White-tailed Eagle without doubt (Local bird sightings 1st to 25th February)

White-tailed Eagle (Antony Page)

Goosander

Cormorant

Little Egret

Goosanders at Arrow Valley Lake

The pits remain very quiet currently and a vast reducion of visits makes it more unlikely any birds will be found. However ! On a lunchtime visit, I picked up a very large raptor flying away from the pits heading towards Broom & Bidford. It kept going higher and higher, I throught White-tailed Eagle and it certainly fitted all the ID feature from the distance. I took a couple of images but there were just black dots. Was this one of the wandering re-introduced White-tailed Eagles from the Isle of White?

Last Wednesday, I was about to leave for work when I got a message from Anthony Page from local nature group "I've just seen your Eagle". He had gone fishing in Harvington, close to the pits, when he saw this huge raptor fly over. Thankfully he had his camera and was able to fire off some great shots for evidence. Despite a lot of searches there was no futher sign, however the tracking device informed us it was a three year old bird that then headed towards Penkridge/Stafford before ending up in Yorkshire Dales.

The February WeBS count was undertaken in thick fog. 5 Little Grebe, 8 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron, 21 Mute Swan, 360 Greylag, 130 Canada geese, 0 Shelduck, 6 Gadwall, 110 Mallard, 25 Shoveler, 4 Pochard all drakes, 40 Tufted Duck,  M0 Moorhen, 70 Coot, no sign of Oycs, 1 Snipe, 50 Stock Dove, 30 Skylark, 20 Meadow Pipit, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Cetti’s Warbler.

Whistle-stop Highland tour with White-winged Scoter

White-winged Black Scoter - File image

Phone-scoped image (Cliff Smith)

A view of many thousand ducks

Real Scotland

Findhorn Valley

Crested Tit

Crested Tit in moult

Whiskey time

Mountain Hare

Not bad hand held

View from the top of Glenshee

Fancy a ride

Red Squirrel

No blog for a few weeks as there is only so times you can write about Green & Common Sandpipers. on top of this I've has large project finishing involving me working all the previous weekend. 

This weekend however was very different as I took up the chance to team up with the Captain for a weekend of birding north of the birder. The plan would be to try and find the White-winged Scoter for a day then move into the Highlands whether we had seen the Scoter or not.

Leaving home at 3am we landed just before midday with the weather looking stunning & sea flat we were hopeful rather than confident. We came across another five birders who has been looking since first light with no avail. What we under estimated was quite the huge amount of ducks that would be in the bay. There were thousands & thousands of Common Scoter, Eider & Velvet Scoter & the bonus of two Surf Scoter. The views were just fantastic but there were so many to search through. It was painstaking but we stuck to our task well. We took a break around 4pm as we were hit horizontal rain giving us a real Scottish drenching. After a quick break we took up our positions again teaming up with three London based birders. One of those birders had a brilliant x100 telescope which he used to great effect to find the American Scoter, then kindly giving us all a view before we located it ourselves. The crescent eye was the most distinct feature & the extra knob on the beak the other. The bird showed well twice for about 4/5 minutes each time. The relief was ecstatic. Our twitter tips from Cliff & Steve were right in terms of approximate line & how it associated with Velvets rather than the Commons. Red-throated Diver was added to the day list along with a passing dark morph Arctic Skua & Bronxie.  

Next morning we headed east into I what deem the real Highlands, rolling hills and amazing views. Our targets of the day were agreed to be Crested Tit & Golden Eagle. Some close up views of Red Grouse (Raven & Red Kite over) broke up the journey until we reached a spot the Captain had seen Goldies on previous visits. Just as we were munching our mid morning stack I picked a White-tailed Eagle flying east, spitting crumbs everywhere we got great scope views & then the bird past again going the direction it started from about twenty minutes later. No Goldies so we headed towards Nethy Bridge. 

At a quiet corner of the forest I picked up a single Crested Tit, buoyed we held our position and waited & with some patience two Crested Tit going through mouth landed very close by allowing us to see the birds at close quarters. Now this was going well, time for Findhorn Valley. We picked up some lunch on route & set up at our favoured spot. It's a place sometimes you are scratching your head with nothing happening which nothing did bar a couple of routine Buzzards. As I was watching a pair of Oystercatchers on the river the Captain picked up a pair of Golden Eagles above one of the ridges circling high on the thermals. To find this pair within a hour was very satisfying giving us change to add an extra site to the day. To get there we took the famous Farr road, very few passing places & single track for seven miles. Once over the road we were quickly parked at Loch Ruthven where we added Slavonian Grebe to our trip list. A great finish to an epic day. 

A wonderful meal was served by the team at Grant Arms Hotel including Haggis which was followed by a number of the local whiskeys.

With a big journey home a tight schedule would be needed so we were out before breakfast where we accidentally flushed a roosting Capercaille whilst watching two Spotted Flycatchers & the cheeky Red Squirels. Not bad before breakfast.

Our route back would take in Glenshee where do took the ski lift to try & find any Ptarmigan. However a local shoot had taken place on Saturday & the birds had moved to a different location. We had to satisfy ourselves with some Mountain Hares which was a first for myself.

A brilliant action packed three days ! Thankfully our tactics of waiting for new of the Portland Yellow Warbler paid dividends as it wasn't seen all day. 

Eagles & Harriers North Uist & journey through Isle of Skye - Scotland trip (Day 4)

Much improved conditions on day four

Corn Buntings

Stunning Starling

The Captain on Coot patrol

Looking over the lochs

Piles of kelp washed up

Common Gull

Hen Harrier

White-tailed Eagle

Black Grouse honest…...

Close up…..

Waterfalls were abundant

Eilean Donan Castle

Five Sisters - Isle of Skye

With the forecast looking poor for the following day we decided to change our plan and leave the island that afternoon for Skye but maximise the morning window of opportunity for good birding. Balranald was first stop again where we didn't have any luck with the Coot's but there was a drake Pintail & four Whoopers on the loch. 

The Corn Buntings were very visible all morning so I managed to get a nice shot of those but the Twite were on the move too much for my photography skills. We had another session watching the waders on the shoreline before heading for a slow lap of the island hoping to find something different despite there still being strong winds.

The next beach we passed was occupied by a small group of Bar-tailed Godwits whilst our first star bird find was a male Hen Harrier that I picked up to the left of a difficult coastal road. Once the Captain found a safe place to park we both got some fantastic views of the Harrier.

A few miles further down the road the Captain took a diversion hoping we might just find another raptor given we had now seen a Kestrel & a Hen Harrier. His intuition proved spot on as we found two White-tailed Eagles. They were sitting on top of the sand dunes clearly not enjoying being mobbed by the local Hooded Crows. Both took off showing us their amazing wingspan. We were both delighted and it got even better when a Golden Eagle came into view circling high as we left the island.

The ferry over to Skye was much calmer then expected but to be honest I might not have noticed with the travel sickness tablets I'd taken - no wonder I felt tired. Birds recorded during the journey included 20+ Gannets, 5 Black Guillemot, 12 Kittiwake, 3 Fulmar, Common Guillemot, Razorbill, 5 Shags and four Eider.

Once off the boat we had a seriously long drive ahead to the east coast through some amazing landscapes including the famous Five Sisters. Alongside the A87 I picked up a strange site sitting high in a birch tree, as we past the bird I identified it as a Black Grouse ! We turned the car around instantly and upon closer inspection we actually found three different Black Grouse perched looking out over the valley below them.

With time & light against us we stopped at a bizarre truck stop which was like a scene out of Roadhouse. Let's say we didn't hang around long but the food recharged us to get across Scotland to our hotel in Mussleburgh. 

Wild about Mull - Day 2

White-tailed Eagle (Pete Walkden)

White-tailed Eagle (Pete Walkden)

White-tailed Eagle distant shot

Unique signage on Mull

Otter delight (Pete Walkden)

Grey Heron being closely watched by Otter

Great Northern Diver

Golden Eagles soaring high

Tawny Owl

Yet another Wheater

Before breakfast I had my first explore of the islands towards Lochdon and in very windy conditions I recorded a Spotted Flycatcher, good numbers of Wheater, Red-brested Meganser, Rock Pipit, Wood Wrabler, Shelduck and Whimbrel.

After breakfast we travelled west for about 30 minutes taking in some amazing scenery and finding our first pair of Hen Harriers gliding around looking for prey. Our day was spent with Bryan Rains (Wild about Mull) who was recommended to us by midlands photographer Pete Walkden. Bryan drove us around the local area trying to find us exactly what we wanted to see. We were quickly seeing Great Northern Divers, Whimbrel, Curlew, Greenshank, Dunlin and Ringed Plover before we travelled higher up the moors. After stopping at a quiet location and setting up the scope we had views of our first White-tailed Eagle sitting on the nest. This is one of 30 pairs on the island. These giants of the sky have settled in very well to Mull since their re-introduction which generates must needed income for the island.

After a session searching for Otters unsuccessfully we headed upland on the other side of the loch. We did stop at the local seal colony that also had Eiders and Mergansers. This secluded road gave us perfect views of the valley below us. Whilst waiting for birds of prey we watched a newly arrived female Cuckoo, Wheatears, Crossbills and a Tree Pipit close to the mini bus. The slight bit of drizzle then stopped and the temperature seemed to increase. As if by magic a male Hen Harrier came out to fly about the woodland below us. Buzzing from this moment, two Golden Eagles came into view and displayed right above us for about 30 minutes. Absolutely amazing. The downside of seeing a pair together probably indicated that their own nest had failed. The recent snow has made it difficult for the nesting birds.

Bryan had another treat us for by showing us a Tawny Owl in a barn on the hillside before we returned to the loch for more Otter searching. This time we hit the jackpot with a mother playing with her two cubs and another Otter enjoying the sun watched by a Grey Heron.  Before wrapping up for the day we returned to our first Eagle spot where we found the male White-tailed Eagle that treated us to a fly past. The size of the bird was amazing, the eight foot wing span seemed to take ages to get going as it drifted upwards. A brilliant moment.

On our journey home we found yet another pair of Hen Harriers and 30 Pink-footed Geese. Quite a day……………

Many thanks to Pete Walkden for his superb images that really helps my blog.