Kestrel - Arbroath Cliffs

A quick visit to Arbroath Cliffs to look for Snow Buntings failed, but a male Kestrel hovered at the cliff edge long enough for a few photos. Also a small flock of seven Rock Pipits, Curlews, and Oystercatchers but no sign of a Merlin which was seen recently.

Male Kestrel near to the start of the cliffs path at Victoria Park

Not one of the Rock Pipits along the cliff path, this one was feeding on  seed left by a member of the public at Whiting Ness

A dander on the beach - birds were seen!

It's raining, but not in my heart, apparently I don't have one. Enough about that!

Some birds and a list of others seen during a walk from Elliot near Arbroath to East Haven, south along the coastal path and back on the beach near high tide.

Starting near to but short of East Haven we saw, 9 Grey Plovers, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, around 36 sanderlings, many Redshanks, 11 Curlews, Teal, Turnstones, Mallards, Cormorants, Black-headed, Herring, Common and Great Black-backed Gulls. Also five Stonechats, 2 Snipe, Pied Wagtails, Starlings, Rooks, Crows, Jackdaws and a young Peregrine who gave up chasing the Starlings.

The very large/long field which runs from the old Dowrie Works site along past Hatton has been grubbed out and what looks like winter turnips for cattle planted. I think a great idea would be, (I think many of my ideas are great, at first!) to investigate if the farmer could be encouraged and with help from interested parties, to plant Wild Bird Cover in a strip along the coastal path boundary with the field. The seed mixture could be adjusted to make it both suitable for insects, bees, and butterflies and to provide cover and winter food for birds.

Stonechat, one of five seen

A different Stonechat later in the afternoon as the sun painted everything with a yellow/orange hue

Brilliant little waders Sanderlings, rushing around the tide line then suddenly they all run up the beach. I could have sat and watched them but it was a walk and not a bird trip!!

This one sped past and even went into the water to keep its distance from Olive and I

Teal drake, very tolerant of the noisy passing trains

Long-tailed Duck at the Lurgies

Just on the off-chance that a Long-tailed Duck I'd seen on Saturday near Montrose Railway Station might have moved upstream, I went to where I'd seen this species before and it turned up, or so I thought. I've just looked at Saturday's bird and it is an adult, so there's at least two in the Basin just now. 

A few others from the Lurgies and Mains of Dun. I'm going to have to get a good Twite photo soon and that's likely to be on a cold day when they're hungry. Or maybe I'll not bother............

Long-tailed Duck juvenile, much less white around they eye and head than a female, seen from the Lurgies path, upstream from the Slunks

Twite and Linnet for comparison, Twite with yellow beak, the Linnet grey. It was a better photo before it was "googled", and I can't find out if it's possible to stop these being brightend and sharpened!

Twite

Cormorant

The Lurgies heavy-weight, the Aberdeen-Angus bull which has "looked after" the cows in the field all summer

Snow Goose, Long-tailed Duck and Pintails

An early morning trip on Saturday to see blue morph Snow Goose Simon had reported on Friday at Tayock. I chose the footbridge at the Railway Station which wasn't as close as Tayock Hide would be, but it did give me height to look through the vast numbers of Pink-footed Geese which had roosted overnight. I didn't attempt a count but 30,000 would surely be an under-estimate.
It turned out that Tayock would have given a closer view when I found the Snow Goose to the right of one of the large flocks, thankfully it wasn't sleeping and even walked about a bit, then of course it either moved or flew off to feed.
Also seen from the station, in the channel in front that leads west, at least 16 Pintails and an unexpected female Long-tailed Duck. As it was so cold, I decided to go home and watch the rugby, but got heated up a bit and moved on to Maryton Ditch, photos below.

Vast numbers of Pink-footed Geese, spooked by a light aircraft, click here for video

Hen Harrier video related to previous post, click here

Little Egret politics from the Wigeon Hide, click here

Black-headed Gulls were fishing all along the shallows and catching two species of fish and shrimps

This one has a fish, the third photo in the sequence above

There were 3 Greenshanks at Maryton, but despite my best efforts to hide in thorn bushes I was spotted and they stayed a save distance away

There were quite a few, perhaps 40 Goldeneye earlier on this year but I could only see 6 today, and they wouldn't come in

The Goosanders were in three flocks, fishing their way up the basin as the tide came in, I counted 123 birds on the water

Grey Herons roost to the west of Maryton, I think these two were flushed by a dog. It seems that a few people "exercise" their dogs on the mud, to save polythene bags!! This is common on beaches everywhere, they expect the tide or the "poo fairies" take it away.....

Grey Heron, upstream of Maryton Ditch

Hen Harrier - winter wanderer

A trip to the northwest corner of Montrose Basin, mostly spent in the Wigeon Hide, an elevated hide with views over the basin and salt marsh where birds roost at high tide.

Bird of the trip was the Hen Harrier below, also a Peregrine that chased it, a Kestrel, a Buzzard, a Kingfisher and not forgetting the birds I went to see, the Twite. Three Turnstones also flew along the tide line, not a species I expected or have seen there before!
There are large numbers of Shelducks, some Teal, around 24 Pintails, Eider, Dunlin and 3 Little Egrets in the area.

Hen Harrier, ringtail, female or 1st winter. It looked to have one or two plastic rings on its right leg and a metal ring on the left. Impossible to get any numbers in the very poor grey light

Hunting over the field to the north of the hide

The original sighting as it flew past the Wigeon Hide. This photo was taken over the shoulder of a vistor I was talking to as he sat at the north facing window. The blur is caused by the tree branches at the hide, that's how close it was!

At first the young Peregrine was diving at the Hen Harrier, but in this photo the Harrier is behind and chasing the Peregrine. This and the multiple Crows also chasing it meant it flew off inland towards Mains of Dun Farm. This was a field width away and needed surgery before posting

1st winter Peregrine, probably the one I saw earlier at the Lurgies

Twite on the wires between the old railway line and the feeder station, easily seen if you approach slowly

There were a small number of Linnets with the Twite, 26 Twite and maybe 4 Linnets

Blue Tit at Mains of Dun, still no Redwings or Fieldfares there, perhaps taking the apple tree down means they don't hang around

Some of a count of 520 Curlews in front of the Wigeon Hide and surrounding mud and fields

Song Thrush at Mains of Dun

A conservative estimate of the Wigeon flocks was 3500 birds!

A rare sighting for the Wigeon Hide was the Kingfisher in the centre of this photo. It gives photographers who've never been to this hide an idea of how far away the birds are. This was with a 300mm lens and 1.4 teleconverter, again the light was hopeless

A lost dog at the Lurgies, a friendly one but unfortunately it walked all the way up the path in front of me twice - no birds then! Re-united with the guy looking for it when it followed me back to the car park.

Scaup at Monikie - likely a hybrid

A bit of a tidy up, photos from Monikie CP, East Haven, Whiting Ness and one from the Lurgies at Montrose Basin.

Scaup female hybrid at Monikie CP, on the North Pond, in the corner where the burn flows in. The Slavonian Grebe had gone, or was hiding from the wind. Also around 24 Little Grebes but as yet no Goldeneye

Teak drake at Monikie

Teal at East Haven, near the track on the coastal path

Starling, this one and mates feeding in and around the cattle feeder

One of around 80 Curlews in a harvested tattie field at Whiting Ness, Arbroath. A Crow was bothering them and one at a time they flew down to the beach

Little Grebes, Lurgies Montrose Basin, at least 12 around the Old Harbour area (sometimes)

Myxomatosis - Loch Leven/Kinross

Myxomatosis rabbits and others from Loch Leven. As usual all of the birds were roosted, sleeping and miles away.

Not very much to see from any of the three hides accessed from the RSPB centre at Loch Leven. A few Pochard, Tufted Ducks, Goosanders, Whooper Swans, Mute Swans, Teal, Curlews, Lapwings, Mallards, Little Grebes and Great Crested Grebes. All far enough away to make photography pointless.

Pochard drake from the hide at the woolen mill

Carrion Crow, it was pecking at the myxomatosis rabbits backside, but the rabbit was still active enough to react but clearly couldn't see the crow

The Magpies appeared to be finding insects

A horrific disease which few ever recover from and appear to have a slow death if not killed by some predator

Thankfully only 5 or 6 rabbits out of around 20 had the myxomatosis, that's not to say they won't get it though

Robins are everywhere just now and announce their presence freely

Jackdaw, overlooking the grass area which is part of the mill where the rabbits were

The same crow that had been was attacking the rabbit

None of four black rabbits present were affected by the myxomatosis

Female House Spider in my kitchen a week ago, I've left it be so it can kill any on those little flies that get in