Forfar Loch and Murton

Another period of gloomy, wet, windy and cold weather. If it gets any worse I'll need to take a torch with me!

Some of the birds seen on a walk around Forfar Loch and a short spell at Murton NR where a Green Sandpiper was seen on both the car park scrape and from the Gladstone Hide. There were two last week but I can't be sure these were different birds or one moving around and one's turned up at Monikie over the weekend.

Bullfinch female

Bullfinch male

Green Sandpiper, Murton NR. I really needed a teleconverter for this

Greenland White-fronted Goose, Murton NR

Redwing, Forfar Loch

Blackbird, lots of berries still available all around the loch

Buzzard at Murton, almost dark, or so it seemed when this was taken

Mute Swan, Forfar Loch

Robin at the feeding table at the "bus shelter" in the north west corner of Forfar Loch

Keptie Pond (while Olive was in Morrisons)

It's amazing what you can cram into a short period even in a town when time limited. Alternatively, shopping for groceries maybe takes too long, I always think so and often come home without what I went for!

On another dull and rainy afternoon I saw these at Keptie Pond when looking for anything unusual that might have been blown in recently. Also around, Mute Swans, Grey Herons, Blue Tits, Dunnock, Jackdaws, but I didn't see my favourite Collared Doves.

Female Goosander

Male Goosander

Believed to be the offspring of a Tufted Drake and a Mallard Duck, and there's at least two of them

One of three Wigeon drakes

I do see see Buzzards from time to time at Keptie but can't recall one that was prepared to settle, this one is on the Water Tower

Black-headed Gull

Dreich, wind and rain...........

Reduced to hiding from the weather I haven't seen anything of any interest other than these visitors to the ADBC Hide at Montreathmont, and even they were hiding from the rain when it was at its worst. We'd went for another look for the Great Grey Shrike but it's a big forest and a wee bird. Some of these photos required an iso of 4000 and the birds were only feet away. Might use a flash next time but since the D500 doesn't have one built in that will be difficult!

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Not often a Dunnock feeds on the table

An unusually shy Robin, perhaps with reason as a male Sparrowhawk had a go at it under the table but failed

The first Siskin I've seen at the hide this winter

Three of twenty Common Scoter off the rock armour at Barry Buddon where the sea has cast debris and lots of plastic over the armour on to the path behind it. They were fell far oot!

Dawn or near aboot at Buddon Ness

Dreich with a little sunlight which lasted seconds....

The gap between the two gates at Lunan leads along the fence line to the ADBC Hide. Don't climb over any of the fences, this access is the best route

Green Sandpiper, Murton (best so far?)

Green Sandpiper video, click here

And could do better on a good day.....

"Almost a fifth of Scotland’s landmass is a grouse moor"

Actually: "Estimates vary from 12-18 % but nobody really knows"

Support "REVIVE", click here to go to page


Another Hoopoe photo taken in pouring rain on Wednesday, with a long zoom with my Canon SX60, from behind the people who'd flushed it from where it was feeding on to the railway bridge wall. I hope it can get the peace to feed, if it does it will pose from time to time.

I was there after being conned by Olive who said she wanted to see the Hoopoe but it turned out she had to visit a shop!!

Hoopoe, Great Grey Shrike, White-tailed Eagle, Crossbills and Waxwings

What a few days. I've given the Great Grey Shrike top billing as it's a bird that we should see and used to see more often, the Hoopoe below is likely just lost but very welcome. Also and after a long fruitless wait at Kinnordy the White-tailed Eagle obliged and flew over the hide, never did see the Bittern or Bearded Tits.

Hoopoe on a rainy Wednesday, click here for video (and how I was conned)

Great Grey Shrike, click here for Flickr hosted video  filmed at 65/85 zoom or more

Dawn Crossbills at Montreathmont, click here for Flickr hosted video  I can't keep the camera still when filming birds in high trees

Great Grey Shrike at Montreathmont Forest. I just stood still for a long time and it approached another birder and me. No need to chase it around the forest

Chased off this perch by a Great Tit!

Hoopoe at Montrose Basin, found by Ron's wife on Facebook which apparently led to some people trying to get close enough for a selfie....

Photo from a position where I could observe the bird without stressing it and it remained happily feeding in the long grass, and like the Shrike it approached Ron and I

Taken back into the sun after a dog might have flushed it. It returned soon after to where it was feeding

On its way back to the long grass

White-tailed Eagle which flew directly over the Gullery Hide at Kinnordy, apparently heading towards Glamis

An adult with a red wing tag, probably the same bird I photographed earlier in the year elsewhere

There were around 20 Crossbills near the start of the track at Montreathmont on Tuesday morning at 0800 and the very low dawn sunlight made everything orange

One of the four Waxwings which are/were at the Morrisons roundabout in Arbroath on Sunday to Tuesday

One of a flock of at least 100 Fieldfares and Redwings at Balgavies, feeding on Hawthorns near the hide

Overlooked and disregarded but never-the-less you can't ignore Greylags whose numbers only ever seem to increase, so they've obviously found or adapted well to the "current" climate and environment

What to do when there's nothing happening at the Swamp Hide at Kinnordy, try and get a bit arty with swan photos!

This Cormorant flew over my head as I walked along to see the Hoopoe, and of course I automatically fired off a few shots. Why do we use the word shots, we sound like wildfowlers or grouse botherers. The difference being photographers can "shoot" birds again and again and they'll still be there for everyone else to see, and shoot!

The long shadows have returned, this photo was taken at 1356 hrs of part of Culhawk Hill at Kinnordy

Goldcrest and a bit of politics

A small fall of Goldcrests at Lunan Bay today and one bird posed long enough for a few photos as it got ever darker.

Elsewhere I read this article from the "National" from Lesley Riddoch on land reform in Scotland's empty uplands,

click here to open the article on the National website

Also this report from a link about the new REVIVE group mentioned in the press.

REVIVE Report, click here to open or download


And now the Goldcrest which Olive is taking the credit for!

Waxwings and a Sparrowhawk

Three more videos, this time uploaded with different parameters to YouTube. Also a couple of photos of a rarer visitor to my garden, a female Sparrowhawk (juvenile), already a big bird compared to the usual males we see. Finally two photos taken in a really gloomy corner at the Lurgies of what appears to be the only Brambling remaining from a high of fourteen.


Waxwings in Lower Craigo Street, Montrose on 2/11/2018, click here for video   13 birds were present

Twite on the Wigeon Hide track, Montrose Basin, click here for video

Pintails taken from the Wigeon Hide, click here for video  very poor light

Spotted by Olive when chasing Sparrows into a large Cotoneaster. Photo from an upstairs window

Then flushed by me when trying to get a photo while sneaking up my drive, failed

If I tried to make this Brambling any brighter the photos would just end up looking weird

I think this might be as high as 2500 iso

Waxwings, Jays and Purple Sandpipers

Photos from Balgavies, Kinnaber, Montrose and Inchcape and Victoria Parks in Arbroath from Thursday to Saturday this past week. Some days were sunny, some gales and poor light and some had all of these

On a day of gales, Saturday, there were eight Purple Sandpipers sitting it out on the beach at Inchcape Park, Arbroath. They couldn't sit on the breakwater, they're first choice roost due to the waves crashing over it

Not often that I've had to take photos at 2500 iso, but needs must when it's grim

This ringed Ringed Plover, yellow flag 113 and blue ring has been at Victoria Park since early September, it's one of a local ringers birds

I'd never noticed before that the current Lifeboat at Arbroath was called Inchcape, the first one I can remember when I was at primary school was also Inchcape

I wasn't quick enough to get back to the harbour mouth to see the lifeboat come in through the waves, or was it that I wasn't smart enough to think about it

Being hauled back into the shed

I'd gone to Kinnaber Links on Friday looking for Short-eared Owls but I think the wind was too strong if any were actually there. This Jay with another flew almost over me and on the sunlit side, there's a first!

Not often that Snipe are seen flying in the middle of the day, this one flew past when I was sitting on the south bank of the North Esk at Kinnaber

How many Waxwing photos does anyone need? I was at Lower Craigo Street in Montrose to see this years first, and nearby birds, so thought it would be impolite not to photograph them

Out of sequence here, this Dunnock and a single distant Stonechat were the only birds I saw in the dunes at Kinnaber

The Greenland White-fronted Goose was still around at Balgavies on Friday. Taken with my Canon SX60 from the hide through a gap in the willows