Heard a rail there too. And several hundred starlings flew over me at sunrise yesterday morning. Think they had been gathering on the cleared bit just beyond the concrete bridge. All migrants or do the local birds flock together this time of year?
This afternoon, there were a few hundred
Starlings going to roost in the marsh at St Fittick's, which is good to see. I would guess they're a mixture of local birds and migrants. They will all flock at this time of the year.
It was a pleasant, interesting day today, although there wasn't quite the influx of birds from the east that there seemed to be potential for. Two
Snow Buntings appeared, rather peculiarly perching on the fence between Walker Park and the golf course. They then reappeared near the foghorn. In the same area, a
Short-eared Owl flew overhead, being mobbed by crows. Presumably, it had just arrived in. Not too much was happening at sea, although three
Sanderling and three
Goldeneye went through. A couple of
Redwings were around the Battery.
It's been a tricky start to the winter for fans of the
Purple Sandpiper Totaliser. The birds don't seem to be roosting on Skate's Nose at all at the moment, which is making them harder to count. Today, there was some progress with birds roosting on the breakwater and in Greyhope Bay:
176
Let's hope there's some more purposeful action in the near future.
A wander round St Fittick's in the afternoon produced nice views of a
Jack Snipe in the marsh. A
Common Snipe was seen on the ground there too. A
Water Rail showed well at dusk along the Tullos Burn.
