Gannet Fest - and a Spotted Flycatcher at Scurdie Ness, Montrose

Apologies if you don't like Gannets, I've posted far too many below! Many, many Gannet photos, the first I've had this year when they were close to shore. There are birds scanning, stooping and on the water, I couldn't decide which to leave out so I've left them all in. You may notice on some of the adult photos that they have white lines down the front of their legs and feet, I've never seen that before, or never paid enough attention!!

Also seen along the track to Scurdie Ness where the Gannets were fishing, a Spotted Flycatcher and another migrant, a small un-identified warbler, perhaps a Yellow-browed but we'll never know. Both found by my winter stalkers who I hardly see in summer.

Spotted Flycatcher with a very white breast, and it wasn't the cameras doing, it looked very white to the eye and binoculars

Further down is a photo of some of a large flock of Kittiwakes sitting on the beach at Glaxo. That came to an ubrupt end when this juvenile Peregrine flushed them all

Probably the best photo of an adult from Scurdie Ness on Monday, and probably the closest in

Just before the wings get folded in and the bird becomes torpedo shaped. Or are torpedos Gannet shaped?

And now the juveniles, three or four present with three adults

One of the juveniles was trying to dive from its position on the sea but was too bouyant, might have been this one?

Looks like a Common Gull left and a Herring Gull right, which had just flown up and out of the way of one of the bigger waves at Scurdie Ness

Adult Common Gull

Herring Gull

Eider female, looking good with a new suit! Just the tail a bit tatty

A young Eider male beginning to grow out of its "orra" stage (Scots for untidy!). I like this one as the photo worked even though I was far from the bird

Kittiwakes on the beach in front of Glaxo. This shows perhaps a third of the Kittiwakes on the beach and there were at least 100 on the estuary, easily 500 - 600 in total, with a few Black-headed Gulls with them. Alas, as I said above, they were flushed by a Peregrine and most didn't return