June 2016 archive

Scottish Birding Holiday May / June 2016

Our holiday to Scotland was really to go to my brother’s for his 70th birthday. In 2014 when we went to Scotland birding at about the same time (perhaps 4 days earlier) we felt that we had done rather better but then we were guided by John Poyner; this time we decided not to be as intense and to try it ourselves. In point of fact, we knew all the right places to go and any shortfall in the number of birds we saw was entirely our own lack of desire to drive for long periods. The weather was fantastic for almost all the trip with only a few weather problems – fog at Cairngorm when looking for Ptarmigan and fog again when we were out on an evening Black Grouse hunt. These two events apart, we could not have wished for better weather and this continued for all of our holiday – more or less !

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Scotland Holiday Day 13: Moffat Community Nature Reserve 10th June 2016

This was technically the last day of our holiday and it was all returning home now. We had decided to break the trip from Musselburgh to Manchester by staying at a pub in Penrith so as not to arrive on a Friday night in Manchester rush hour traffic after a long drive. So, with a bit of time to spare we stopped at one of our favourite places for a caup of tea – Moffat. We had a walk aroudn the town and dropped into the tourist information shop on the high street. There we picked up a couple of eaflets. One interested Anne in particular and this was a Sherpa garden run by a Tibetan family. The other was more interesting to me and that was Moffat Community Nature Reserve, a place I had never heard of.

We drove to the location between the motorway and Moffat and wound our way down the track to this small site that consists of a meadow that floods in winter with a path around it and some hides and a lake which is also surrounded by hides and located within a small woodland area. I noted that this was supposed to be very good for Garden Warbler so I sat in the hide and quietly reminded myself of its song. It was mere seconds after I left the hide that we heard, and eventually saw, the fiorst of several of these birds. Whilst it is not a first for me it was definitely the best views I have had of them.

There were other birds, Chiffchaff, Wren, Tits etc but this bird was the star of the show and we ended up getting good views of three different birds. Definitely a place to add on to our list of curious places to drop in on.

Bird Sightings : Moffat Community Nature Reserve

Scotland Holiday Day 12: Aberlady Bay 9th June 2016

With a bit of time to spare on our second day in the Musselburgh area, we decided to drive down the coast to Aberlady. We parked in the small car park near the boardwalk and walked the mile and a half each way out to the sea. As you walk through marshy land first, then through an alley of bushes and then emerge into a tidal flood plain and then sand dunes, you encounter a surprising range of birds. Not only were there Tufted Ducks and Lapwings and Iystecatchers in the part closest to the road but, as you got furhter into the tidal part, birds sang from the ground, the air and the trees.

These ranged through Linnet, Willow Warbler, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Reed Bunting, Stonechat and even a single Sedge Warbler, which surprised me. It was a fantastic walk and very interesting. I would very much like to see it at different stages of the tide because it much change a lot.

Bird Sightings : Aberlady Bay

Scotland Holiday Day 11: Bass Rock 8th June 2016

After we left St Andrews, we drove to Musselburgh, our next family destination, but we were early enough that we decided to drive down to the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick. Totally out of the blue Inoticed that there was a boat trip out to the Bass Rock in about an hour. Anne was not much bothered and wanted a shopping opportunity, so I sorted all my gear out and got a regular boat (not a RIB) out to the Bass Rock. This was the one thing I had missed getting the boat to the Isle of May from Anstruther as this omits Bass Rock, wheras the boat trips to May out of North Berwick take the rock in. Accordingly I was very pleased, on another lovely sunny day, to have a chance to get my full quota of Gannets for the holiday.

I also wanted to try my new Nikon D500 and 200-500mm lens combination. I had had a try out on the Isle of May but the boat trip there was so foggy that I could not get any decent pictures from the boat. Of course, the Bass Rock is usually not a landing trip so all my photos were taken from the boat. Thi time, however, it was not a RIB so it was a bit more stable if a bit more difficult due to the overhead rigging. In a RIB there is nothing above or around you except open air – and other passengers.

As usual it was a wonderful experience with plenty of Puffins and Guillemots and Razorbills on the water to add to the Gannet city, now estimated to be the biggest Gannetry in the world at 170,000 birds !

Bird Sightings : Bass Rock

Scotland Holiday Day 10: Isle of May 7th June 2016

We had booked a trip out to the Isle of May with Anstruther Pleasure Cruises some time prior to our holiday. I had,  been on a couple of RIBs out to the island before but this makes photography a bit tricky when out at sea. This time we decided to go from the other side of the Firth of Forth from North Berwick which is a shorter journey. The only problem was that there was a thick fog and this meant that we did not see a great deal until we got to the island. In fact, even when we got to the island, parts of it were shrouded in fog.

However, we managed to find a couple of bits of it that were fog free and the longer we stayed there the more it cleared up until our retun when the fog had lifted altogether. This was a different way to travel to the island and on the face of it a little more genteel. However, I can imagine in heavier seas that ti could become a bit sickly. Plus the RIBs have the advantage of keeping you down at sea level where many of the birds live and that is more of a sensational experience.

Bird Sightings : Isle of May

Scotland Holiday Day 8: Ythan Estuary at Newburgh 5th June 2016

Again this was a family day but, again, we got some birding in. My family, despite living just a few miles alay from Newburgh, had never been to this part of the estuary and on a blazingly hot day they were captivated by it. We started off at the parking place at “The Inches” and somewhat surprisingly, as we pulled up there was Jim Almond, the “Shropshire Birder”. After our hellos he headed off to the golf course end of the estuary and we soon followed. We ran into a chap who said that he had met a photographer who had seen our main target – Elvis, the King Eider – half an hour before but now there was no sight of it.

As the family wandered off to admire the friendly seals that habituate this part of the estuary, we turned to tracking down the King Eider. Eventually we decided to go to where it had been recently reported; not at the mouth of the estuary but opposite the “tin hut” a shelter raised on the dunes. Sure enough we found someone with Jim who had located the bird and we got some reasonable views of it. There were also a multitude of Common Terns, fewer Sandwich Terns and even fewer again Little Terns. It was possible, however, to see all of them at once.

There were large numbers of Herring and Black-headed Gulls and a whole colony of Sand Martins who were nesting in holes in the dunes. A nice spot was a pair of Wigeon and, of course, there were hundreds of King Eider. We eventually called it a day when we nearly found ourselves cut off by the tide and we all collected again and went off to a restaurant for SUnday lunch. Afterwards some of the family went home but our car returned to Newburgh and the place was quite different with the tide in. We eventually managed to relocate the King Eider and this time we got good enough views that we could show non-birding family members this famous bird.

The Ythan estuary at Newburgh is a wonderful place, even without a King Eider, and we were happy to have introduced the family to it. They too were amazed that they had never heard of it.

Bird Sightings : Ythan Estuary at Newburgh

Scotland Holiday Day 7: Loch of Strathbeg 4th June 2016

At this stage of our holiday we were more oriented to family than birding but, of course, we always manage to find a way to introduce a little bit so we dragged the family to Loch of Strathbeg. The whole place is being done up but none of it was opened yet so there was no visitor centre or loos or shop or anything like that. Instead we had to settle for a walk down to the hide. The fields were choc a bloc with Skylarks but we also got Meadow Pipit, Tree and House Martins, Reed Bunting etc.

At the hide the4 pools were totally dried out. I don’t know if we have ever seen them full and certainly never joined up to form the one loch. There were Shelduck and Grey Heron, Pheasant and Oystercatcher roaming around though. There were also Swallows and Swifts and a single Buzzard.

All in all it was a nice day for a walk and we introduced the kids to some birds that they didn’t know of.

Bird Sightings : Loch of Strathbeg