Thursday, 17 October 2024

Bearded Tits and a late Osprey


An unexpected Osprey flew over the Slunks today at Montrose Basin, a late bird but not unknown at this time. 
Only minutes before the sighting I'd found the two reported Bearded Tits in the reedbeds, they appeared quite close to my viewpoint, sat on the reeds very briefly and flew off and disappeared into the reeds. Of course they did. I did see them another two times as they relocated, both around 50 meters away and just for a few seconds.   



Osprey with a dark blue darvic ring on its left leg, 8H2, seen at the Slunks on Montrose Basin. I'll post the birds history when I get the information from the ringer, probably the Roy Dennis Foundation. 
The info below is from the ringer in the Inverness area.
"We were delighted to hear back about one of these birds because they were surprisingly young when we visited the nest. This year’s nest is a new build alongside a platform built in the early 1990’s after we relocated the nest from the mainland onto an island in the loch following two seasons of egg collectors hitting the original site. After just over 15 years the tree we had put the platform in finally died and became unsafe for both us and the birds, and we were planning a relocation for this year when the birds beat us to it.  What was really interesting was that they recycled almost all of the nest material from their old platform into their new self build nest"






Whooper and Mute Swans at the Lurgies




The first of the seasons Goosanders at Keptie Pond, Arbroath



Heron sitting in front of this years successful nest which is sited only a few feet above the water



The first Wigeon has also arrived, photographed through a lot of vegetation



Mallard drake, some showing half-hearted courtship



The long-staying Pintail/Mallard drake hybrid

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