Eden Estuary News (6 Viewers)

[edenwatcher]

Saturday was another 50+ species day. Highlights included a remarkable count of 23 greenshanks, our best of the year, slavonian grebe, and the first long-tailed ducks of the autumn (5, 2 females and 3 1st winter types). Sunday's highlight was a group of 6 scaup and the first 19 greylags of the autumn. Up to 2000 golden plovers were around on both days.

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

A fairly quiet few days, with winter visitors arriving. Goldeneye numbers have increased sharply - now at least 30; and a flock of 67 greylags arrived on Sunday morning. The first 5 whoopers were seen on Friday morning with a single on Monday morning. Sunday afternoon produced a good tally of 3 red-throated divers, 3 great crested grebes and a slav grebe.
Frustration of the week came on Saturday morning when I got on to 2 skuas chasing a gull at the estuary mouth. They looked reasonably robust then were joined by 2 more which looked slighter. All 4 drifted of towards Kinshaldy. Probably 2 poms and 2 arctics but no chance of confirming it.

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

An excellent weekend with 60 spp. seen, worth a separate post for each day.
Saturday began with a single whooper swan flying up river, presumably the same bird as earlier in the week. A tree sparrow visiting the feeders was the first for several months, and most welcome. It was back again this morning. I spent quite a bit of time scanning out towards the estuary mouth during the day, in the hope of picking up velvet scoter for the garden year list. No joy on that front but I did manage a few common scoter and long-tailed duck along with a couple of late gannets. No sign of any little auks coming upstream either. There were very high tides over the weekend (especially Sunday) producing a fine spectacle in front of the house. Saturday produced an incredible 20 greenshanks along with 288 black-tailed godwits. A female merlin caused some commotion as she flew through mid-afternoon.
Finally I counted 46 goldeneye at dusk (often a good time of day to count them as they loll around in groups rather than feeding).

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

Visibility wasn't so good on Sunday so I wasted less time looking for velvets! Whilst scanning downstream I did see a mistle thrush fly across the estuary - still a real garden mega!
2 red-throated divers came well upstream on the rising tide along with a single great crested grebe. I couldn't prove more than 16 greenshanks in the roost but the tide came in so fast that things were constantly on the move. Good numbers of dabbling ducks included a partial eclipse drake shoveler and 7 pintail (6 drakes). The peregrine pair provided some high drama on the falling tide. The male took out a starling over the saltmarsh and picked it up on his second swoop. The female however decided that she wanted it and gave chase. Incredible acrobatics followed for about 2 minutes before the male surrendered and dropped it. The female then retried it and flew up to the papermill with her prize. Great stuff!
The pick of the day came over high tide itself with a superb male kingfisher which showed extremely well for about 40 minutes. Only our 3rd record (and a garden first for Sue) and the first for over 2 years. It spent some time mobbing a male sparrowhawk, which was entertaining! 122 for the year and a good chance of equalling or bettering our best ever total of 124 (still need fieldfare, and of course velvet scoter).

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

A fairly quiet weekend. We were out all yesterday, and more or less confined to the house on Saturday by construction work at Edenwatcher Towers. We are having a new conservatory (or hide!) built - ideal for year-round birding.
I still managed to bag a record count of 6 red-throated divers without leaving the living room! Greylag numbers have risen sharply over the past week - I counted 284 on Thursday morning and I suspect there has been a further arrival since then.
Early morning yesterday I saw the single whooper swan again and the tree sparrow visited the feeders.

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

Last week was very quiet on the whole, apart from a covey of 11 grey partridges in front of the house on Tuesday morning - our biggest count by some way.
Saturday's highlight was a drake pochard (4th record), with other birds of note including red-throated diver, dabchick, whooper swan and rock pipit. Yesterday was excellent with 58 spp seen. These included red-throated diver, 2 slav grebes, dabchick, a late gannet, knot, razorbill (was hoping for little auk!), mistle thrush and 2 tree sparrows. Greylag numbers are up to 408, quite a high total for this early in the winter.

Rob

 

[changing9]

The RSPB have applied for a licence to release 100 sea eagles (from Norway) in the area over a 5-year period.

Given that the main prey of sea eagles is waterfowl and seabirds, is this a good idea?

 

[edenwatcher]

Yes please!
Been fairly standard fare over the past week or two. Still some good birds around though: red-throated diver, slav. grebe, pintail, long-tailed duck ...
Saturday produced a December record of 15 greenshanks also 2 adult gannets 9our first in December). We have had a few mistle thrush sightings of late - no longer a mega!? Last Saturday produced a wonderful peregrine performance with both male and female hanging in the wind with occasional swoops and mock food passes. The male also made a few half-hearted chases after redshank. Tree sparrows are still turning up at the feeders despite the inevitable disturbance as the conservatory goes up. Should be done in a week or so.

Rob

 

[Steve G]

Ultimately 14 Greenshank from the council hide on sunday; papermill Peregrine pair also put on a brief display whilst we all got tucked into coffee & Eck's jammy do'nuts -its tough-going birding on the Eden estuary in december!!

 

[edenwatcher]

At last something worth reporting! A nice crisp, cold weekend - which certainly makes a change. I managed over 50 spp on Saturday and our new conservatory produced its first addition to the garden list in the shape of a pair of bullfinches (145, 123 for the year). A little later a flock of redwings and fieldfares passed through our poplars taking us to 124 for the year. This equals our record showing of 2004 and 2005. Still time to make 125 ...
Other notable records for Saturday included single red-throated diver and slavonian grebe, 4 whooper swans and 2 long-tailed ducks.
Sunday was quieter but there were 5 whooper swans and I counted 541 greylag geese, which is up on the same time last year.

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

Well for the 3rd year running the total is 124! Not a bad day to end the year (well this morning anyhow):
single red-throated diver, 2 slav grebes (one of which came right up to the confluence with the Motray), a dabchick (3 yesterday), 2 pintail, 7 long-tailed ducks (4 of them drakes), a magpie (perhaps the rarest bird of the day!), a record 21 goldfinches and a very large mixed flock of fieldfares and redwings. These have been around for the last couple of days feeding on hawthorns by the drive.
A peregrine stole the show stooping on a buzzard as it crossed the field in front of the house - spectacular.

Happy New Year to all and a bird-filled 2007.

Rob

 

[aythya_hybrid]

Well for the 3rd year running the total is 124! Not a bad day to end the year (well this morning anyhow):
single red-throated diver, 2 slav grebes (one of which came right up to the confluence with the Motray), a dabchick (3 yesterday), 2 pintail, 7 long-tailed ducks (4 of them drakes), a magpie (perhaps the rarest bird of the day!), a record 21 goldfinches and a very large mixed flock of fieldfares and redwings. These have been around for the last couple of days feeding on hawthorns by the drive.
A peregrine stole the show stooping on a buzzard as it crossed the field in front of the house - spectacular.

Happy New Year to all and a bird-filled 2007.

Rob

Hey Rob. I'm on a fly-in visit to my parents' place at the moment, was thinking of popping down to the Eden probably on 3rd. Is there much in the outer estuary at the moment? Sad as it is, living down south, I feel desperately deprived of both Long-tailed Duck and Slav Grebe. Which parts of the estuary do you reckon would be best for these at the moment? Also, any Brents around?

 

[edenwatcher]

Hey Rob. I'm on a fly-in visit to my parents' place at the moment, was thinking of popping down to the Eden probably on 3rd. Is there much in the outer estuary at the moment? Sad as it is, living down south, I feel desperately deprived of both Long-tailed Duck and Slav Grebe. Which parts of the estuary do you reckon would be best for these at the moment? Also, any Brents around?

Hi Jonathan,
Both long-tailed duck and slav are in the outer estuary at the moment and there were up to a dozen brents I believe (could be more by now). Your best bet is probably to go to Outhead and try from there. Brents are usually in Balgove bay. How is your parents place getting on, haven't seen them for a while?

Managed 49 spp today - not a bad start to the year (included 3 drake long-tailed ducks).

Rob

 

[aythya_hybrid]

cheers Rob.

Went down to St.Andrews over lunchtime today, and rediscovered the joys of Fife winter birding!

Had 14 excellent pale-bellied Brents in Balgove Bay, one very close, the others a bit more distant, also a Peregrine hunting, 2 Slav Grebes and about 10 Long-tailed Ducks in the estuary.

In St.Andrews Bay around 40 common scoter, plus 20-30 LT Ducks, another 3 slavs, a few razorbills.

Down by the Golf Museum I was bemoaning the lack of purple sands when a flock of about 35-40 small waders flew in and, much to my delight, they were all purple sands. Not sure if this is a higher than usual count but it is certainly a long time since I saw that many together.

So by no means sensational but was great to see a handful of birds which I almost never see down south: the LT Ducks were particularly good.

 

[edenwatcher]

35-40 is an exceptional number of purple sands by recent standards. I don't think I saw more than 5 there last year. Must go and take a look.

The garden year list stands at 56 which isn't bad, though the windy conditions haven't helped. Notable records so far include:
red-throated diver, great crested and little grebes, pintail (2 pairs), long-tailed duck, peregrine, greenshank (6), great spotted woodpecker, rock pipit and all 5 thrush spp. including huge numbers of fieldfares and redwings.

Rob

 

[aythya_hybrid]

35-40 is an exceptional number of purple sands by recent standards. I don't think I saw more than 5 there last year. Must go and take a look.

Thanks for the info Rob. I suspected as much as I don't recall seeing many purple sands during my visits to Fife in recent years. In fact, my biggest count ever in Fife was of 39 on the rocks at St.Andrews castle, but that was way back in 1994.

They were jostling for position on one of the last bits of rock to be exposed before the high tide, and they all seemed to fly in en masse from the east (i.e. from the castle direction), although I hadn't seen any from the castle immediately prior to that.

 

[edenwatcher]

A steady accumulation of new species for the year means the list now stands at 65. Additions include pink-footed goose, whooper swan (5 yesterday morning), slavonian grebe (1 on Saturday, 2 yesterday), kestrel, grey partridge and yellowhammer (2 males coming to seed).
The partridges were a triumph of low cunning. I went into St. Andrews to look for Jonathan's purple sandpipers (and saw at least 20) and picked up a covey of partridges in a field by the road. They hadn't moved by the time I returned and I reckoned they would be visible from the corner of the drive. They were indeed, and a "difficult" species is on the year list!
Other weekend highlights included a female long-tailed duck, at least 2 red-throated divers, and the large flock of winter thrushes. Fieldfare numbers seem to have dropped but there are still heaps of redwings. All that and excellent views of the Bonaparte's gull near Montrose.

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

A quiet weekend, not helped by miserable weather and another nasty bout of tonsilitis (my 3rd since the start of December). However pied wagtail was added to the garden year list (66) so at least things haven't ground to a complete halt. There are still a couple of male yellowhammers coming to seed and a few redwings around, although the main winter thrush flocks seem to have moved on. All the wet weather has made the field in front of the house attractive to waders - there were 46 black-tailed godwits feeding there yesterday lunchtime.

Rob

 

[edenwatcher]

Still pretty quiet, though the colder weather has brought in some more whooper swans. I haven't been able to count the whole herd yet. The very high tides over the weekend gave good numbers of pintail, including 15 (9 drakes) on Saturday. I managed to add 2 new species to the garden year list yesterday - skylark and magpie, taking us to 68. An oystercatcher came into the garden yesterday lunchtime, quite a rare occurrence though they regularly come very close.

Rob

 

[Ian Bell]

How was the weather down your way today ? Snow in Aberdeen but thankfully,it is now thawing out.