Winter at Montrose Basin

After a few days of hell, the weather was dull, cold, windy and stopped me from venturing out. I made a brief visit to Montrose Basin on Thursday where the temperature managed 4 degrees after at start of just 2! All of these taken from distance with my 1.7 teleconverter in use which I'm not keen on but needs must. There's not much going on at present with Pink-footed Geese numbers down to around 7,500, not many Teal or Wigeon to be seen at the Lurgies, but I counted 74 Pintails at Tayock as the tide came in on Thursday.

The "resident" Whooper Swan seems to have become more active with the arrival of real winter weather, perhaps it's having to work harder for food and look for it further. This one is from upstream of the Slunks on the South Esk

This Redwing has been around the path at the Lurgies now for all of November, why move when there are still lots of berries which it's sharing with a host of Blackbirds. It is still very wary and approach is impossible and handheld photos grainy

Today the river was high and dirty after the rains and this female Kingfisher was fishing along the main river and a small side stream. Another Kingfisher is being seen well and daily at the SWT Centre, fishing in front of the centre and on the salt pans where it can be seen from the Bank of Scotland Hide. The centre is on "winter opening" which is Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and from 10am to 4pm, access to the Bank of Scotland Hide is available and the car park is open most days

This Goldcrest is hanging around at the car park at the Old Harbour and it's origins aren't yet known, and so far we can't get a photo showing any of the numbers on the metal ring. It's not thought to be a bird ringed locally this year