Fat Paul Scholes

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

May 18th, another early bird

Another 5am start had me picking my way through territorial whitethroats, with at least 6 singing birds along the north bank alone. There seemed to have been a bit of a clear out of the weeks migrants though, with none of the more interesting things from the weekend being seen. For a while, in fact, the only things of note were a few arctic terns that were feeding with the commons off the foghorn. And I'm sure these aren't really that noteworthy either....it's just the first time I've seawatched for a few days.

Walking back along the south bank (which was completley whitethroat free) I suddenly got the feeling I was being watched - not a pleasant sensation in the badlands of Torry - and while watching a meadow pipit flitting up onto some gorse, I locked, eye to ginger eye, with a fox cub. When it clocked it had beed clocked, it darted off, only to be replaced by another one. So there are two fox cubs at least on the ness, or in the immediate area, anyway. I've seen a couple of likely looking holes around the place, so I've got a fair idea of where I think it might be.

And then from off in the distance, carried north on the breeze, came the song of a yellowhammer! Not easy to tell whether it was around the sewage works, or in the no mans land on the other side of the fence there (which is by far the more likely optoin)....but my ears were on patch and thats all that counts! A good ness bird as well....maybe a once-a-yearer.

Two more additions to the patch year list, which is now teetering on the brink of the ton.....

098 arctic tern
099 yellowhammer

With some real gank to come as well! I'm still to see mute swan, goldcrest, goldeneye, teal, greywag (although I think the local breeders may have lost their nest site after the demolition of the old building next to the pub), knot, manxy..........could be on for a monster total this year!

May 17th, still no scarce

Sun was out today and it was all much lovelier. A few more migs in (or undetected from yesterday) which included another lesser whitethroat, a bedraggled looking garden warbler trying to wolf down a caterpillar that even I would have struggled with, and a pretty handy spotted flycatcher at the sewage works.....might be the only chance I get at that one this year as they're not easy here.

Also some other signs of movement with a flock of 50ish geese offshore, at least most of which were barnacles, a lapwing south over the golfcourse, house martin at the sewage works and a barwit in Greyhope bay. Meanwhile Forvie continues to impress! Damn that white billed diver....I'd have taken a sprosser any day.....

Over the weekend then, added

094 swift
095 garden warbler
096 barnacle goose
097 spotted flycatcher

May 16th, two trips

Ness trip one, about 8am, wet, windy, hungover, swift (ie saw a swift...not a swift visit)

Note to self. Birding in shitty weather conditions with a fuzzy head is very difficult. Stay in bed and drink milkshake.

Ness trip two, about 4pm, less wet, less windy, less hungover, and way birdier! Had two male redstarts by the north bank/allotments (i'm pretty sure they weren't the same bird), a lesser whitethroat at the battery, a liberal sprinkling of willow warblers, the fake greylag on the golf course (which i think might be the 'bean goose' that I was told about recently) and I suppose from a ness point of view, most interestingly, a canada goose north over nigg bay. Rather frustratingly no goodies found at the ness today, despite two visits each from Andrew and I. It seems like every migrant and its dog turned up at Forvie instead.

May 13th – 15th. Islay

Randomly placed Islay photo no.1

It’s looking like it will be a busy summer for me and some of my colleagues, with various bits of seabird related fieldwork happening at various places. Some of the staff who are taking part needed training/reminding with regards to our survey method, so off we went on a little jolly to Islay. I love Islay, but it’s down to more than just good fortune that we do our training on the crossing. As far as I can make out, the Islay ferries are the only ones that give us a suitable viewpoint at the front of the boat, similar to real life, live and direct, survey scenarios. It’s nothing to do with the good birds and the whisky…….so,

Randomly placed Islay pic no.2

Wednesday evening saw us arriving near Kennacraig after nothing more eventful than a red kite over the road (somewhere in the middle of Scotland) and a few nice Siskins at Tyndrum.
We were up at the crack of dawn on Thursday to make the first of our crossings ,and had had great views of black guillemot and great northern diver before the boat had even set off. Over the course of our three journeys we saw nothing remarkable, but had decent numbers of great northerns (the sound of Gigha is actually one of the best areas for this species in the UK, and even at this late date we probably had 10/15 birds on each trip) a few red throats, manxies, arctic terns and black guillemots.
When we eventually got off the boat and on to the island, we headed straight for loch gruniart (well….after a short detour to buy some delicious Bruichladdich) bagging a hen harrier on the way. The reserve was quiet though, with the best being three whimbrel on the flats and a little tern out on the estuary, with no sign of any of the American goodies that had been kicking around the week before.

Whimbrel

On Friday morning, two of us got up before breakfast to go looking for corncrake, which would have been a lifer for the one of us that wasn’t me. We’d been tipped off that the area to the west of the Rhinns might deliver the goods, and before long, we’d tracked down a rasping bird. I was just about to say ‘that’s the easy part….now to try and see the bugger’ when it leapt up into the air, flew a few yards, and landed out in the open, about 15 yards away from us! A quite stonking bird, we sat eyeball to eyeball for a minute or so, until I remembered that my camera was in bag on the back seat of the car. Of course, all my rummaging around spooked it a bit, and needless to say by the time the camera was out the bird had fucked right off. Shame really, as it would have made a fantastic picture. To round up a highly enjoyable morning we also had 2 other calling birds, a hen harrier, whinchat and loads of whimbrel.

Corncrake. Hiding in the grass cos I got my camera out...

.....and a lovely stonechat

Another uneventful crossing later and we were heading back towards the east coast through rather exciting driving SE wind and rain, just in time for the weekend.

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

May 12th Parsnipface

I received a call last night from Andy Webb in Portlethen (about 15 kms down the road), about a large and pale billed diver flyby that he hadn't seen too well but could only be one thing, if you catch my drift. I wasn't ness-side, so I called Andrew to alert him to the fact that he might be able to get a good'un on his house list. I didn't hear back from him and so just assumed that the bird had snuck by unnoticed or too far offshore to be scoped from beautiful downtown Torry.

I didn't think much more about it and set off this morning with spring overshoots in mind. Suffice to say the allotments and battery were devoid of decent spring fare, as was the walled garden, so I settled down for a seawatch. Yet again, ducks were the order of the day, with 4 shelducks (3 north and 1 south) an excellent count, even if their gloss has been removed slightly by being increasing regular recently. A pair of wigeon went south as well.

All of a sudden, like a surfacing submarine, a vast, pale diver loomed into my scope view, to the south. A quick turn of it's head revealed the upturned, all pale bill that in was hoping for, so I enjoyed it for a couple of seconds and took in other features like the angular head, high peaked forehead, and weak half collar. What a cracking bird. It drifted for maybe half a minute, and then decided that it had given enough of itself and took off to the north, where I lost it in the glare. Skor!

Is it still a little old school of me to call this a white billed diver? Shouldn't it be yellow billed, and loon? How about parsnipfaced floatybird? (I hate all that bananabill nonsense......have you people ever seen a banana?)

Anyway, a very pleasing morning visit which takes me on to

093 white billed diver

Which is 80.17%

May 11th, fowlfest

Yet another stonking bright glorious morning down the ness, with nothing out of the ordinary apart from a Canada goose floating around at the far end of Nigg bay. What with wood ducks, black ducks, blue winged teals and various other water loving americana turning up willy nilly, I fully expect that this bird was a genuine vagrant. It looked very, very small, after all. In fact, it looked so small I could barely even see it through my binoculars. Which is pretty god damn small I think you'll agree.

Only my second record of Canada goose at the ness, so another good one to get. Takes me on to a massive 92 species.

092 Canada goose

79.31%

Sunday, 10 May 2009

May 10th, doubleduck bonus

Shelduck, shoveler, scaup......what on earth could be next? Well, I'll tell you what, a drake tufty floating around in the harbour, between the two breakwaters. Not a particularly regular occurrance, and a very welcome addition to the PYL.

Spring was in full effect down the ness today, with a chiffchaff singing in the sycamore, a few whimbrels moving north, a scattering of greenland type wheatears, including a gigantic song thrush sized female (slight exaggeration, but my word she was big - perhaps she was a Muscovite) and 7 handsome black bellied dunlin feeding with ringed plover in the walled garden.

Seawatching, in comparison was quiet, apart from good numbers of common terns passing north and going through their courtship rituals on the old outflow. I was about to jack it in when two ducks flew past, just off the rocks. I'd identified them before I even got the bins up to my face but until I saw them through the nockies I couldn't quite believe they were a pair of Gadwall. Jings! Another patch tick and yet another duck on the patch year list (I now have 5 duck species that I didn't get last year)

After that, Nigg bay and the STW seemed a bit tame, despite the errant greylag still being present and the embankment being awash with the songs of sedgies, willow wablers and whitethroats. And, it all looked extremely pretty as well.

Pretty-ness. And below, the reason....cuckoo flower, I believe.

I thought it was all over by then, but as I waited for my chauffeur to pick me up in Nigg bay, a couple of Arctic Skuas went north, and, in among the steady trickle of swallows crossing the bay to the north, a nice bright and shiny house martin.