Britains first Black-winged Stilts of 2014 drop in at Bowers Marsh

News broke today of a couple of Black-winged Stilts making it across the channel and dropping in for a stop at Bowers Marsh so we headed off down there after work. The car park in Church Road was closed so we parked in the approach lane and walked to the main pool on the RSPB reserve where a couple of locals had the two Stilts in view across the far side of the pool. We enjoyed an hour or so watching them and the company of Harry & Barry before passing Lee B on the way out. Great birds to catch as a bonus year tick and whilst not quite up there in mega status with Rutlands Pied-billed Grebe or Flamboroughs Crag Martin they were a nice local evening tick for us.

Two Black-winged Stilts at Bowers Marsh

I think these are the first Stilts to visit our shores this year making the tick a little more special.
Year list now at 179

Hoopoe at Snodland

Having picked up a Blackcap at Lee Valley on Sunday afternoon for tick 177 I moved the year list on again today by catching up with the over wintering Hoopoe at Snodland in Kent.

Hoopoe at Snodland in Kent 

I had two work meetings in the Brands Hatch area so thought it would be rude not to give the bird a go. I parked up in the Golf Club car park and walked the length of the first hole along the tree line to the right of the car park. Turning right at the end I headed through a small orchard to the sand pit where the bird has been seen on occasion. With no joy here I headed back down the lane to check the gardens and paddocks behind the vets office. I then checked the small footpath behind the barn and was about to give up when I saw another public footpath sign taking me up behind the farm. I thought I'd bump into somebody else with it being half term and all that but in my search for the target I didn't encounter a single birder but I kept left intent on checking the garden and after a short walk I found a small track through the bramble that looked to have seen some recent traffic so gave it a try. As I reached the fence of the farms garden I scanned away from the farm towards to top of the garden and BINGO...HOOPOE feeding under the trees. I watched it for a while and even grabbed a few distant shots before heading back to work with tick 178 for 2014 in the bag.

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

A few more images from Scotland

Song Thrush

Mistle Thrush

Hooded Crow

Osprey 

American Coot

Cormorant

Red Grouse

Red Grouse showing the insulation on the legs

Hen Harrier

Oystercatcher

Scotland day four

DAY FOUR

Our final day on the whistle stop tick fest that is the highlands!

I cooked my third fry up of the tour for the Jims before we packed and headed off up the A82.
We tried Nethybridge again hoping to hear or see Capers but nothing showed for us again. I heard a few Cresties in the tree tops before picking up the call of Crossbill then Jimmy picked up three Crossbill in Abernethy Forest and we all got good views as they feasted on the pine cones, a male and two female birds calling well. We're told that these birds are Scottish birds so take it on face value but if honest we couldn't tell on visual or oral inspection.

Crossbill

Crossbill

From here we headed further north to Lochindorb. A nice drive through the moorland gives good views of the Common Gull breeding colony present here before the Red Grouse take over and appear on every corner with a head poking up all along the route to the Loch.

RED

Arriving at the loch we found Buzzard, Osyercatcher, Lapwing, Curlew and Mipit but overall the place was pretty quiet so after a snack break at the loch side we took the long route towards Glasgow heading across country planning a stop at Loch of the Lowes reserve as we head south. We knew the male Osprey had been back a few days and had hoped to catch a view of him but we hit the bullseye with news that the female had also returned today. The hide was alive with local press cameras and news crews ready to broadcast the news that Lady had returned for her 24th year at the reserve. The male bird is her fourth mate and has been with her for three years now. She has laid 62 eggs in her 24 years and raised 50 young from the nest.  (How many survive is the question with only about 20% being my guess but that's still ten Osprey in the world for people to enjoy because of this fantastic bird)

Osprey at Loch of the Lowe

Osprey

The birds bonded well on her first day back in Scotland.

We enjoyed watching the birds at the nest with the male treating his women to a fish lunch before starting the process of making little Ospreys again. The flight home was getting closer so we headed across to the airport with a brief stop at the Robert the Bruce memorial where the old fella got a little history fix to round off another memorable trip to the Highlands for us.


Trip costs for those interested..............

Easyjet flights £63 return Stansted to Glasgow each
Baggage charge £26 each
Hire car £25 each (£75 total) Europcar VW Golf
Car insurance excess waver £27 each (Without this the hire carries a £1000 excess for any damage)
Petrol c£50 each for the trip as a total
Cottage £70 each for three nights (£204 total hire cost of two bed cottage in Fort William)
Only other expense is food and drink.

So all in four days and three nights birding in Scotland for c£260 each

Bird list

House Sparrow
Starling
Goldcrest
Goldfinch
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Bullfinch
Twite
Siskin
Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Crested Tit
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Feral Stock Dove
Scottish Crossbill
Treecreeper
Tufted Duck
Teal
Goosander
Red-breasted Merganser
Mallard
Goldeneye
Gadwall
Wigeon
Eider
Canada Goose
Greylag Goose
Mute Swan
Red-legged Partridge
Pheasant
Black -throated Diver
Red- throated Diver
Red Grouse
Black Grouse
Grey Heron
Hen Harrier
Common Buzzard
Goshawk
Golden Eagle
Sparrowhawk
Red Kite
Kestrel
Osprey
Raven
Carrion Crow
Hooded Crow
Jackdaw
Rook
Jay
Magpie
Little Grebe
Great-crested Grebe
Slavonian Grebe
Meadow Pipit
Rock Pipit
Yellowhammer
Stonechat
Whinchat
Wheatear
Black Guillemot
Common Gull
Black-headed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser-black-backed gull
Cormorant
Shag
Coot
American Coot
Moorhen
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Mistle Thrush
Redwing
Fieldfare
Reed Bunting
Oystercatcher
Curlew
Redshank
Greenshank
Lapwing
Great Sotted Woodpecker
Skylark
Pied Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
Dunnock
Robin
Wren
Chiffchaff


see here for trip report from 2013 also : 
http://briansbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/scotland-2013-trip-report.html

Scotland day three

DAY THREE

We set off this morning in search of the Black Duck having missed it on Friday as we headed up to Fort William. We drove down to Strontian from Fort William taking the loch side road to the west as the Corran Ferry starts late on a Sunday. We arrived early and searched the bay finding Mallards, Curlew, Oystercatcher and Greylag geese but no target. We drove up river through the small town and searched both the river and the local ponds before heading back into town. Locals told us the Duck had taken to sitting up on the crofts about half a mile down the loch so we drove round, parked and walked to the beach where another search delivered nothing of the target.

Black Duck at Strontian NOT!

We gave in and headed further down towards the most westerly tip of the British mainland at Ardnamurchan stopping to admire Fieldfare and Redwing on route. At Kilchoan pier we found a flock of Twite which gave us cracking views as we sat in the car watching them for an hour or so. Raven flew over "kronking" before we headed off to stop briefly at the car park under Ben Hiat. We scanned and found several Buzzard and  a Black-throated Diver. A Yellowhammer gave me another year tick here. At Ardnamurchan the wind was strong but nothing seemed to be taking advantage as a brief seawatch gave just a Seal and several gulls. A Rock Pipit sat up for me at the lighthouse so I grabbed a shot of it for the blog.

Twite

On the drive back we found several Wheatear and a Whinchat. A ring-tailed Hen Harrier hunted the moor and gave us a brilliant watch from the car. It's always good to see these birds but even more pleasing in the highlands.

Rock Pipit

Wheatear

Hen Harrier 

We took the shorter route home bagging several Eider on the way before dinner at Fort William and an early night as the last three days finally caught up.

Eider Duck

Scotland trip day two

DAY TWO

We set off early on Saturday morning to grab a slim chance of Black Grouse and Caper.
Arriving at Nethybridge at first light we first checked the viewing screen at Tulloch Moor and had the good fortune to find a single Black Grouse in the distance. The bird was standing motionless so took some finding but find it we did before we moved on to Abernethy Forest but we failed to find any Capers or even hear any as we parked up with car windows open preferring that to wondering around and the risk of disturbance at this time of year. We moved on to Loch Garten to find the reserve closed until 1st April in order to "let the Osprey settle" but the car park feeders where busy so we plotted up and watched as Siskin, Coal Tit, Treecreeper and Chaffinch came to feed along with Red Squirrel. After a shoot while the shout came out Crestie! as two birds came in to feed briefly allowing a couple of quick shots before they flew off back into the forest.

Crested Tit at Loch Garten

Red Squirrel at Loch Garten

From here we headed further north passing through Carrbridge where a check for Dippers gave up just a Grey Wagtail but the bridge over the river was worthy of a picture.

Carrbridge

Being in this part of the country it would have been rude not to take the detour and search for the American Coot at Loch Flemington so we drove to the reported site to find the bird showing well from "the layby by the white stones" as has been posted for several weeks now. The birds seems quite settled moving around with a Moorhen.

American Coot at Loch Flemington

Cormorant at Loch Flemington

Our next stop was the Findhorn Valley where lady luck shone on us again as a huge Golden Eagle drifted over the car park on our arrival accompanied by several Buzzard and Raven, Mountain Hare and Red Deer where see on the mountain slopes too. After a while we moved back down the valley and took the Farr Road towards Loch Ruthven where Goshawk had been reported earlier. We scanned the skyline above the pine plantations with no joy but did get our first Red Grouse of the year here which was nice.

Golden Eagle

Red Grouse

Arriving at Loch Ruthven we found the paths covered in toads and had to tread really carefully so as not to squash any on our way to the hide. At the hide we found a single Slavonian Grebe and had a real bonus when a Goshawk came up over the tree tops to display for about five minutes giving us our best views ever of this cracking bird.

Toad at Loch Ruthven

We then made the short trip back via the car park at Cairngorm but the bitter cold and driving wind put us off the walk up the mountain and as the train wasn't running we left to make the return to our cottage in Fort William and the end of another great days birding in Scotland.

Scotland delivers the goods again

Day One:

We made our now annual trip to Scotland on Friday setting off on an Easyjet flight from Stansted at 8am we landed in Glasgow and and had collected the hire car before 10am. We drove up the side of Loch Lomond and detoured towards Oban where we quickly located several Black Guillemot in the harbour and our first Hooded Crows of the trip. We were to encounter dozens of various purity as we headed north over the weekend.

Hooded Crow in Oban Harbour (really pleased with this image!)

Hoody

A wren entertained us on the harbour wall as we had lunch here and a Buzzard flew over calling to announce it's arrival.

Wren 

We headed off from here towards the Corran Ferry where we crossed Loch Linnhe and after pulling over for Seals and Eider duck on route we arrived at Strontian. We scanned the bay for the reported Black Duck before heading up the road in search of the pond the bird had also been seen visiting. With no sighting we took advise from the locals and headed off to the beach but again drew a blank. Disappointed to have dipped we continued down the road hoping for some Eagle action but  the drive delivered Raven and Buzzard only.

Strontian lacking a certain Black Duck

We arrived at out cottage in Fort William and enjoyed cracking views of the town at night with Ben Nevis a few yards away from my bedroom window it was a very nice location to base our whirlwind tour of the Highlands again.

Fort William