Spoonbill - Lurgies

I've been assuming that eventually one of the seven or more Spoonbills up at the Strathbeg/Ythan area would turn up at Montrose Basin, and tonight one did. I hope it stays to let people see it.

Spoonbill video, click here to play

Spoonbill, flew into the basin at the Lurgies on Monday evening and landed out on the mud to feed, never near

Red-breasted Merganser, eight around tonight

Cropped out of a photo of three

Backwater Cuckoo in the rain

A curtailed trip to Backwater Dam when the skies opened and flooded the roads. I retreated to Kinnordy where it was nearly as bad, further east it looked better so I went home!

Some photos taken in a real mixture of light, some sunny, most dull and a few in rain.

It was raining and the Cuckoo was sitting on wires too far away so I've resorted to playing around with a stack

A second Cuckoo which flew along the hillside as I tried to find some shelter

Raining, the original bird

Stonechat

and Stonechat juvenile

Willow Warbler

Common Sandpiper

Oystercatcher sheepishly trying to avoid pointing out its nest

Pied Wagtail and mate behind

Swallow

Common Gull

Rhododendron