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.