at 1730 hours then that was me Russ. 12 Red Deer all hinds as well on Drumholliston.

16 Whoopers comming in off the sea at Dounreay, another 13 at Hill of Forss. Not the same birds as they were seen 10 mins apart.

350-400 Greylags on the Hill of Forss, 2 with Orange neck bands, but I was not able to get the info without disturbing the whoopers. Both geese seemed irratated by their bands, both were permanently at the bands with their bill and feet for the half an hour I was there, whilst nearly all the others were resting.

Another 250-300 Greylags flew in from the North onto Scrabster hill, whilst I was at the hill of Forss.

Tree Sparrows

Hi Rin,

I'm sorry to say that I haven't seen any Tree Sparrows in Caithness for years and don't recall ever seeing them at Lyth but I sure hope you're right (didn't see any there today though). They were most frequently seen at Tister and Olrig.

Lots of Whoopers today including 16 at Sandside, 35 on Loch Heilen with 55 nearby at East Greenland and 73 at Lyth. Stubble field at Greenland had 1000 Greylag mid morning.

There were 500 each of Golden Plover and Lapwing at Loch Heilen which looks promosing as that's my area for the winter plover survey. There was also a single Slavonian Grebe on the Loch.

Cheers
Iain

Good little part of the world you have up there - good to get a chance to read the everyday happenings of this little bit of 'foreign lands' tucked away up on top. Keep up the postings!

Twite

Iain

If I remember correctly we always saw twite when we were on our class outings at Sandside with Geoff. They were in the field behind the toilet block, looking onto Sandside Estate.

I have to confess that I have no real idea how to determine just how many birds are in one area.........ie lose count after a few hundred and just add + to where I was at when lost count !

I must brush up on that skill as I am sure that I have more than likely totally underestimated the numbers of geese that I have seen in fields on the Shebster / Calder area. Can't wait to speak to Stan to see what numbers he recorded that after noon at Calder, he was about 30 minutes in front of me.

Speak soon

Some house list there

kas said:

I never got out today, but had a great day from the house.

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Wow, eeeee........

Who needs to go out of the house with a list like that...........wow Kas, fantastic.

I might take a run to Sandside at lunch time tomorrow if I actually get a lunch hour that is.........this week has been hectic. Not got away from my desk for lunch this week and meetings again tomorrow. When will I get any work done !!!!

I'll let you know if I do and what I see.

Keep busy, migrant hunting.

Thanks for starting this thread Kas, it's great to hear what's going on up there.

D

I have to 'ditto' what Delia has said. It is really enjoyable to read about that part of the world which I tend to visit once a year or maybe slightly more frequently when I also visit Sutherland. Keep the reports coming. Thank you all.

17.30pm tonight

On my way home from work just now I saw 13 Whoopers, 1 cygnet and some 150 Greylag Geese in the field adjacent to the road at the Janetstown/Achscrabster turnoff.

They were settling in for the night by the look of it. Light too poor to determine in more than the one cygnet but one definate sighting.

Great publication of photo Kas, excellent picture of a seal pup, recognition at last.

Rin x

I only saw a Whooper flock in the forss fields today, I didnt see a single other bird, not even a gull or crow. What a day. Who knows what may have blown in from the north though, although I doubt anyone would be out looking.

For non local people
Caithness was hit with force 10 winds gusting to force 11, and some serious flooding. The 2 main Rivers burst their banks in various places, and many roads are closed including all our roads south.

Nobody I have spoken to has ever seen so much rain before.

Another beach patrol for seal pups today. When I met a lovely gentleman who saw a Black Redstart at John O' Groats near the campsite. I had a nose for it myself, but no joy.

Mainly the norm on the go today, but I did see my first Great Northern Diver of the Autumn.
Hopefully get a birdie day tomorrow.