Scotland 2023 Part 2

 Tuesday May 16^th

After a decent night’s sleep, we met up for breakfast at 7.30. Departure was an hour later and our first stop was to check a local loch for Red-necked Phalarope which arrived yesterday. It was raining a lot and we couldn’t find them so after a good search we left Benbecula and headed up to the top end of North Uist for the sea-watching site at Aird an Runair. 

There had already been reports of skuas passing here this morning. Fortunately it had now stopped raining and there was a moderate NW wind, perfect conditions for skuas. We walked out to the point and while we waited there were a few summer-plumaged Purple Sandpipers feeding in front of us to watch.

Purple Sandpiper

A couple of Arctic Skuas flew past then I picked up a trio coming in from the south. Once they’d come close enough, it was obvious they were Long-tailed Skuas. We had some more Arctics fly past, several of which took a shortcut and flew across the land behind us. Out in the bay was a Common Loon and two Harbour Porpoise.

As we drove back, we paused briefly to see the Dotterel again then stopped by the Corncrake site for a late coffee break. The Corncrake was still showing well, at one point climbing up a small rock and posing on the top before walking out in the open to the end of the field.

Corncrake

We drove to a site for lunch where we could scan for raptors. 

We didn’t have long to wait with several male Hen Harriers in the area, then a distant Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle flew over the ridge. 

White-tailed Eagle

We had a couple more White-tails and more Hen Harriers. After lunch we found a pair of Twite and then returned to the loch for another try at the phalarope.

This time we were in luck as the female had been found before we arrived resting on a grassy island. Eventually it woke up and went for a little swim, showing off its full breeding plumage, something I’ve not seen in this country before.

Red-necked Phalarope

As we drove away an adult White-tailed Eagle flew in in attack mode, scattering everything and a Greylag Goose just managed to avoid capture. We’d seen quite a few Short-eared Owls during the day and finished with one hunting across the road from the hotel as we were having dinner. 

Wednesday May 17^th

I saw the Short-eared Owl hunting again, this time from my bedroom window. After breakfast we packed up the vans and headed to our first stop: a nearby loch for Black-throated Diver. They were distant at first but had a fly around and ended up coming very close. At one point a calling Red-throated Diver flew over and they went up to chase it away.

Black-throated Diver

It was soon time to head to the ferry terminal and leave the Outer Hebrides behind. 

Ferry arriving at North Uist

It was much windier on the return crossing but the sea was fortunately still pretty calm. There wasn’t much seen from the ferry, mainly four species of auk and a couple of Manx Shearwaters. 

Approaching Skye

Typically it rained for most of the journey across Skye and as we had a long journey back to Nethy Bridge we didn’t stop much. We were held up a while due to a bad accident between a coach and a large truck and arrived back at Mountview at 6.30pm.

After dinner we went for a dusk stroll over to the golf course.

Thursday 18^th May

No pre-breakfast birding this morning; we left at the usual time of 8.30. First stop was at a Black Grouse lek where we were hoping for a lingering bird but they had all left the site. We moved on to a feeding station where a Red Squirrel had learned the trick of lifting the lid and extracting the seeds within.

Red Squirrel

We stopped at the usual haunt of Old Spey Bridge where we saw Dipper, Goosander and Goldeneye.

View from Old Spey Bridge

It was then just a short hop to the Abernethy Forest where we walked the Two Lochs Trail loop. We had good, albeit brief, views of Crested Tit and a pair of Common Crossbill. We also heard a couple of Common Redstart singing.

Lunch was taken at a site for Slavonian Grebe; most of us saw it but not everyone so we went to another site where even fewer people managed to see one. Our final stop was in Aviemore at Craigellachie Woods which I’d not been to before. We tracked down two singing Pied Flycatchers and a Wood Warbler before ending the day with coffee and cake.

Pied Flycatcher

Friday 19^th May

We had an early start, leaving the hotel at 6AM. We stopped by the roadside twice and saw Black Grouse at both spots but carried on and made a longer stop at a third site where 15 males were lekking. We were just close enough to hear their bubbling calls as we ate our packed breakfast. 

Black Grouse

We drove to Glenshiel where the plan was to scan for Ptarmigan from the car park and then to go up if we didn’t see any. Fortunately James found one straightaway which stayed in the same places for ages, thereby sparing us the climb up (or the chair-lift).

There's a Ptarmigan up there!

Our next stop was just along the road where there was a nesting pair of Ring Ouzel; we watched the male collect food before flying over to its nest. 

Ring Ouzel

We made several more stops along the drive through the highlands, regularly looking for raptors. During the day we saw four Short-eared Owls including a displaying pair, the male rising to great heights before swooping down. We also saw both eagles, Osprey and a Merlin.

Glenshiel

Up in the Highlands

We pulled into a carpark where a family party of Common Crossbills were feeding.

Female Common Crossbill

We voted to return to a Slavonian Grebe site as not everyone had seen them the previous day. We had a bit of wait after an initial sighting then one swam the whole length of the loch allowing everyone to get good views. We finished by trying for a Garden Warbler but apart from one brief snatch of song it remained quiet and unseen.

Avielochan

After dinner John and I went up to the golf course to look for Woodcock. As we neared the clubhouse we heard an unusual call and found a couple of Tawny Owlets. Just before dusk a Woodcock made its first of three passes before we called it a night.

Saturday 20th May

As we had an early breakfast there wasn’t time for any birding. We were driven to Aviemore station in time for the 08.32 down to London. It was a fairly quiet train journey but we did manage to see a Cuckoo along the way.

Scotland 2023 Part 1

Friday/Saturday May 12^th/13^th

For this year's Scottish adventure I booked the Highlands and Corncrake trip with Heatherlea with John & Janet for a week. We should have travelled up on the midday train on Saturday but thanks to the rail unions wanting to scupper people going to the Eurovision final by going on strike we had to come up with a late Plan B. This involved an overnight coach from Victoria on Friday evening which arrived into Glasgow at 6AM. In the end it wasn’t too bad a trip. We had four hours to wait for a Scot Rail train (they’ve already agreed their pay settlement) so found a McDonalds for a leisurely breakfast before wandering over to the rail station where we boarded the 10.07 train to Aviemore.

We’d booked a taxi on arrival which then took us to the Mountview hotel in Nethybridge. Having been inactive for so long we decided on a walk along the river. 

River at Nethybridge

It proved a good choice as we found a singing Pied Flycatcher and had best ever views of a Dipper.

Dipper

We wandered back to the hotel for a rest before meeting everyone else in the bar before dinner. John and I had a post-dinner stroll over the golf course and added a few new trip birds including two Yellowhammer and a Curlew. 

Sunday May 14^th

The three of us met for a pre-breakfast stroll up the road, getting a Cuckoo in addition to most of the birds seen yesterday evening. After a multi-course breakfast, we were ready to begin the day’s proper birding. The schedule had been moved around so we headed up to Lossiemouth where the Grey-headed Lapwing turned up yesterday. Unfortunately it had moved on during the night so we spent the rest of the day birding various sites in the area, on the coast and just inland. It rained virtually all day, albeit mostly lightly so it didn’t hamper us too much.

Highlights during the day included Grey Partridge, Tree Sparrow, Corn Bunting as well as Eider, several Common Loons in full breeding attire and a Marsh Harrier which was my first one in Scotland.

Yellowhammer at a feeding station

Non-avian highlights were the group of Bottle-nosed Dolphins which were very close to the shore and put on a real show, constantly leaping out of the sea.

Bottle-nosed Dolphin

We met in the bar for the bird log before dinner and retired early to bed as we had an extremely early start the next day. 

Monday May 15^th

Assembly time outside the hotel was just after 4am and we loaded up our overnight bags and left promptly at 04.15 for our drive to Skye. We made the odd roadside stop, once for a particularly smart Black Grouse. 

Black Grouse

Some of us also saw Red Kite and Osprey while others caught up on their beauty sleep. We arrived at Uig Ferry Terminal just after 8am and our guides checked us in for the ferry. We then had time for a packed breakfast before driving onto the ferry. We decanted our vans and went up to the uppermost deck ready for a two-hour seawatch.

Departing Uig on Skye

Just after departure our first birds were two Black Guillemot, these were soon followed by the other three breeding auks which streamed past the ship regularly during the first half hour. It then quietened down and we saw very little else apart from one Bonxie as we approached North Uist. 

Approaching North Uist

We boarded the vans and were soon on our way although the destination kept changing. Along the way we briefly saw a Short-eared Owl. Eventually we settled on going to look for the Dotterel but just as we approached the area we saw another group of birders on the corner who informed us they were watching an obliging Corncrake. We decided this was too good an opportunity to miss and a minute later we were watching said bird. It showed very well on and off for ages, calling continuously to its rival which was at the other end of this marshy spot.

Corncrake

Eventually we left it and moved on up the road to the Dotterel field. It took a few anxious minutes to find it but I picked it up near an abandoned car. We had good scope views as it came closer, picking up food in the typical plover fashion.

Dotterel

We stopped for another view of the Corncrake then drove a short distance to a loch where there was a sleeping Garganey. We carried on to the RSPB visitor centre and ate our picnic lunch before carrying on to explore the area further. Afternoon highlights included White-tailed Eagle and Whooper Swan. We tried a seawatch for passage skuas but didn’t see any so headed south over to Benbecula and checked into our hotel. While having dinner we saw a male Hen Harrier hunting across the road. 

Mostly Rainham

May 4th: Chobham Common

For Star Wars Day I birded out of London for only the second day this year. I met up with John & Janet at Waterloo and we took the train to Longcross in Surrey. The station is right next to Chobham Common and we try to make a visit here every spring. Each visit produces different birds but so far we've been lucky in getting our three target birds: Woodlark, Tree Pipit and Dartford Warbler. Last year we managed to get them all within twenty minutes. It took a bit longer this year but we did manage all three. Tree Pipits were the most obvious of the trio.

May 5th-8th: Rainham Marshes

I made an early start on Friday 5th and walked across Rainham West and up to Serin Mound. I hadn't been there for very long when I scanned across History Pool and found a gangly black-and-white wader. It may be one of the easiest rarities to identify but there's still that rush of excitement when you realise you've just found a Black-winged Stilt!

Black-winged Stilt

I put the news out immediately and then attempted to photograph it. The pool is fairly distant so it's a real challenge to get a decent photograph of anything on it so I had to just settle for a record shot. After half-an-hour Fraser turned up on his way to work and had a look at the Stilt. After another 15 minutes more people started arriving and the twitch was on! I spent most of the morning here before having a look at the bay. I'd been expecting a Stilt to show up as there's been another influx of them this spring and this individual was the fifth one at Rainham which makes this site far and away the best for this species in London.

I was back at Rainham the following day to participate in a Bird Race. My team was pretty inexperienced so there was a lot of learning going on during the day. Luckily the Stilt was still present which was a good one to get on the day. We also had Gropper, Cuckoo, Hobby, Whimbrel and Greenshank. Both teams finished on 76 species but as the rules were everyone in the team had to see or hear every bird our adjusted total was 73. It was a good fun day though.

The Stilt was still present on Sunday for its third day, an unprecedented stay for a spring bird as all the previous London ones had only stayed a day, the exception being a juvenile in autumn. My main target today was Sanderling which we ran out of time to see yesterday. Fortunately it also stayed and I soon picked it up in Aveley Bay. Ben had found a Garden Warbler along the entrance track so I popped along for that before going around the reserve.

On the extra Bank Holiday Monday I headed up to Serin Mound again but the Stilt wasn't there. It had gone for a fly around yesterday afternoon so I wasn't surprised that it had done a bunk. The Sanderling was in the bay again and I eventually managed to see the extremely elusive Wood Sandpiper that had turned up yesterday on History Pool. It was best viewed from the river wall but was out of view for long periods.

Site 69: Old Dagenham Park, May 9th

I decided to have a day around Dagenham and started off visiting a local park which is just west of the Beam Valley.

Weeping Willow

I entered the park just north of School Road and did a clockwise circuit. It's a typical town park with mostly open grassland but there are some good scrubby edges where there were two Whitethroats singing. A few geese were feeding in the middle of the park.

Canada Geese

Greylag Geese

At the end of my circuit I crossed over the road and went into Beam Parklands, then carried on walking north through Beam Valley CP and finally into Dagenham Chase. There weren't many new migrants coming in and it's starting to feel like spring is coming to an end.

Little Egret at Dagenham Chase

More East London sites and an owl

April 29th: Brent Reservoir

As it was the Spring Bird Count at my old patch I decided to head back across London for the day and join in. I've always enjoyed participating in these big days at Brent, the only difference this time around was that I wasn't heading out pre-dawn to listen out for owls. Despite the later arrival time, I still managed a respectable 60 species with the group total being 71. It wasn't a good day for migration as the weather was probably too nice.

April 30th: Ingrebourne Valley

I took an early bus towards Rainham and alighted at Dovers Corner. It was a bit of an exploration as I didn't know if there was an access point to this end of the Ingrebourne Valley but I soon found an egress point at the car park for Ingrebourne Hill. This gave me access to the southern end of the valley which I hadn't visited before. I walked along an abandoned (?) cycle track beside some lakes which I think are known as the Albion Pools. There's also a large reedbed which seems to be an extension of Berwick Ponds.

I kept on walking East until I reached an area that I recognised, which is what I refer to as Mallard Lake. I carried on eastwards through Berwick Glades and realised I wasn't far from a new site for the year so decided to give it a visit.

Site 66: Bonnett's Wood

I had been through a section of this site last year on my way back from seeing some wild geese at Gerpins Lane but this was my first visit in spring. I walked a loop around the new area that was acquired in 2012 which has a lot of young trees planted by Forestry England.

There was a lot of birds around including Cuckoo, Lesser Whitethroat, Skylark and woodpeckers. Overhead a Common Buzzard was soaring around and a Kestrel shot through.

Buzzard

At the end of the loop I walked back across Berwick Glade and into Hornchurch Country Park.

May 1st: Cheshunt GPs

I met up with John & Janet for our regular spring trip to the Lea Valley. From Cheshunt station we headed towards Seventy Acres Lake, seeing a couple of Garden Warblers along the way. 

Garden Warbler

We then crossed over the river to the substation island and were soon listening to a Nightingale. This has become the last bastion of these birds in the London Area and they could easily join the long list of birds that have ceased breeding in the capital such as Tree Sparrow, Turtle Dove, Tree Pipit and Willow Tit to name just a few of the recent ones.

We decided it was time for cake o'clock and went to the excellent cafe at Holyfield Hall Farm. Whilst sitting outside with a large slab of cake we saw Red Kite and Common Buzzard. At this point John received news of a possible Long-eared Owl on his patch so we decided to head straight back and go for it. It took one hour exactly from Cheshunt station to arriving on site.

Site 67: Stave Hill & Russia Dock Woodland

We walked the short distance from Canada Water station and entered into the site at Stave Hill which then turns into Russia Dock Woodland. One of the local birders had the owl pinned down but it had moved from where it was into a denser spot in the tree. However, its huge bulk and bushy ear tufts made it obvious that it was in fact some sort of Eagle-Owl rather than a Long-eared Owl. Better photos taken later revealed that this bird was in fact a Great Horned Owl, an obvious escape. It was still an impressive bird to see in this inner London site. It was reglarly mobbed by Crow sand Magpies but it just ignored them.

Great Horned Owl 

May 3rd

I started off at Dagenham Chase where the best sighting was watching a Hobby pursue a Sand Martin. I couldn't tell if it was successful or not as they flew behind the trees at the back of The Slack. A bit later on I saw a Peregrine circle over, two new falcons for my patch list. I decided to find the bridge over the railway line and explore a new area.

Site 68: Beam Valley Country Park

This site joins up Dagenham Chase and Beam Parklands where I visited last week, all of which are part of the Dagenham Corridor of green spaces.

Bridge over the railway which connects to Dagenham Chase

I had a look at the private fishing lake before exploring the rest of the site where there was a pair of Great Crested Grebes. It's quite a narrow site which runs down the west side of the River Beam. There is a footbridge which leads to a large open space, marked as Playing Field on the map which doesn't form part of the Country Park and appears to be unnamed. The lake at the southern end is also outside of the park's boundaries but both are best treated as part of the CP for recording purposes.

Squabbling Magpies

The southern border of the site is the A125 and I crossed over here and entered Beam Parklands. I followed the path along the river all the way to the southern end and then went west by the lake and out on Ballards Road. As this was just my second visit here I did manage to see two new species: Canada Goose and Great Spotted Woodpecker.