Year Review - January 2016

Not much doing in late December and the weather outside in very dull so I've posted some photos from January 2016 as part of a yearly round-up and I'll post other months before the end of this year.

Avocet, Lunan Bay area, found by members of Angus and Dundee Bird Club on a club outing. It only stayed for a few hours and wasn't seen the following day

Bittern, Bank of Scotland Hide, Montrose Basin. A long staying visitor which I saw on most visits but I can't recall seeing it when the sun was out

Glaucous Gull juvenile, West Haven, Carnoustie. I first saw this bird as it flew over my head when doing a Non Estuarine Wetland Bird Survey, one of 11 sites I visited during December and January. It landed near me on the beach and started eating one of the dead Octopus washed up after the big storms we'd had which had brought the Little Auks below onshore. In the photo it's eating a dead seal which kept it there for a a week or more

Little Auk, Arbroath Harbour. One or two ended up in the harbour, one was even rescued in Edzell

Little Auk at Arbroath Cliffs. Just one of many hundreds, maybe thousands which were flying north during the storms very close inshore, along the beach and once or twice over my head or behind me

Ptarmigan in Glenshee, the white dot on the very top and a Roe Deer on the lower left. Seen from the roadside halfway down the hill towards the old Devils Elbow

Snow Buntings in the Ski Centre car park at Glenshee. I managed to get this photo without obvious signs of colour rings as many have multiple rings on both legs, and without seed in the shot which people had been providing to bring them in and keep them around.