Windswept Waders

   
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School children congratulate government for Grouse Licencing, click to read their letters 

 

RPUK blog on gamekeepers response to 8 year old rewilders, click here (para 4)

A few wader photos from a windy walk along towards Hatton on Thursday

Around 24 Ringed Plovers sheltering on the beach at Hatton, and we managed to creep past them without disturbing them

Oystercatchers from the high dunes

Dunlin in a state of moult

Inevitably the Dunlin were flushed, it's a busy beach even in the windy conditions we found

Dunlin, they'll not be around for long now, other waders are already being reported inland

Lunan Bay - White-tailed Eagle

   

A rare flypast from a young White-tailed Eagle, it came in from the sea and flew inland towards Rossie Moor, being harried as it went by corvids.

Don't expect a great record here, it was gloomy and very windy and I was caught with the wrong camera and wrong set up!

White-tailed Eagle at Lunan Bay, click here for video

White-tailed Eagle, flying through at Lunan Bay on Thursday

Purple Sandpipers and a huge Gull

A selection of what can be found on my doorstep, in this case mostly Arbroath Harbour where some of my favourite birds were posing in the sun while being blasted by the wind.

Purple Sandpiper Arbroath Harbour

More Purple Sandpipers Scurdie Ness, Montrose

Eider drake in Arbroath Harbour

Waving or saluting!

A very, very large Great Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull at Danger Point, Arbroath

Redshank

Rock Pipit

Montreathmont Forest, young female Sparrowhawk

Seen when searching for white-winged gulls at Boysack

Spot the Buzzard, it had been feeding on what might have been a dead piglet

The leucistic Herring Gull back at West Links

Jackdaw which had been mimicking the Turnstone below flipping stones

Turnstone

Feral Pigeon

Great Black-backed Gull, Scurdie Ness

Waders - a second look (part 3, final)

  

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Yet another second look at my old photos, and one I've been avoiding as I've got far too many wader photos to look through. Today's waders are from a folder of the same name and are the last post to cover waders, with some good and bad photos taken over many years with varied cameras. 

Winter plumage Sanderlings

Breeding plumage, a May bird

Winter plumage flight at Craigmill

I haven't counted them, perhaps you could and let me know

Snipe on the rocks at Hatton, I don't see many Snipe on beaches

Snipe at the Lurgies

Very unusual to see Snipe in the open

Distant photo of a Spotted Redshank at the Lurgies, Montrose Basin

Another faraway photo, this time near the Shelduck Hide

Spotted Redshank going to roost

May Turnstones just before migration

Also bird in May

Turnstone at Westhaven in October

The Water Rail section, not the easiest bird to find let alone photograph

Overdid the zoom and crop with this one

Juvenile Water Rail at the Bank of Scotland Hide, Montrose Basin

Whimbrel at Annat Bank, South Esk Estuary

Whimbrel near Montrose Sailing Club

Whimbrel at East Haven with a Curlew for comparison

White-rumped Sandpiper at Hatton, this bird is a vagrant from America

I sat for ages waiting for it to walk along in front of me, as it got near a birder flushed it.....

Wood Sandpiper at Kinnordy (and Google has made the photo too bright)

I might have another go at these two photos

Woodcock in Glenesk, rare to see in the middle of the day, and near at track

Woodcock in Glenesk, confident I was safe behind a fence