Hot patch

Firecrest Durness

Firecrest- a patch tick!

As most patch workers will appreciate, sometimes it is easy to go for many a month or even a year or two with very little reward- but still we feed our addiction and keep plugging away in the hope of turning up a good bird on 'our patch'. If memory serves my last 'good' bird on a local patch was a grey phalarope back in 2009! Anyway, this week after getting back into local birding after the autumnal delights of the Hebrides and Northern isles I finally found a new patch bird in the shape of a delightful firecrest! Although not great rarity this is a very significant find in Scotland and particularly in the highland region where it is still a description species on account of it being recorded on less than an annual basis. I have managed to see the delightful bird on 3 of the last 4 days and am hopeful that it may over winter- it is in classic, sheltered habitat that should sustain it through the winter months. Having said that, last night was clear and fine and I couldn't locate it today. By a strange coincidence I had a day birding in the Durness region yesterday where I found another firecrest whilst in the company of Peter Stronach. Two birds, two descriptions and a patch tick! 

Firecrest in Durness

Shetland- birding 60 degrees North.

Just had a great few days birding Shetland with some of my birding friends from the Scottish Highlands- Al Mcnee, Bob Swann, Richard Rafe and Peter Stronach. After initially twitching the amazingly tame Long-billed dowitcher just north of Burravoe, we decided to go and search for our own birds as opposed to just twitching the 'big' arrivals. It is probably a little early for the main event with regards to migration, although we met with varying degrees of success, clocking up two western Bonelli's warblers including a group 'self found' at Sumburgh. Other birds found included a red-backed shrike, six or so yellow-browed warblers, a couple of barred warblers and a number of pied flycatchers. A gropper found in a bed of nettles at Sumburgh initially had everyone's pulse racing! The Sumburgh Bonelli's was very interesting as we had initially tried to find the elusive booted warbler. Once again a pale warbler was encountered in awful light and in wet conditions and following fleeting glimpses of the bird in flight, it took the more senior and capable birders of the group some effort in deciding that the bird was a Bonelli's sp. and not the booted! Amazingly in the low- light and wet conditions no greenish hues could be seen although photos. of the bird showed otherwise! It was finally confirmed as a western Bonelli's after it was trapped, ringed and processed by some of Shetlands' finest. We later saw another western Bonelli's at Burrafirth and the good light conditions made that identification far more straightforward- especially as it had been previously found and identified by top, local birder, Brydon Thomason of Shetland nature. Hearing this bird call was a useful learning process for me. Of course, with some very challenging conditions we did not get everything our own way and dipped Pallid harrier, Booted and Eastern Olivaceous warblers but we also managed to accumulate a trip list of 97 species over our four days including marsh harrier, little stint, garganey, ruff, lapland bunting, red-breasted fly, common rosefinch, lesser whitethroat and jack snipe. A great trip North! I'm going back up in a couple of weeks with Shetland Nature and can't wait!

I have put a couple of phots. below comparing 'our' Western Bonelli's in the awful conditions with the one we later saw on Unst, showing the obvious effect good light conditions can have on the same species.

Western Bonelli's at Burrafirth

Western Bonelli's at Sumburgh

Long-billed dowitcher near Burravoe

Red-backed shrike, Sandgarth.

Grasshopper warbler, Sumburgh.

Yellow-browed warbler, Isbister. 

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? 

Torness Booted warbler- fieldcraft lessons for 'twitchy twitchers'

A few days ago I twitched the Booted warbler and Siberian stonechat at Torness point power station. Having picked up Bob Swann in Dingwall we drove down the A9 to Aviemore, where we swapped cars allowing Peter Stronach to drive the rest of the journey. We arrived about 08:50- birds were moving, the light was ok and as we drove down the approach road to the visitor centre a number of birders could be seen wandering about- not good as no one appeared to be actually on either bird. However, having parked up and exited the car, a quick sweep of the nearest sycamore revealed a few birds flitting about- a robin, a dunnock and the Bootted warbler! Although views were brief and against the light they could be classed as 'tickable' if things did not improve. Slight removal of 'twitch pressure'! After an hour of searching for it again without success, we moved off to get crippling views of the Siberian stonechat. The wee bird was incredibly tame and often approached us as if it thought we were a herd of animals flushing up insects. We returned for excellent, albeit brief views of the Booted warbler. The bird was incredibly cryptic and slow- moving amongst sycamore leaves and often proved to be very elusive- but all that was needed to get on the bird were half decent fieldcraft skills- i.e. get the sun at your back, work the habitat slowly and methodically and check everything that moves whilst keeping the noise down and not getting too close to the favoured habitat - it's not rocket science!! Anyway, as obvious as good fieldcraft skills are, they were  proving increasingly difficult for a growing number of frantic birders who started to try and chase the bird down- not a good plan as it only made the bird more difficult to pin down in an orderly and 'bird friendly' way. It also flushed every other bird on site so then all the sycamores had to be checked through again to rule out the agitated robins, dunnocks, gold crests, brambling etc. If it wasn't so irritating for the rest of the 'informed' birders on site it would be laughable! As if to prove a point Bob, Peter and I relocated the bird several times by using said fieldcraft skills, whilst the 'adrenalised twitchers' failed miserably. We did of course put them onto the bird on each occasion. It was also pertinent to note that some very well respected 'known' birders, all drifted away when the nonsense began- they all recognised that the bird was in danger of being flushed off and that 'good views' would not be attained again.  Enough said. Record shots duly taken and happy faces all round! 

Booted warbler

Siberian stonechat

Anas horribilis

April 2013 saw me undertake a near 270 mile round trip down to Strontian in search of the long staying Black duck. I had just returned from offshore Morocco, the bird had not been reported for some time and in consequence a nasty little dip was the order of the day. With the bird recently reported back in its' winter quarters, a second attempt was obviously required. This morning at 06:00 the high section of the A835 south-east of Ullapool was white with snow, the wind creating a near blizzard and I seriously thought about aborting my attempt, however by the time I got to a reasonable turning area the snow had abated so I cautiously continued my journey. 20 minutes later I was rewarded with a fine barn owl flying over the road- a scarce bird in this part of the world since the local populations were decimated by two very long, harsh winters a few years ago. After a brief crossing on the Corran ferry I arrived in Strontian. Several small groups of mallard could be seen scattered around the bay but there was no sign of the target bird- I had a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach as I drove on to the main car park. As I was putting on my waterproofs Peter Stronach saw the bird fly in to the bay- happy days! We watched the bird wing-flap showing the conspicuous white underwing. It moved slowly around the bay with a female mallard and it certainly looked as if they had paired off. Despite putting out some bread all of the ducks refused to come in to feed and in very low light and rain I could only get a couple of miserable record shots. It was a long way to twitch a duck and I did not find it a particularly exciting species- drab plumage and no real interesting behaviour - maybe I'm being a bit harsh but it is certainly not my most enjoyable trans-atlantic vagrant- even if it was a 'lifer'!

The 'special relationship'

I have also done a bit of diving and ducking closer to home- Portmahomack on the east coast to be precise, where I had nice views of a smashing drake velvet scoter and a very sleepy long-tailed duck.

snoozing long-tailed duck

velvet scoter