Levels-birder

Since my previous diary entry I’ve been able to escape my house duties for just a couple of hours in the afternoon. During this time my short walks at Shapwick Heath NNR and Ham Wall RSPB have turned up this small selection of wild-life: The breeding Cormorants on Noah’s Lake have increased to 16 occupied tree-nests (distant photo of one) some with young, plus another nest being newly built.

The two photos below show a male Banded Demoiselle in its more normal posture, and also a Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly, these have recently emerged in good numbers.

Because of continuing problems with my wife’s leg, she's on crutches again; I’m currently spending my time as a house husband with just the odd short wildlife break. On one of these, I led a short bird-of-prey walk on Shapwick Heath NNR this afternoon as part of the ‘Avalon 24’ wildlife activities and was lucky to see a Red Kite that flew slowly over us to the southwest. The Common Swifts that breed under the eaves of our house have been occupying me in the early evening as they scream low overhead, and I eventually managed to get this photo which is well lit and reasonably sharp. Likewise, our local Jackdaws (photo) are well in to their nesting season.

Common Eider drakes

Turnstone and Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper

May 8th: Loch Morlich: Osprey. Loch Garten RSPB: nesting pair of Ospreys, and numerous Siskins. A small lochan at Boat-of-Garten: 1 female Goldeneye, but no sign of any Slavonian Grebes at this ‘usual’ site. Findhorn Valley: Merlin; male Common Redstart, and a Tree Pipit. Farr moorland road: male Red Grouse, Tree Pipit, and 2 male Wheatears.

Red Grouse cock: You can't see me?

Oh yes you can!!

I'm off!!!

At Loch Ruthven RSPB: 3 Slavonian Grebes (photo); a pair of Red-throated Divers in summer plumage, 3 Common Sandpipers, and 3 Whimbrel.

May 9th: Loch Garten RSPB and Tulloch Moor (early, before breakfast): 1 male Capercaillie; the usual pair of Ospreys, and 3 Black Grouse (including 2 males). Avielochan (near Aviemore): 2 Slavonian Grebes, and 350 Pink-footed Geese, flying over in two skeins heading north. Fish farm at Inverdruie: Osprey; 2 Goldeneye, and 50 Pink-footed Geese, heading north. A Highland loch: pair of Ospreys. Loch Mallachie: drake Goldeneye; numerous Siskins, but no sign of any Crested Tits. Achlean (in Glen Feshie): 3 Red-legged Partridges – an unexpected sighting and presumably releases?

In case you were wondering? These Osprey photos were taken from a public footpath, I was standing next to a local family who were  taking their dog for a walk. The tree-top nest is on the edge of an island in a loch, about 100 metres offshore, so my original photos have been very much cropped to produce these enlargements.

Eventually, the male came in carrying a fish and landed with it in the nest.

The female (right) then took the fish and flew with it to a nearby tree.

The colour-ringed female, confidently feeding in a nearby tree and taking no

notice of any member of the public who happened to be passing or watching.

May 10th: Findhorn Valley: Peregrine; male Red Grouse; Dipper, and a juvenile Golden Eagle – being continually dive-mobbed for 5 minutes by a Common Buzzard, during which the eagle kept rolling over and presenting its talons upwards towards the buzzard, a brilliant sight!

A view along part of the Findhorn Valley

Having seen our hoped for eagle by 10:30 we decided to take the long drive to Wester Ross and the west coast. En-route, near the Black Isle, we saw 2 Red Kites. Gruinard Bay and Gruinard Island: adult White-tailed Eagle – perched on the Island for over an hour, and still present when we left; 12 Great Northern Divers (including 11 in mostly full summer plumage); 3 Black Guillemots; 20 Common Eiders; 2 Wheatears; Hooded Crow, and 3 seals. Loch Kishorn: 4 Red breasted Mergansers, and a Grey Wagtail. Applecross mountain road: 2 Ravens; 2 Wheatears, and an adult Golden Eagle – displaying, high over the valley: tremendous fast vertical stoop with wings pulled in to its body, looking like a huge pear drop, then swooping upwards, rolling over on to its back before repeating its stoop, which it did many times – a super giant roller coaster of a display! Loch Luichart: a summer plumage Black-throated Diver in the low, late-evening sunshine.

Black-throated Diver - a bit distant, but great through the 'scope.

May 11th: Lochindorb: a nesting colony of Black-headed Gulls; Short-eared Owl; 8 Red Grouse; 2 Black-throated Divers in summer plumage; 6 Common Sandpipers; Curlew; 2 Ospreys; Peregrine, and Merlin. The Merlin was dive-mobbing the Peregrine, which soon turned into the aggressor and briefly chased after the Merlin.

Osprey at Lochindorb

At Burghead: Arctic, Common & Sandwich Terns; Common Eider; Kittiwake; Fulmar; Razorbills and Guillemots; Gannets, and a seal. Spey Bay: similar birds, plus a Little Tern; Red-throated Diver in summer plumage; Goosanders and Red-breasted Mergansers, and the only Common Whitethroat of our trip. No hoped for Long-tailed Ducks today! Loch Morlich: a late evening watch at the Red Squirrel feeders behind the camp-site shop/café gave us a great view of a Pine Martin at 21:45 which, for me, was the highlight of our trip!

May 12th: Forest Lodge RSPB: Crested Tit 3, and numerous Siskins. Lay-by 151, on A9 north of Carrbridge: no sign of the pair of Ring Ousels, present here for the past two years. Farr moorland road: 2 Red Grouse. Loch Ruthven: 6 Slavonian Grebes. A small roadside lochan nearby: no sign of the reported Ring-necked Duck – the reason for our return to this particular area.

May 13th: Our last morning before catching the afternoon flight back to Bristol. An Osprey was circling over Aviemore high street as we drove to take the Cairngorm Funicular Railway to the top of the mountain – a wise choice as it turned out. Within 5 minutes of stepping out on the viewing area we were watching a male Ring Ousel, and then someone shouted out Ptarmigan! And there was a super male, about 100 metres away, looking great through a ‘scope! Lochindorb, on our drive to the airport: 2 Golden Plovers; Red Grouse; Black-throated Diver in summer plumage, and, best-of-all, a most unexpected Rough-legged Buzzard, bringing our trip-list to 98 species.

Meare Heath's partially drained pool at Shapwick Heath NNR has been the focus of my attention recently, and it certainly turned up trumps yesterday when a drake Green-winged Teal was found. Although it has probably been around the area since the spring of last year, it has always been very elusive and was a new bird for me on my local patch. Thanks to Steve, I was able to fit my camera onto his big lens and take this distant photo.

While watching the teal, a Red Kite was a good sighting, as it slowly drifted over, high up, going north. Other birds here over the past two days included a drake Garganey, a Bittern, female Marsh Harrier, lots of Hobbies – hunting insects, 2 Cuckoos, and a good selection of waders: Greenshank, 2 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Whimbrel, 8 Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, 22 Dunlin in summer plumage, and, best of all, 3 male Ruff, two of these were in stunning summer plumage – a creamy-buff headed, white ruffed bird and a dark headed, chestnut ruffed bird. The commoner warblers are present on the reserve in good numbers and I took these photos of a male Blackcap and Common Whitethroat.

This Greylag Goose and her single gosling were swimming along the South Drain with her mate, they were intent on finding a way up the steep bank so as to take junior on to the nearby shallow pool. After trying several places over a period of 15 minutes, with many calls of encouragement they were finally successful. When a brood can be anything from six to a dozen or more, a single gosling is very poor breeding success and is possibly due to predation by crows or large gulls?

Yesterday, Kay and I went on a pre-planned day trip to Portland, Dorset, primarily to see the Little Terns that we couldn’t find at Ferrybridge last June. This visit was successful and we saw 14 of these delightful small terns fishing, and preening on the sandy shore-line. The other highlights of our day were: a male Collard Flycatcher that had been present in gardens at Southwell for the past three days, and a superb adult Pomarine Skua, with full tail-spoons, that flew closely past the end of Portland Bill during an hour’s sea-watch, when we also saw a Sandwich Tern and a few Manx Shearwaters, and a migrant male Whinchat was a fine sight, perched on a wire fence.

This morning, just as I arrived at Shapwick Heath car park, I got a phone message telling me that a local birder had found what she thought was an Iberian Chiffchaff after checking its song against a CD of European bird songs. I hurried to the location and was soon listening to the bird’s unusual song, which did seem somewhat similar to Iberian, and after half-an-hour put out the news of its presence. Having taken several photos (below) and listened to its song for another hour, during which time it responded to the pre-recorded normal song of a Willow Warbler but ignored that of an Iberian Chiffchaff, we came to the conclusion that it was in fact a Willow Warbler with a most unusual song and withdrew the original identification. Its song started with three terse “chiff” like notes quickly followed by a brief “chu-chu-chu-chu”, the whole somewhat reminiscent of the start of a quite Chaffinch. Whilst singing, it quivered its tail downwards and slightly quivered its slightly open wings.

To hear its brief song, click on the blue play-button.