Brünnich's Guillemot - Anstruther Harbour

A Brünnich's Guillemot in a very choppy and and windswept harbour at Anstruther and very mobile as it dived often and sometimes for long periods, never re-appearing where I'd expect it. I didn't get the photos I'd have liked, I was busy holding on to my scope and Olive trying to stop both being blown into the harbour. The Brünnich's Guillemot is an Arctic species found in Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Svalbard and winters as far south as Central Norway and is a rare vagrant in the UK so yet another "mega" for Olive!.

Unfortunately this Brunnich's was found dead this morning, 30/9/2016

Brunnichs Guillemot, Anstruther

Gannets on the beach

A walk from Carnoustie to Elliot along the coast was interesting but not spectacular with the highlight two close encounters with juvenile Gannets. I managed to photograph both without getting close enough to worry them and just long enough to see their undamaged wings. I've found young Gannets before on this stretch at this time of year and they seem to recover and get back out to sea. With the tide getting near to low tide we didn't see anything rare or unusual but most of the waders we'd expect and a flock of Wigeon.

An uninjured, more likely just exhausted juvenile Gannet left high and dry on the beach

A second juvenile Gannet less than a mile from the first

Bar-tailed Godwit stretching while feeding in a shallow pool

Two of three Bar-tails around

Wheatear at Elliot which was one of four seen moving south along the beach, gone for another year...

Bar-headed Geese, still classed as Feral in the UK

Having never seen Bar-headed Geese before and since it was still sunny this late in September I ventured to Kinnordy Loch where five had flown in with the Canada Geese. Fortunately the Bar-heads weren't put off by the strimming of the reedbeds which will continue on Thursdays for the next few weeks. Two Marsh Harriers were also showing well but a bit distant and a difference in their plumage posed a question especially as the male looking one started collecting nest building material!

Bar-headed Geese video at Kinnordy, click here,

Bar-headed Goose, one of the better looking goose species

They should be flying over the Himalayas but Kinnordy Castle will have to do

Very distant Common Scoter at Lunan Bay

Velvet Scoter

Dunlin at Elliot

Knot, a rarer visitor at Elliot

Sanderling, Elliot

A young Peregrine which appeared to have spooked the gulls and terns at Westhaven

Kittiwake at Lunan Bay

Blood Moon

Before the equinox, a surprise moon and a few from Lunan Bay on a sunny September day.

A "Blood Moon" seen on my way home on Tuesday the night before the equinox, "taken from some distance away!!

Kittiwakes relaxing at the gull roost at Lunan Bay with a photo-bombing Common Gull

It's a hard life at this time of year, yawn......

Sandwich Tern, pre-flight stretch

Two of around 40 Wigeon out at sea

A backlit Grey Heron at Victoria Park, Arbroath

Common Gull at Corbie Knowe

Long-tailed Skua at Easthaven

After asking the experts and getting a concensus I've decided to post these juvenile Long-tailed Skua photos taken on my Webs count at the weekend. Also on the Webs were a first Grey Plover of the season, a Curlew Sandpiper and eight Bar-tailed Godwits. Elsewhere I eventually found the Semipalmated Sandpiper at the Ythan Estuary but just before high tide when it flew off to the wader roost with around 500 Dunlin. Needless to say we din't see the Humpback which did show but not where we were looking.

Juvenile Long-tailed Skua, Easthaven

Being harried by a larger Curlew

It didn't seem to bothered and just floated its way along the beach

Knot at the Ythan Estuary still showing breeding plumage and an injury to its head, perhaps from a Peregrine hunting further upstream from where the photo was taken

Knot, what the the one above this should look like by now, one of over a hundred downstream from the lifeboat shed

Something or somebody spooked this group seals on the north bank of the Ythan which then swam down the river into the sea. Another group just metres away stayed where they were?

Easthaven beastie, I think it's a Sea Louse of some kind. Does anyone know?

A Rock Pipit which landed close before it realised I was there. It was near the paddling pool in Arbroath while I looked for the Med Gull which was sitting on Chalmers roof again

Shoveler fest, Marsh Harrier and Black Dragonfly

There were a dozen Shoveler at Kinnordy on Friday and they take top billing in front of the Marsh Harriers as they're the new arrivals and still in their moult. The two juvenile Harriers now have a finished look to their plumage and their flight and hunting techniques also look more refined.

The Black Dragonfly was what I'd been looking for and initially I thought it was a Common Darter but it's either a female or immature male Black, I never saw any mature males but I didn't get down to the area where I've seen them in the past.

The last two photos are from the Gayfield area in Arbroath where the Med Gull was preening on Chalmers roof and the Common Terns were still resting on the concrete pillars at the sewage works.

Male and female Shovelers coming in

Male

Female

Junior, looking out of proportion, how could it not with a bill like that

Marsh Harrier juvenile

Hunting

Black Dragonfly female or immature male

Lapwing, one of many being spooked by the Harriers but a Peregrine I didn't see is their real threat

Med Gull with the Black-headed Gulls in a late afternoon light barely shining through the cloud

One of the Common Terns, how much longer will they stay?

Arctic Skua, Sparrowhawk and a very dodgy Surf Scoter photo

Probably the worst screen grab further down the page but given the distance the bird was offshore and the mist it's a wonder I got anything at all. I gave up after talkng this and went looking for small birds in the dunes and the Sparrowhawk below meant all was very quiet there.

Arctic Skua, Lunan Bay. One of four around and this one had a go at some of the gulls

Common Tern, soon to be not around

Juvenile Sparrowhawk, currently I'm seeing one just about everywhere I go, or is it the same one following me!!

The worlds worst Surf Scoter screen grab at Lunan Bay filmed through the mist which didn't lift all day

An early morning photo of a Tufted Duck at Keptie Pond, another photo from my day without wheels

Still a few young Coots at Keptie Pond, and some Moorhen chicks as well