The Glutton and coastal bird feature

   
There's not many days when everything combines and makes for good photos, but Friday was one of those days. I had to drop off Olive in Carnoustie and had a couple of hours to wait. I took the easy option and walked along from Westhaven to Craigmill mouth, and on a rising tide I sat in cover and waited for things to happen.

The first two photos are from my garden this morning and both feature death..........

This unfortunate Mouse ate far too much seed in the feeder overnight and got stuck so tightly it perished. I found it impossible to get it out and binned the feeder!

My Sparrowhawk's new preferred plucking place, just outside the window I'm currently sitting at. It's now three times I've seen this and always first thing in the morning

Sanderlings at Craigmill, I was sitting in a bit of cover on the south bank of the burn

Sanderlings incoming after a brief flight along the beach

Photography is good when the light is like this, and even at a distance the sun lit up these small waders

This Goosander could see I was there but kept coming into the burn mouth to feed

Common Gull

Curlew, complete with mud on its beak

More Curlews, I think walkers had flushed them from the field behind the dunes

Grey Plover

Oystercatcher

Redshank

Many Redshanks

Redshanks flushed by Crows, and a cameo from a Starling above them

Turnstone photo taken in between the dog walkers passing through

Turnstones at Westhaven

I wonder if this is a Cuckoo Bee species, it also seems late. I've asked an expert

I didn't expect to find a Wasp this late and it isn't a Queen

Magpie in Carmoustie, they nested two gardens away from the garden I was in this year

Rock Pipit at Craigmill

These Song Thrushes wanted to come into the garden I was in, but Alfie the cute dog, who is apparently trained to chase birds, was there barking at them......

Starling stalking one of my garden feeders

A late Swallow at Westhaven car park on Friday

"Governments Den" a masterpiece that shouldn't need to have been made

   

A brilliant parody of the case for grouse shooting, should be shown in schools, universities, terrestrial TV, Netflix, hell, show it to everyone!

"Governments Den", the case for Grouse shooting in Scotland, click here for video  it's just over seven minutes and worth every one of them

Some of the comments left.....

Excellent stuff.  Oor wee Nicola Sturgeon has to shoulder the blame for NOT doing anything! She could stop it instantly!

Excellent format, clarity,factual..Shared with emphasis on the 'Cruelty & destruction aspect on an industrial scale' ..Persecution, poisoning, trapping,shooting for fun, moor burn must end!

Keep up the good fight especially  against those privileged with vested interests ££££ ! 

Well done. I still cannot believe that there is to be a simulation grouse shooting experience in Edinburgh's new St. James Centre. Utterly revolting they are branding it as a Scottish thing and sincerely embarrassing for Edinburgh.

Wigeon Hide with a strawberry blond!

   
Some long range photos from a walk down to the Wigeon Hide at Montrose Basin. The hide is around 100 metres back from the edge of the mud where the wader flocks roost at high tide. There were a few Fieldfares and Redwings on the way along the track and a large flock of Goldfinches with a few Linnets in front of the hide.

A different Dunlin, a strawberry blond, of sorts, click here for video  The previously posted one was almost all white

I like this one of a Redwing sitting atop a very large tree near the Mains of Dun car park. It was in a shaft of sunlight with a dark rain cloud in the background

One of at least two juvenile Grey Plovers in front of the Wigeon Hide, there were adults further out on the mud (we were a bit late getting there)

Probably one of the pair I'd seen not far away at Miss Erskines Bank, today it was south of the Wigeon Hide

Very unusual for a Carrion Crow to let me get close, it was sheltering behind a grass bank out of the wind and didn't want to move

The view from the track looking over a tattie field and across the Basin towards Montrose. The white things on the surface of the field are potatoes which is puzzling me so I'll ask an expert when I next see him

Whooped dee do

   

I couldn't buy a Whooper Swan sighting until the last two days, it seems they've arrived in larger numbers and most looked to be resting after the flight to Angus.


Whooper Swans with five cygnets, click here for video  

Wigeon, when someone walked around in front of the hide as I filmed 

A Curlew washing worms as it fed at Tayock, click here

  

Whooper Swans in a field just north of Inverkeilor, on a flooded section after the Lunan burst its banks. No cygnets with this three. Photo from the A92 roadside

In the same flood, this family have five cygnets. Note there's nowhere to park unless you walk from the Lunan Bridge layby

Another childless pair on Miss Erskines Bank, Montrose Basin. Seen alongside a pair of Mutes that have five cygnets

 

The view from the Tayock Hide just before I had to leave after someone walked around to the front of the hide, it's a hide for heavens sake, use it

Great and Little Egrets

   

A better day on Monday, at least in the afternoon so I went to Montrose Basin looking for the Pectoral Sandpiper from Saturday but to no avail. I'm blaming the Peregrine which flushed all of the waders, but it maybe just wasn't there anymore.

At least the Great and Little Egrets stayed around to entertain and I was able to count 17 Grey Plovers and get a brief view of the Spotted Redshank, I might even have a Peregrine photo?

A short spell at Tayock before it rained turned up large numbers of Shelducks spread over a large area and behind them seriously high numbers of Wigeon. I didn't stay to see if the Pink-footed Geese came in at dusk. 

Great Egret fishing alongside Grey Herons, click here  

Tree Sparrows, fiesty little devils, click here

 

Great White Egret at the Lurgies, Montrose Basin

Lots of small fish in the channel attracting all-comers

Little Egret

Little Egret (bird 2 of 3)

A handsome gull and historical football team

   

I still haven't seen the Kingfisher/s at our local Keptie Pond but I'll keep looking as the weather gets colder and especially on days when the Brothock Burn is flowing high or dirty.

I'll try and get some Tree Sparrow shots or video today from my garden, currently they've been flushed by an over zealous housewife........  

Good Hygiene Practice for feeding Garden Birds, BTO Advice here

Scientists highlight risks of disease at garden bird feeders, BTO Advice here

Herring Gull, Victoria Park, Arbroath

Little Grebe into bright sunlight, Keptie Pond. You can see how the waterproofing works

Still just two drake Wigeon at Keptie

Found this forgotten photo this week. 

Ladyloan Primary School football team 1967, the players are from primaries 5,6 and 7, most from primary 6 due to the small class sizes. The consequences were we often played teams of primary 7 giants. Check out the boots of the day then!

Planets of the Gods

   

The Windows October Update has reset my display preferences, bear with me till I get it back to what I'm happy with! (looks to bright to me)

Looking out for an Aurora I noticed that the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter were close together in the clear sky, so I tried out the "moon" setting on my P1000. I'm happy enough with these at 242,838km, 1,498,970,664km and 780,900,885km to the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter. Perhaps using manual focus would be better?

Jupiter - God of the Sky

Saturn - God of Religion

Mars - God of War

Video of the Moon at six times the recorded speed, click here

From the left, the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter

Jupiter, 780,900,885km

Mars, 65,918,805km

The Moon, 242,838km

Siskin male at Montreathmont

Great Tit

Chaffinch

Wren at Whiting Ness, Arbroath

Reed Bunting male at Whiting Ness 

The new feeding station at Keptie Pond, I think there are five feeders and this table. Visitors are welcome to top the feeders up anytime with appropriate seed or fats on the table