Hoodie hybrids? Bad news from Lunan Bay!

 

All but the last photo are from Montrose Basin where waders have starting arriving back, including Black-tailed Godwit, Snipe, Dunlin juveniles, Lapwings and more.

Rather than posting individual links to videos here, I've just put a link to my Flickr page below where I think there are 12 videos from the Basin. The link is always in the list above.

Flickr Photostream, latest from Montrose Basin at the top, click here

I watched this crow family downstream from the Slunks for some time and think the juveniles including a third one are Hooded Crow/Carrion Crow hybrids. I've seen birds like these for the last few years at Montrose Basin, and I've seen a Hoodie at various sites, Marykirk, Wigeon Hide, Mains of Usan and Lunan Bay

Mute Swans spending time on the Basin while they go through their summer moult

The Great Egret was in the first large channel at the Lurgies, and if you have a bit patience and walk slowly up the path it doesn't fly off, it just keeps an eye out. Of course if people march up the path or have a dog with them it may fly off immediately

This is a composite photo, two photos merged together using Microsoft's Image Composite Editor, in this case its managed to make a photo better than either of the originals

One of at least 75 dead Kittiwakes on Lunan Bay beach, also 81 lethargic Kittiwakes sitting below Red Castle, and a mixture of other birds including Guillemots, Great Black-backed Gull, Black-headed Gull and Herring Gull. Worst of all was finding 3 juvenile Guillemots, tiny compared to the adults, they'd made it from the nest on to the sea, only to end up dead on the beach.

I checked some of the Guillemots and they were thin suggesting a shortage of food, the sea temperature is higher than normal