Blood Moon

Before the equinox, a surprise moon and a few from Lunan Bay on a sunny September day.

A "Blood Moon" seen on my way home on Tuesday the night before the equinox, "taken from some distance away!!

Kittiwakes relaxing at the gull roost at Lunan Bay with a photo-bombing Common Gull

It's a hard life at this time of year, yawn......

Sandwich Tern, pre-flight stretch

Two of around 40 Wigeon out at sea

A backlit Grey Heron at Victoria Park, Arbroath

Common Gull at Corbie Knowe

Long-tailed Skua at Easthaven

After asking the experts and getting a concensus I've decided to post these juvenile Long-tailed Skua photos taken on my Webs count at the weekend. Also on the Webs were a first Grey Plover of the season, a Curlew Sandpiper and eight Bar-tailed Godwits. Elsewhere I eventually found the Semipalmated Sandpiper at the Ythan Estuary but just before high tide when it flew off to the wader roost with around 500 Dunlin. Needless to say we din't see the Humpback which did show but not where we were looking.

Juvenile Long-tailed Skua, Easthaven

Being harried by a larger Curlew

It didn't seem to bothered and just floated its way along the beach

Knot at the Ythan Estuary still showing breeding plumage and an injury to its head, perhaps from a Peregrine hunting further upstream from where the photo was taken

Knot, what the the one above this should look like by now, one of over a hundred downstream from the lifeboat shed

Something or somebody spooked this group seals on the north bank of the Ythan which then swam down the river into the sea. Another group just metres away stayed where they were?

Easthaven beastie, I think it's a Sea Louse of some kind. Does anyone know?

A Rock Pipit which landed close before it realised I was there. It was near the paddling pool in Arbroath while I looked for the Med Gull which was sitting on Chalmers roof again

Shoveler fest, Marsh Harrier and Black Dragonfly

There were a dozen Shoveler at Kinnordy on Friday and they take top billing in front of the Marsh Harriers as they're the new arrivals and still in their moult. The two juvenile Harriers now have a finished look to their plumage and their flight and hunting techniques also look more refined.

The Black Dragonfly was what I'd been looking for and initially I thought it was a Common Darter but it's either a female or immature male Black, I never saw any mature males but I didn't get down to the area where I've seen them in the past.

The last two photos are from the Gayfield area in Arbroath where the Med Gull was preening on Chalmers roof and the Common Terns were still resting on the concrete pillars at the sewage works.

Male and female Shovelers coming in

Male

Female

Junior, looking out of proportion, how could it not with a bill like that

Marsh Harrier juvenile

Hunting

Black Dragonfly female or immature male

Lapwing, one of many being spooked by the Harriers but a Peregrine I didn't see is their real threat

Med Gull with the Black-headed Gulls in a late afternoon light barely shining through the cloud

One of the Common Terns, how much longer will they stay?