Christmas Time (yawn)

Photos from a windy day visit to Montrose Basin, followed by Keptie Pond, Ethie, Victoria Park, Arbroath Harbour, my garden, and a moth in my kitchen....

BTO 2024 Successes, click here for their video

 Merry Christmas?

A Winter Moth that Olive welcomed into my house

Goldeneye female at the Lurgies, Montrose Basin

Red-breasted Merganser

Goldeneye male

Grey Seal

Dunlin

Lapwing

1st winter Common Gull

Teal drakes, almost at my feet!

Little Egret

Greenshank

Black-headed Gulls squabbling at Keptie Pond, Arbroath

Coot

Wigeon drake still in moult

Tufted Duck drake

Grey Heron roosting on the remains of this years nest

Herring Gull at Victoria Park, Arbroath

Black-headed Gull

Great black-backed Gull Arbroath Harbour

Purple Sandpiper, one of 55

The Sparrowhawk has returned, and the only bird in my garden today

Wren at Ethie mains, near Arbroath

Pheasant shoot at Ethie

One man and his dog, and shotgun

Foxes, Pochard, Whooper Swan - videos

Videos from the last few days, filmed on various cameras, one very close to the subject, the Sparrowhawk, others further away on a Nikon Coolpix P1000. 

I think I have two foxes coming to my garden, the face markings appear different, probably my frequently seen Vixen, and a dog Fox not seen so often.

I wonder if the Whooper Swan has avian flu, its head and neck movements look similar to those of Pink-footed Geese which had the disease.

Sparrowhawk filmed on a trail camera, click here to view      Pochard drake at Monikie Country Park      Whooper Swan, the Lurgies, Montrose Basin      The frequent visiting Fox, a Vixen      Query a dog Fox, not a frequent visitor 

Historical photos seen elsewhere.

Hunting at the Lurgies a few years ago

Fox cubs at the entrance to their den in a gorse bush at St Cyrus

Glen Lethnot - open again, at last

   
Olive and I took a trip up to Glen Lethnot to see if the road at Craigendowie had reopened, after a long period when it was closed due to a culvert collapse caused by storms. The road was open but we certainly weren't overrun by bird sightings, with only 3 Red Kites, and surprisingly 4 Reed Buntings. 

Further down the glen Buzzards, Kites, and a Kestrel were using the draught blowing up the Hill of Edzell. They all parted as an immature Goshawk took a long, fast glide towards Fieldfares which had lifted from a field in the river valley.

A bit of Buzzard agro amongst a group of seven using the up-draught from the wind blowing up a hill in Glen Lethnot. Note the feather in the left hand bird's talon

It dropped the feather

I had to take many photos to get one with multiple Buzzards in the same distant photo

There were at least three Red Kites but could have been more

The only one that ventured down the hillside but almost immediately flew west out of range and sight

As I walked back down the hill, a flock of Fieldfares rose from the field near the car. They settled briefly in some trees before being flushed by an immature Goshawk, which didn't make much of a chase as it disappeared into the channel of the West Water