Whats about - Late November?

Many many reports of waxwings on a daily basis and seen quite a few here in different areas - Kincorth, Crathes Castle, near Grammar School, Bath St - Stonehaven & yesterday had 15 arriving in the tree beside our garden yesterday most of the day.
Other birds reported in the wider area include a bittern at Strathbeg & Kinnordy and a black necked grebe reported from Montrose Basin today.

For me, nipping out at 3pm during my break on Friday 23rd resulted in another otter sighting. Poor, fading light but just a joy to watch regardless.

Otter - Loch Loirston, Aberdeen

 At Cowie, stonehaven, a few commoner waders inclusing purple sandpiper and the well stocked birdfeeders at the garden there ensures tree sparrow are usually guaranteed.

Blue Tit - Cowie, Stonehaven

Tree Sparrow - Cowie, Stonehaven

Waxwings 18th Nov 2012

Bumped into more of these at Crathes Castle yesterday, we saw 13 in total. As well as the waxies, around 6 jays, 2 great spotted woodpecker, crossbill over, red kite over, treccreeper and all the usual ones.

Sunday 11th November 2012

 Well what a nice surprise this morning....Loch Loirston in Altens, Aberdeen is currently surrounded by a building site so hopefully otter sightings like this will still be possible for years to come.

Waxwings - 9th Nov 2012

A bit quiet of late...have been trying out other forms of photography that don't involve wildlife and spare time is at a premium.

That said, waxwings or to give them their full name - Bohemian waxwings have been turning up on our shores again...it could be a cold Winter!
These were all taken in Kincorth,. Aberdeen at about 3pm today.

Sunday Evening 28.10.12

A 90 minute tour South of Stonehaven after dark rewarded us with two different owl species - a short-eared owl and a beautiful (are there any other?) barn owl.
Using the pop-up flash with a 400mm lens in the dark is not a recipe for success but managed some record shots which are captioned below - the first two are cropped and manipulated a bit but the large picture is untouched to give an idea of the scene.

Barn Owl - tyto alba

Weekend 26-27th October 2012

It has been a fairly quiet week in terms of bird activity...Loch Loirston wigeon numbers now in excess of 100 and a single goldeneye turned up the beginning of the week.
A barred warbler was reported by Andy Webb on Saturday at Old Portlethen
Beyond that I've had the opportunity to try and improve photography skills with a bit of practice on garden species.
The great spotted woodpecker from two weeks ago hasn't showed up again but goldfinch, siskin and greenfinch are fairly abundant in the garden. A goldcrest has been putting in the odd appearance but is not keen to come out in the open for too long.
Some garden birds from Saturday :

dunnock

robin

f blackbird

greenfinch

Some mouldy bread chucked out on Sunday saw an opportunistic tea-leaf make a few forays - as long as he stays out of the house we'll get on fine!

Brown Rat

Weekend October 20-21 2012

From 9am to noon on Saturday lots of visible migration over Stonehaven golf course evident.
Around 40 swallows (with a couple of house martin) , 150+ meadow pipit, skylark, redpoll all flying South as well as 2 whooper swans heading in the other direction.
Mineral Well area was quiet with a few robin and dunnock about and an obliging grey wagtail.

Grey Wagtail - Minerall Well, Stonehaven

Decided to have a wander around Easter Muchalls, a couple of goldcrest still about as well as 5/6 song thrush around clifftop but we did see an edifice looking uncannily like the head of a crow:

View from Easter Muchalls cliff edge.

 

 

 

If there's nothing else there, you can always rely on some easy bison!

Little time on Sunday but a quick nip round Netherley area led to a fleeting but good view of a male hen harrier - one of our most beautiful and persecuted birds of prey. Also in the area were kestrel, buzzard, teal and 2 snipe.
Although it reached 15 degrees on Sunday, winter is not that far away  - a November Moth was trapped in the garden just a few days ago and moth catches have dropped to single figures the last two weekends

November Moth

Lots of Migrants - Weekend 13-14th October 2012

The weather conditions from the end of the week ensured that lots of migrant birds were pushed to land and meant a few rarity hunters were out and about over the weekend.
Notable birds reported in the North East included a Pallas' warbler at Easter Muchalls, Red Breasted Flycatcher at Fernieflatt and a good few yellow browed warbler as well as us finding a black redstart between Fernieflatt & Whistleberry. In Angus, great grey shrike, bearded tit, lesser whitethroat were all logged.
Plenty of commoner migrants were in evidence - Many goldcrest about and I estimated over 50 brambling between Stonehaven & Kinneff Old Church on Saturday.
Blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler, redwing were evident and numbers of song thrush, blackbird, robin and starling were swelled with new arrivals.

Robin - Kinneff Old Church

Brambling - at Crawton, Saturday 13th October

Goldcrest - taken near Slains Farm - one of many in the area, and the smallest bird in the UK

 Lots of heavy showers on Sunday which probably ensured a lot of Saturday's birds would still be about. It was pretty evident that the brambling had all but moved on although the highlight of the day was seeing seven different raptors in such a small area. Pick of the bunch - a marsh harrier over Catterline and a merlin a few hundred yards along the road just after Fernieflatt, capped by a smart short-eared owl near Kinneff Old Church.

Black Redstart - by roadside between Fernieflatt & Kinneff

Short-Eared Owl near Slains Farm, always good to see!

Sunday 7th October 2012

Another nice day, caught on the hop with wrong lens at Inchgarth when the reported slavonian grebe was actually near the car park end.
Unfortunately, by the time I ran back to the car and changed lenses it was making it's way to the centre so just a distant record shot and lesson learned!

Slavonian Grebe

There's only around 40 breeding pairs in the UK but wintering slavonian grebes are usually in excess of 1000, regularly seen at Loch of Strathbeg but this is a good record for Inchgarth.

Easter Anguston was quiet with no raptors other than buzzard. Only other birds of note were 2 tree sparrow and a reed bunting.

Spider

 

On to Park, where spider was photographed and a great spotted woodpecker appeared in the garden of a nearby cottage.

Grey Heron at Falls of Feugh

Caterpillar - species?

Weekend Saturday 6th October 2012

Stotting headache Sat morning - cancelled golf again! A lie in and some extra painkillers and cleared up by mid morning. A fine morning and trawled around a few of the regular haunts as well as some places not visited in a while such as Fetteresso Forest, Drumtochty Glen, Kinneff Old Church, Catterline, Fowlsheugh, Carmont Station, Drumlithie etc.
Notable encounters were upwards of 12 red admiral and a couple of tatty peacock butterfly at Kinneff Old Church as well as Silver Y moth.

Buzzard (yes...another one), near Carmont Station

Kestrel near Slains Farm, Kinneff

Red Admiral - Kinneff Old Church

Red Admiral (left) & a tatty Peacock but not bad for October!

Silver Y - Kinneff Old Church

Silver Y












 

Sunday 30th September 2012 - Loch of Strathbeg

Just about a 70 minute drive to Loch of Strathbeg and a good few hours were spent in the area.
The car park area was alive with tree sparrow and finches as usual and quite a few Silver Y moths decorated the ragwort on the the walk to the Tower pool.Also en route, plenty reed bunting, yellowhammer and mixed finch flock.
From the hide it was pleasing to see a huge number of birds, certainly the biggest quantity we can recall in recent years, even ignoring the many pink-footed geese.
Unsurprisingly, this helped to draw in a few raptors and a hunting peregrine and marsh harrier ensured the view constantly changed.
Star birds - 2 buff breasted sandpiper which offered fairly obliging views through the scope and a leucistic barnacle goose  in amongst the 200+ barnacle.
The supporting cast included whooper swan, 2 snipe, dunlin, a pair of stonechat, shoveler, restless and distant golden plover and lapwing and all the rest!
The Fen hide area had plentiful wigeon, some gadwall and winter plumaged great crested and slavonian grebe.

Hunting female marsh harrier , more common than they were but still only around 350 breeding females in the UK

Marsh Harrier

Silver Y moth (at Strathbeg), a largish day flying moth and can turn up in big numbers, mainly migrant.

Silver Y (from the garden moth trap - Stonehaven, only 4 moths trapped 29th September including this boy)

Week 24th September - 29th September 2012

Weather and wind conditions at the start of the week meant a few rarities were being found in NE Scotland and beyond.
The pick of these was a Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler at Whinnyfold and Greater Yellowlegs was reported at Strathbeg again.
As well as the megas there was a supporting cast of buff-breasted & pectoral sandpiper, red breasted flycatcher at Newtonhill & Collieston as well as a few records of yellow browed warbler.
Unfortunately, I found/saw none of these being restricted to a quick look after work and could only muster wheatear, redstart, willow warbler, chiffchaff & goldcrest but...if you don't try!

Eider - Girdleness 26th Sept

Linnet, Ringed at Girdleness originally on 22.5.11, photographed 26th Sept

Mute Swan - There were 3 on Loch Loirston a week ago now just the pair.

Brown Rat - one of a small group openly feeding in daylight by the roadside near Catterline

Weekend - 22nd to 23rd September

Clear skies, cold mornings.

Friday's overnight temp was 4 degrees which helped ensure zero moths in the trap by Saturday morning.
As usual for a Saturday morning a weekly trip to Stonehaven golf course was required and the 1st tee had two chiffchaff and willow warbler singing as if it was Spring, Golf was so bad and the pace so slow that we finished at the 12th & when packing up carts etc the buddleia at the 1st tee were alive with quite a few red admiral and at least 1 small tortoiseshell.
Sunday morning was similar to Saturday & we opted to get out into the fresh air to check a few nearby sites to help clear our heads after yesterday's sad events.
We had a single wheatear at Crawton and there were a few skylark mobile and high over Dunnottar Castle area.Only butterfly was a red admiral at Kinneff Old Church.
Beyond that, spent a bit of time trying to take photographs with the new macro lens - not always easy!
Got back to watch the mighty AFC scramble a 3-3 draw with Motherwell and a few more photos taken in garden of the ever increasing siskin population (in between gardening duties). We also had a single red admiral and a buzzard fly over.

A few photos for your delectation:

Common Carder Bee

Hoverfly

Siskin

Young male siskin