Winter wanderings

I'm sure that to many birders it is starting to feel like a very long winter. This is certainly the case in the Scottish Highlands with frequent bouts of gales interspersed with rain, hail, sleet and snow. The sun has rarely been seen and the short daylight hours provide scant opportunity to get in the field. Trying to photograph birds has been very frustrating with generally dreadful light levels. Despite the challenging conditions I have managed to scrape together a year list of 116 and also got to see a few decent birds including a couple of white-winged gulls, two tundra bean geese, a handful of snow buntings, a water pipit, a jacksnipe and a small flock of scaup- all pretty tame in a wider British context but very welcome birds in this part of the world at this time of the year. This morning at Ardmair I saw a couple of displaying ringed plovers and there was a mini fall of 4 pied wagtails and a meadow pipit- signs that birds are returning for the as yet very distant spring! 

Bean geese (tundra) at Ardmair

Iceland gull (Achnahaird)

distant Scaup at Alturlie point

wintery scene on Slioch overlooking loch Maree

Sibe chiffers

Managed a days birding up at Durness with Peter Stronach a couple of weeks ago. A December chiffchaff in the Balnakeil craft village was a pleasant surprise this far north and we also enjoyed the spectacle of 800+ Barnacle geese and 3 tundra beans feeding in fields near the farm. The highlight however was finding two Siberian chiffchaffs. I initially found one fly-catching near the church and after we had watched it for 20 minutes and got some decent record shots we drove back to Durness where Peter located a second bird back in the village near the garage. Both birds were very lively in the mild, sunny conditions with plenty of insect life for them to enjoy.  It was noticeable how much the birds appeared to change colour and tone as they moved in and out of the strong sunlight.  I wonder how long it will be before these birds become a full species in their own right? 

Bouncing beans!

Day 3 of weather standby and things are somewhat tedious. The wind had been a relentless Beaufort F8 generally from the SE but last night it slowly backed around to the east and increased to severe gale F9. This morning I was greeted with F8 conditions once gain- 5-6 metre seas with occasional big swell trains of 7-8 metres. The relentless easterly was averaging 36 knots according to the ships' instrumentation. Late morning and I saw three 'grey' geese flying across the waves and battling against the wind. As they flew alongside the bridge I took a quick fuzzy snap through the bridge window and realised they were Bean geese! A good record. I'll readily admit to having limited experience of bean geese- but having studied the photos. the small orange bill patch, relatively short, deep-based bill and relatively short-necked appearance had me thinking that they were the tundra race 'rossicus'. All exciting stuff and I watched them battle eastwards until they were lost from view. Some 20 minutes later the 3 birds came back down wind, circled the vessel, then made a very difficult and somewhat dangerous landing on the main deck. This was no mean feat in gale force winds and heavy seas! Two of the geese clattered into some gear on the deck and it was apparent that they were surprised by the heavy motion of the ship and the slippery nature of the deck. All 3 individuals appeared unscathed and after carefully checking their surroundings in that all too familiar nervous goose fashion they set about checking their feet- lifting each foot in turn and checking the webs with their bills. This was followed by a brief spell of flight feather preening before all three birds got their heads down and started sleeping. I'm sure they must be very tired from battling the gales during their migration. 

I had some concerns about their abilities to subsequently take off as the ship is a jungle of masts, wires and railings. However, late this afternoon the birds launched themselves into the air and flew off into the wind. Two minutes later they re-landed on the deck and as I write they appear to be settling down for a night on deck! Hopefully they will resume their migration as soon as the conditions improve.

time for a snooze!

rough seas and heavy swell