A return to Scotland on a mission

Here's a few images from a recent trip to Scotland. A couple of weeks ago, I travelled up to the Aviemore area of Scotland to try and track down the very elusive Capercaillie; a bird I'd previously missed on the last 2 occasions!

 

 

On arrival, we visited Loch Garten where we waited over an hour to see a Crested Tit that was still visiting the peanut feeders here.

Crested Tit - I did tell it not to move whilst I was taking the picture

We also had the delight of many finches including lots of Siskins

 

Male Siskin

The next day, the Caper search started at Loch Garten on the Caper watch... a hour in, we'd still not caught a glimpse until one came out of nowhere and made its way across a vegetated patch at distance... this was my wonderful record shot:

 

The shot of the trip! You can tell what it is though can't you...?

This followed by a visit to the Cairngorms and after a lift up to the summit, we quickly locked on to a couple of Ptarmigan (male and female). It's amazing how these birds are adapted to live up here in such harsh conditions

 

Male Ptarmigan

...and the more windswept female

Whilst visiting a couple of local lochs, we'd added crossbills, Hen Harrier, Pink Footed Geese and Red Throated Diver to our lists and then we came across this fantastic Osprey as it hunted over the lochs.

 

Digiscoped Osprey

There were a fair few Red Grouse too...

Red Grouse

We also put in some time down the amazing Findhorn valley for Golden Eagle but sadly didn't see one. On the flip side, we did get a decent view of a lovely male ring ouzel. Over all, a superb little break with some great birds

 

Subalpine Warbler and Woodchat Shrike

Sometimes the best days are had in the locality and this was certainly one of them. Stunning weather in probably one of the nicest places in the UK, myself and Phil Owen went for the Subalpine Warbler at Uwchmynydd, near Aberdaron on the Lleyn Peninsula. We arrived ahead of earlier reports of the bird and thought we'd be in with a good chance of seeing it. But didn't we have to work for it! It took us an hour to even get a glimpse of it staring up at a hillside full of gorse and over moving migrants. Wheatears, Stonechats, Pipits and Whitethroats all contributed to making our life just that little bit harder. Eventually I caught sight of a bird darting into a nearby gorse bush, and after about 10 minutes it darted out like a bat out of hell... again, still not really getting anything on it. Soon, after a little persistance it came into view, giving great views.

 

Subalpine Warbler - Uwchmynydd

Now, having acquired a headache, the bird was a lot more confiding and kept moving between each gorse bush feeding occassionally. The features were very Dartford-like but with a clear cut white moustache!

Difficult to capture due to heat haze and being a warbler!

After the bird dissolving back into the undergrowth, we decided to head down towards Aberdaron for the male Woodchat Shrike. We got distant views of the bird as it carried out a circuit around the nearby ploughed field.

 

Sheep's arse showing well...

 

Rock Thrush at Kilnsea

A last minute decision saw a group of us heading over to Kilnsea from North Wales on Friday afternoon. Despite getting delayed countless number of times on the way over, we arrived in good time to see 40-50 birders looking for the bird. After an hour or so, we managed to see the female where she allowed great views and a decent photo opportunity.

Rufous Tailed Rock Thrush

The bird gave us the run around a couple of times as it very flightly, but spending a lot of time in someones garden (mega garden tick!). As the evening went on, it became more active and started feeding up and making its way along the point, suggesting that it was preparing for the next leg of its journey.

 

Of course by the next day it had disappeared and never to be seen again. A great bird and the first real twitchable bird since 1996.

 

One of the last views I had of the bird in the setting sun

With light fading, news filtered through of a Long Eared Owl from one of the nearby hides. The bird was showing very well to the right of the hide in the Hawthorns.

 

A nice Long Eared Owl

All in all, a successful twitch, thanks to Chris Jones for driving, I certainly wouldn't have liked to!

 

Garganey at Conwy RSPB

It was nice to come across 2 Drake Garganeys at Conwy Nature Reserve today. After hoping all day for an Osprey, it was nice to catch up with a bird that I've always found releatively elusive to see. Today was no exception, as it took me no less than an hour to finally locate them. The strikely marked drakes did show well from distance as I managed to get a few record shots:

 

Drake Garganey

Both Drake Garganeys

Still no hirindines as of yet, but I feel that the change is certainly on its way!!

 

 

Little Ringed Plovers

Usually the first taste of spring is a singing Chiffchaff, a first Whimbrel, Sand Martin or maybe a Swallow. This year has been difference, cold easily winds have kept the majority of the summer hirindines and warblers in Spain. It was a pleasant, cool morning down on the Clwyd today. After soon arriving on sight, I locked on to 2 superb Little Ringed Plovers just off the main river itself. Made a change after a winter of watching its more frequent cousin; Ringed Plover.

 

Little Ringed Plover

Hopefully this will be the point of change, well it should be being April 2nd! There are even more Bluethroats in the country than Swallows! Crazy! Hopefully with next week's forecast of a Southerly airflow, that should be the boost that's needed!

 

Winter remains in control

I ventured out for the first time in about a month today after being tied down with work and headed towards the Wirral. After a recent snowfall from an icey blast from the continent, it was still bitterly cold and looks set to stay in control over the next 10 days throughout Easter.

A very cold Neston

I started at Burton Mere Wetlands in the hope of something new for the year. The reserve has already seen a couple of good birds this month with a Green Winged Teal and Lesser Scaup making an appearance. A couple of Avocets feed away at the back of the lagoon while the first Coots were starting to nest build. Wigeon numbers remain strong and plenty of finches including Chaffinches, Goldfinches and Siskins were on the feeders. My main target was a Brambling and after braving 20 minutes in the icey cold, one popped up from nowhere with the finch flock!

 

 

After making a hasty retreat back inside, I headed over to Little Neston where a Black Redstart had been seen the previous day and within minutes of arriving, I easily located the female hopping around someones garden suprisingly feeding quite well. Let's hope the weather changes soon to advance the chances of these early migrants surviving the next few weeks. Other birds included a nice female Merlin, lots of Meadow Pipits and a Fieldfare.

Ring-Billed Gull, West Yorkshire

You can't see everything in North Wales can you, so I decided to venture out of the boarder and into England where I ended up as far as West Yorkshire. The main target (well there had to be one didn't there) a superb Ring-Billed Gull that has actually been extremely hit and miss this winter. I say this winter, because since February 2010, an adult Ring-Billed Gull has wintered in West Yorkshire.

 

On exactly 3 years to the very day this American Gull was first reported, I arrived at Mirfield expecting to see it. It has spent 97% of its time at Sands Lane GP during the 3 winters but only in the last few days has it been seen around the weir on Low Mill Lane. Arriving for around 10ish, I'd missed it by 5 minutes, so from the word go, I was doing the chasing. I gave up on that after it was seen at the weir again whilst I was there so I decided to change my tactics and steak it out at the weir. After over an hour, the bird came to me (picking it out in flight) as it flew down onto the weir for a quick wash and a drink.

Ring-Billed Gull (Oh yes!!)

The bird showed exceptionally well and allowed good pictures to be taken dispite the blizzard conditions. Note its pale iris and its broad black bill on a strong yellow bill. Slightly larger than a Common Gull, it's a bird that I've wanted to see for a good while so I enjoyed the 90 seconds it stuck around before it flew off again.

 

Ring-Billed Gull

Before actually getting to West Yorkshire, I actually dropped in at Middleton in Manchester where a Siberian Chiffchaff was overwintering. The site was extremely easy to access and I easily locked on to this very cold, pale looking bird feeding alongside a stream. A couple of Common Chiffchaffs were also present to offer a nice comparison.

 

Siberian Chiffchaff

Later on in the day, I also managed to get a visit in at Anglers CP. I had a couple of hours spare and with it being so close to the Gull site, I went to see what it had to offer. The answer, a whole host of ducks and geese. The best bird by far was this female Long Tailed Duck which had been there since Christmas. Other birds included a nice flock of 10 Pochard, a huge flock of Wigeon, 5 Gooseanders and a Barnacle Goose that disgraced itself when it came to bread.

 



Female Long Tailed Duck - Glad this one didn't come to bread!

Meadow and Rock Pipits!

I never use to like pipits. I regularly ignored them and I'm sure a lot of birders reading this would tend to agree.. What's so great about them? They're an all brownish little bird which all look the same and only get noticed when you flush them.

 

The two commonest Pipits in Britain are the Meadow followed by the Rock Pipit. Both birds are similar sized (which the Rock Pipit just slighting edging in size a centremetre or two) but quite different in other ways. For the people less experienced with pipits, this is a Meadow Pipit:

 

Meadow Pipit

This olive tinged grey-brown pipit is common in grassland, moors, heaths and coastal sites. As you can see it is quite boldly marked all over. It typically has a short supercilium above the eye and a slender pinkish/yellow bill. Its breast feathers are an off-white colour with a stronger warmth on its flanks. You can just about make this out in the picture above.

Although you can't see this in the image above, the Meadow Pipit has light coloured legs and is another good feature to tell them apart from Rock Pipit.

 

Rock Pipit

Contrasting the Rock Pipit to the Meadow, you can see straight away, they're a dull brownish grey colour with very little streaking in its upperparts. These birds spend the majority of their time on rocky coastal habitats and islands

 

 

Note the heavier and longer bill the Rock Pipit has over a Meadow Pipit and how (you can just about see) the breast feathering is a dirty white with dull streaking. You can also make out in the first image of the Rock Pipit; the darker legs.

 

Clocaenog Forest Birding

Yes, it's this time of year again, I always seem to have the time in February. Partly because February is one of the quietest times of the year for birds, another reason being, half term and the next reason was the decider... A nice Great Grey Shrike overwinters here and February is just about a little more bearable than a freezing cold December/January.

 

I took 4 visits last year and I came home with nothing on each visit. That was when I think I swore I wouldn't be coming back. I did end up getting the Great Grey Shrike casually at Llandegla whilst watching Black Grouse.

 

Anyway, a superb afternoon hosted fine views of the Grey Grey Shrike after a good half hours fruitless birding up at Craig Bron Barrog at the mast. The adult bird did what shrikes are known for best and showed well high up on the tallest bushes occassionally diving down to ground and back up again.

 

 

It's very difficult to sex a Great Grey Shrike. The best way is that a female shows a faintly barred flank which I don't think my bird appears to have.

 

 

Clocaenog is so extensive it's very difficult to tell how many of these birds do winter here. There have been reports of birds in previous winters down by the Llyn Alwen and Llyn Brenig. A quick tour through the Llyn Brenig revealled a few flocks of Fieldfares, plenty of tits and finches and a couple of Buzzards. I was secretly after a Brambling too and was gutted to flush a finch flock off the road on the way back home. Must be some about somewhere!!

Llyn Brenig

 

Lesser Scaup and a Glaucous Gull

Unaware of the day previous that a Lesser Scaup was 5 minutes from the Twite site, I had to return today in order to see it. Its not everyday you get one on the doorstep especially in North Wales. Cardiff has a regular wintering bird that I've seen a couple of times through past winters.

 

For anybody unaware of the location or how to get there, the drake is present at Shotton Pools, North of A548 on Cop Hole at SJ298722. Very easy to find and a short walk from the roadside. When I arrived, a fair few people already present and the bird was showing well with a group of Tufted Duck. It was regularly diving and stood out quite well from the other birds. Not the best image taken in quite dismal conditions:

 

Lesser Scaup (Right)

It did prove to brighten up and my next stop was Richmond Bank where I soon locked on to this monster of a Glaucous Gull. It was nice to definitely see another after the very distant one last time dispite the tip being closed on a Sunday.

 

Glaucous Gull

Another Gull which did catch my eye was this one, this one could easily get mistaken for an Iceland Gull at range but with closer inspection appeared to be a Herring Gull with extremely pale pigments.

Central Bird - Herring Gull

Making my way slowly back to Wales, I dropped in at Frodsham Marsh where I turned my car from silver to brown with the amount of mud and pot holes there were on the track. A nice female Scaup was present along with a few Tufties, Wigeon, Teal and Pintail.

 

Female Greater Scaup