Nightmares do come true......

Lockdown was always predicted to be a time when those who persecute Raptors would reap their cruel slaughter. I've watched not so much in dismay, but in a resigned "we told you you so". The short video below I've posted gives a vivid glimpse into what's happening in just one moor. The memory I'll take from it was the alien environment created for Red Grouse, shown in the aerial end shot, a true blot on, and devastation of the landscape.

Raptor Persecution as reported on Channel 4, click here for video

Full frame Tree Sparrow juvenile filmed in my garden, click here  

Pink-footed Goose at Montrose Basin, looks uninjured, click for video 

Leucistic, or whatever Chris Packham said, a white Eider duck at the Ythan, click here  from 29/5/2019

Olive said it's a Wood Mouse as shown in her tory newspaper today, and the tories are always right (a deliberate pun!)

One of my tadpoles, quite large now but no sign of legs yet

Little Ringed Plover - 2017

Little Ringed Plovers battle to keep their unborn bairn (from 9/6/2017)

The Black-headed Gulls are the main suspects for the disappearance of two of the Little Ringed Plover eggs from the nest I've previously blogged about. There are 14 gull nests nearby but it's possible a crow or a magpie nesting in the area did the deed although they'd most likely have taken all of the eggs. The first photo is from Carnoustie Golf Links which Olive wanted me to post.

Latest Little Ringed Plover video, click here,  shows the male vacating the nest as the female arrives to sit. The female has a metal ring of unknown origin.

Five of the six cygnets on the small pond on the Carnoustie Golf Links boundary with Barry Buddon Camp. Unfortunately the other pair of Mute Swans on the links "lost" their four cygnets according to a contractor on the course but he re-united two of them later. Let's hope the parents find the other two somewhere on the links soon.

Turning the single egg that remains

Sitting tight but they never did so for long, although to their credit they never ventured far and were always close enough to return to defend the egg

Heading off a Black-headed Gull just out of shot, the gull was testing their attention and resolve. I note that the nest has been re-shaped and now has a bit of a cup. The stone to the right of the egg had looked like a broken egg but photos showed that not to be true, showing the value of having a photo for evidence

Swifts and another Mouse

  
At last some Swifts, flying over my garden.

Just when you thought you'd seen and heard all of the mistreatment of birds during their lives. Here's a link to what happens to Woodpigeons, and it suggests they're going into the food chain. It's the latest from Raptor Persecution UK.

Link to the latest RPUK post, click here  

Little Egrets in flight, click here for video

Unknown as yet Mouse species, click her for cuteness

Flying high towards St Vigeans, the usual route each summer. Don't know where they come from, maybe Auchmithie direction

Swallow, not see often where I live, at least from the garden. Another very high pass during a still part of the afternoon

Still not 100% sure which Mouse species this is, more research and second guessing, I guess

An accidental funny shot where the gull looks to have very long legs

Female House Sparrow

Male House Sparrow

Juvenile House Sparrow

Yes, more Starlings, nothing else would settle as a neighbour has some builders in erecting a summer house. What about lockdown and social distancing you may ask!

May for Spoonbills?

One species to look out for in late May.

Looking through past photos I noted that it was often around the end of May, beginning of June that I found a Spoonbill or Spoonbills at Montrose Basin. Other birds have included Curlew Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper, but maybe getting late for them now. Lets hope we can get out to find them soon.


A Spoonbill from the Lurgies in late May, click here for video 

Retro Post from early June 2019

Originally posted on June 8th 2019


The photos below look too bright on my PC so it's likely I'll be back to this later to sort it out. I downloaded a calibration disk for my monitor and graphics card set up and like the look of the screen. Just looked on my phone and the photos look Ok but I have a black theme on Chrome so it might affect what I'm seeing.

A quote from an article I read recently.... a new post with photos tonight, Saturday



 "it is astonishing, in the 21st Century, that people are still allowed to burn mountainsides – destroying their vegetation, roasting their wildlife, vapourising their carbon, creating a telluric eczema of sepia and grey blotches – for any purpose, let alone blasting highland chickens out of the air. 

Little Grebe in the old harbour

Osprey at the Lurgies, Montrose Basin

Red-breasted Merganser, I'd sneaked along behind the sea wall only for someone to walk along the top just as I got ready to get my photo!

Shelduck, at least 300 seen through my scope from Maryton Ditch

Still a few pairs of Teal around

A big surprise when I saw these Whooper Swans. Most Whoopers are already in their breeding grounds with cygnets. Two birds are ringed with yellow rings, ZAN and ZAH, I'll post details if I get their history later. It seems these are the young of a pair that bred somewhere in England, noted her and at St Cyrus (I think)

Fox and Cubs with unknown beetle species, I'll search for the answer soon. This and the next photos are from Murton

This time it's the flower that's unidentified

Cinnabar Moth, lots of them at the eastward pond

Small Copper butterfly at one of my Corn Bunting farms

All of those below are in or around my garden. Anyone might think I'm a gardener, but I just sit there and try to photograph House Martins and Swifts. As you can see below, with no success

Unusual to see a Lesser Black-backed Gull where I live, this one is even on my roof

The Blue Tits won't nest in my garden, but they'll eat my food!

Flushed by the twitchy feral pigeons

One of the blasted pigeons

Nearly a good photo

Un-named moth on Olive's door

Started off this week with one of these young Starlings. yesreday there were around fifty

Two pairs of Yellowhammers recorded most days. Often still feeding near to dusk

A few of a larger group which flew off when I picked up the camera from the boot of the car

House Mouse, outside the house

The last garden safari for a while, I might post re-vamped old posts from this time in previous years. I'll be under the kitchen floor looking into replacing my heating pump, and I suspect it's that old that a direct bolt in won't be an option. Olive hasn't yet said she'd cuddle me to to keep warm! (and probably never will) 
😢

One of the two House Mice in my garden (that I know of), click here for video

One of two House Mice under the cotoneaster, and why not, it's got two feeders in it and many careless birds dropping seed. It seems unlikely they were Wood mice as first thought, I've now seen one in the open and light and it doesn't fit the Wood description

Good to see the male Yellowhammer, he'd went missing for a few days

Woodpigeon, photographed at F22

The male Chaffinch is a bit wary but didn't seem bothered by my tripod and camera in the kitchen sink and through the open window

Even the Greenfinches were feeding on the ground to keep out of the strong wind blowing the bushes and feeders around

Starlings, always a noisy species

I'm not seeing families of young Starlings in the garden, most years the adults have 2-4 young chasing them around. Just now it seems to be singletons or maybe two