Fantastic February

With the major crash in Oil prices, exploration survey work is at an all time low so I have not had any pelagic birding work for some months. Instead of moping about at home I have decided to use my time and savings to catch up with some new birds for my Scottish list. Financial constraints have meant greater use of hostels and buses that although sometimes inconvenient, have still allowed me to get a few ticks. Following several dips over the past few years I finally got to see a cracking bittern at Montrose basin. The bird kept me waiting for 30 minutes or so but it was well worth the wait when it eventually flew past the hide.  The memory of a major dip after sitting in a hide for 3 days at Kinnordy loch last year were almost forgotten! 

Bittern, Montrose basin.

Five days later I successfully twitched an Avocet on the Kyle of Tongue and also grabbed a self-found Great grey shrike near Laxford bridge on the way up.  Although I have seen a few GGS in Scotland before it always feels good to find your own birds!

Avocet, Kyle of Tongue.

Great grey shrike, Laxford bridge.

Following reports of marsh tit on bird track I managed to get some specific site details from a good birding friend in lothian. As this bird is so rare in Scotland there was a fair bit of interest in a cost sharing twitch, so I headed down with two other Highland birders and successfully saw two birds. A report of Caspian gulls near Torness meant that we also got to find a 1st winter bird near Dunbar land fill site so amazingly I got two Scottish ticks in one day! 

The Northern Harrier on North Ronaldsay proved difficult and took two trips and nine days of effort including the travel days. We finally got the bird at last light on our 4th 'field day' By then, seeing the bird resulted in feelings of relief rather than excitement for this recent addition to the British list. The next day we scoped the bird for over 40 minutes as it sat in the rain and although always distant it was a very good bird to catch up with. 

Northern harrier, North Ron.

Aside from new 'ticks' it was also good to get self-found common crane and smew in addition to great views of lots of commoner species. A great birding month! 

Common crane, North Ron.

Kentish Plover twitch

Migration remains a bit of a concern with everything late, and/or in low numbers. Since my last post I have seen a handful of swallows, a few cuckoos and blackcaps and the occasional house martin. Although numbers of wheatears, willow warblers and chiffchaffs have slowly risen, they are still scarce on the ground and I have yet to find a single spotted flycatcher, redstart, sedge warbler, winchat or grasshopper warbler- they can't be too far away now- surely? 

A recent twitch to Moray for a couple of Avocets turned into a horrible dip- the news came out late as usual for that part of the world, as although there are plenty of good birders in Moray there do not appear to be any subscribers to the bird news services and so good birds are usually just put on the local website. Although subsequently picked up by the news services, this often results in the birders nightmare of getting news of much sought after birds 4 or 5 hours too late to twitch them successfully! An Avocet in Scotland is almost a mega!! Anyway, moving swiftly on, I successfully twitched the marvellous Snowy owl on the Black Isle. The bird looked good to be a genuine vagrant- recent Northerly and North-easterly winds, the bird was in great condition with clean unworn primaries and tail feathers, photographs showed the feet to be pristine, no leg rings and so the general concensus in the field was that it was a wild bird. Following the happy, near 80 mile journey home I was just going through the motions of updating my BUBO Scottish/Highland life lists when news broke that it was an escape- from the Black isle wildlife park. Grrrrrrrrrrr. I make no secret of my distaste for keeping birds in aviaries - especially raptors, so I'm glad it escaped, hope it survives and continues to head north! (last seen at Tarbet Ness yesterday). 

So it was with much relief that I successfully twitched the wonderful Kentish Plover at Dornoch- yet another great find by dedicated patch birder Dean Macaskill. A nervy couple of hours working the beach finally paid off when we saw some other birders scrutinising the piles of seaweed high up near the dunes. The area held a number of ringed plover and dunlin and eventually we got onto the very cryptic K.P. I couldn't get closer than 50 or 60 metres for fear of harassing and flushing the bird so got some record shots from the dune system. The photos do not really do it justice as through the scope it was a gem of a bird. The bird of my year so far and a welcome addition to my life list! Hopefully the spring will turn up a few more twitchable rares!