Scotland July 2021

With foreign holidays to much hassle to go on, I decided to have a week’s birding holiday in Scotland with my mates, John & Janet. We booked with Heatherlea on their ‘Welcome back to Scottish Birding’ trip. 

Saturday 10 July saw us meeting up at Kings Cross for the midday train up to Aviemore. It’s long seven and a half hour journey but it’s nice and relaxing and we kept a ‘train list’ although it only reached 23 species. We arrived in Aviemore at half seven where we were picked up and driven the short distance to our base at the Mountview Hotel in Nethy Bridge. Dinner was served shortly after arrival and we discussed plans for the coming week. There was another Heatherlea birding trip running the same week and some of the days we would be going out together. 

Sunday 11 July Both tours spent the day together birding locally around Abernethy Forest. We walked the Loch Mallachie Trail at Loch Garten. It was a bit damp but we did manage reasonable views of a couple of Crested Tits which were moving through the woods in a post-breeding mixed flock along with some Spot Flys and Treecreepers. 

Treecreeper

A lone female Goldeneye was on the adjacent loch. We next drove around a private estate looking for, but not seeing, Capercaillie. We lunched at the top where we found a pair of Scottish Crossbills. They had a more curved lower mandible and ‘lighter’ flight calls than Common Crossbill.

Moorland

Scottish Crossbill

Later in the afternoon we drove around Lochindorb, seeing Red Grouse in the moors and a solitary, distant Black-throated Diver. 

Red Grouse

Monday 12 July 

While the other lot headed over to Mull, we too went over to the West Coast, seeing Red Kites and Hooded Crows along the way. We stopped at Gruinard Bay to look for divers and saw two close immature Common Loons straightaway, then later three Red-throats a bit further out. 

Gruinard Bay

There was a flock of Arctic Terns on the island which all went up when a marauding Bonxie flew over them. In the bay we also saw Black Guillemot and a flock of nine Red-breasted Mergansers. Further out were Gannet and Shag and then we saw some distant cetaceans. 

Through the scope we could see they were Bottle-nosed Dolphins and they were soon joined by a few Common Dolphins. Both pods were very active so may have been feeding. After they disappeared we also saw a couple of Harbour Porpoise, showing well in the millpond sea. 

On the way back we stopped by a busy road to look at an Osprey nest on top of a pylon that contained both adults and three well-grown young. 

Osprey nest

Tuesday 13 July 

We spent the day closer to base, visiting some local moorland in the morning where there was a drumming Snipe and a close Brown Hare. 

Brown Hare

We had distant scope views of at least five Black Grouse then took a walk where we were rewarded with prolonged views of two Golden Eagles and a few Northern Marsh Orchids.

Northern Marsh Orchid

In the afternoon we went to the Findhorn Valley, but it was unusually quiet, perhaps because the heatwave had started. The only raptors were Red Kite and Common Buzzard so some of us turned our attention to the abundant Lepidoptera in the grass, getting good views of several Dark Green Fritillaries, Common Blue butterflies and Bordered White moths amongst others.

Common Blue butterfly

Bordered White

Dark Green Fritillary

Wednesday 14 July 

We headed over to the East Coast today, picking up an Osprey over Banff and a few Corn Buntings singing in some fields. 

Corn Bunting

We visited the seabird colony at Troup Head RSPB, a place I’d not even heard of before. Kittiwakes were a constant aural background and thousands of Gannets and auks whizzed by the cliffs. Guillemots and Razorbills were easily seen on the ledges but Puffins were much harder to find; a few flew past but I managed to find a pair standing just outside their burrow. 

Razorbills

Kittiwakes, Razorbill & Guillemots

Among a large flock of Gannets on the sea we located the large shape of a whale. We expected it to be a Minke but the large blows and enormous size with the falcate fin showing well after the blow meant it was actually a Fin Whale. Although I’ve seen plenty of Fins in Biscay before, this was the first one I’d seen in the UK. 

Gannets

We moved on to Spey Bay, stopping to find some Tree Sparrows in a small woodland where lots of nestboxes had been put up for them. 

Tree Sparrow

At the bay there was a large flock of 200 moulting Goosander, some Little Terns, a female Eider with a half-grown youngster and another Osprey. It was a busy tourist spot, some of whom had come to see the local pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins that swam into view after a while. 

Thursday 15 July 

The two groups merged and split today with three people doing the trek up Cairn Gorm to look for Dotterel. More people would probably have gone by using the Funicular Railway but it was shut all summer for major repairs so the rest took two vans over to the coast on the Black Isle. 

We headed off from the car park at 9.15 for the long walk up to the plateau. We went fairly slowly and arrived at 11.00. The only birds seen long the way were a few Meadow Pipits and Wheatears. We could hear a distant Snow Bunting and our guide found it in the scope on an outcrop. 

Cairn Gorm

We spread out and crisscrossed the plateau looking for Dotterel but failed to find any. On the last area we walked we did locate three close Ptarmigan. They didn’t seem bothered by us and we spent a long time watching and photographing them before heading back down the track. 

Ptarmigan

It was a really hot afternoon and once we made it down to the car park we just sat at a picnic table and rested for a while. As we arrived back at Nethy Bridge early we made a short detour to look for some rare flowers and saw Creeping Lady's Tresses and Twinflower, although one of the examples of the latter I found had three flowers making it a Tripleflower! 

Creeping Lady's Tresses

Twinflower

Friday 16 July 

While the other group went off to the East Coast we stayed local in an attempt to clean up on a few missing species. We found a few common birds around Boat of Garten but couldn’t locate the breeding pair of Slavonian Grebes on another loch so made the decision to head up to Loch Ruthven where we had good views of one. 

The sunny weather had brought out a lot of dragonflies and damselflies but I could only locate the common species rather than any of the localised ones. 

Four-spotted Chaser

We had another drive around the estate but the Capercaillies remained out of view. Next we visited Old Spey bridge where had distant views of a Dipper and we finished up at Dorback. 

Dipper

It had been great week’s birding holiday and it was really great to get away for a break. 

Saturday 17 July 

I had my customary pre-breakfast walk around the village, this was the best one of the trip with Scottish Crossbill and Osprey both seen. After an early breakfast we got a lift down to Aviemore station for the 8.32 train back to London. The train list just beat the outward journey by one species, the added bonus being a Merlin.

Insects on the North Downs

 After a long hiatus due to lockdown lethargy I thought it was time to resurrect my blog. Today I visited Hutchinsons Bank on the southern edge of Greater London at New Addington. I met my friends John & Janet at Canada Water and we took the Overground to West Croydon and then the tram to New Addington. It was the first time for all of us on a tram and I was impressed with this form of public transport, running on roads and dedicated tracks.

We arrived at 9.30 and walked past some large wooden carvings of Bear, Gorilla, Dolphin and a Vulture which seemed somewhat out of place. A few minutes later we walked across a playing field and through a litter-strewn wood onto the grasslands of the North Downs. It was warm but cloudy so it took a while before we saw our first insects, but they were moths rather than butterflies. First up was a smart Mother Shipton and then a Burnet Companion. Eventually a few Common Blues, Speckled Wood and Small Heaths appeared.

Small Heath

More moths were discovered with Yellow Shell and Heart & Dart, the latter being a common visitor to moth traps but rarely seen during the day. We also found a couple of moths that we couldn’t immediately identify. The moth list continued to climb with Cinnabar also being seen.

 

Heart and Dart

moth sp #1

moth sp #2

Even though there weren't too many insects on show we did manage to locate a few Bee Orchids and a single Pyramidal Orchid.

Bee Orchid

The sun eventually broke through the clouds and this led to multiple sightings of Brimstone and an increase in Common Blues. We were too late in the season for the early flying fritillaries but we did manage to see Small Blue and Grizzled Skipper. Unfortunately the latter flew off before being photographed unlike the Small Blue which showed really well.

 

Small Blue

Walking past the driving range and finding evidence of a few stray hits led us to a nest with a new clutch although there was no sign of anything incubating them.

 

The hedges held a few Blackcaps and Whitethroats as well as an out-of-place Nuthatch but the birding was fairly quiet, hardly unsurprising given the time of year. We found a couple of unidentified beetles, one of which landed on John.

We headed back to the tram stop, after a four hour, three mile walk, disturbing a Silver Y in the overgrown playing field to add to the moth list and then on homeward.

July 24th - Beardies & stork at Rainham

This was my second visit to Rainham Marshes since the reserve reopened last week. It was a very cloudy morning when I started out at Rainham West. There were still plenty of Reed Warblers in the reeds and I managed to see a Sedge Warbler as well but it took a lot longer today to catch up with Common Whitethroat, Blackcap and Chiffchaff. The only Mute Swan of the day was still on the channel where I saw it last week but otherwise the marshes were fairly quiet. There was a regular commute of Stock Doves flying over heading towards the river.

Mute Swan

Rather than take the longer river route I cut up the path alongside Coldharbour Lane hoping, but failing, to connect with the mega-elusive Corn Buntings. A couple of Rooks flew over to the tip but the large flock that had been on Wennington Marsh had disappeared, along with all the Jackdaws. I had a scan from the Serin Mound and located a single immature male Marsh Harrier. This was the only one I saw all day which was surprising as there were two family parties around last week.

With waders being reported in Aveley Bay I decided to head down there as it was now low tide. Small groups of Black-tailed Godwits patrolled the shoreline, resplendent in their summer plumage while the young Avocets had grown up and were starting to resemble their parents. Three Curlews completed the collection of long-legged waders but the only shorter-legged ones were a pair of Oystercatchers. A scan through the gulls on the foreshore produced a single adult Yellow-legged Gull but there were hundreds more gulls in the bay that were a bit too far to check through.

Black-tailed Godwits

Oystercatcher

adult Yellow-legged Gull

As the reserve had just opened I decided to do a circuit. I stopped just past Purfleet Hide and suddenly noticed a large bird up high. Through the bins it was clearly a White Stork so I had few more seconds to enjoy watching this great bird circle slowly slowly around before putting the news out. This was the seond White Stork I'd seen at Rainham in two years. By the time I'd finished on the phone I'd lost the bird and couldn't relocate it. This may have been the same bird that was seen yesterday over the tip but, weirdly enough, about the same time I was watching it, three White Storks were seen just across the river over Crayford Marshes. 

As I couldn't refind the bird I continued round to the dragonfly pool to look for the Bearded Tits. There were a couple of young birds feeding on the ground and a few more flew in and two landed on the grit tray and gave fabulous views.

Bearded Tit

As I walked towards the Butts hide, a Clouded Yellow flew past, the first one I've seen this year and I had another near Aveley Pools. From the hide I saw a few Little Egrets and a Yellow Wagtail flew over. The Target Pools had dried out again so there were no waders on show so I made my way round to Aveley Pools. A flock of Black-tailed Godwits were roosting on the pools with a couple of Lapwing. At the Ken Barrett hide there was no sign of the Garganey that had been present since last weekend but I did see a Little Ringed Plover and a Hobby flew over. The woodland held a few Chiffchaffs but was otherwise quiet so I decided to call it a day.

Little Egret

June 12th - midsummer at Rainham

After missing the entire spring at Rainham Marshes due to the Covid-19 lockdown I finally managed to get in a visit on June 12th, almost three months since my last visit. I got up in the middle of the night (or so it seemed) to travel ahead of the rush hour and arrived at Rainham West at 06.30. It was great to be back and there was a lot of catching up to do.

All the summer visitors were in but the passage migrants had already gone through as it was now that short period between spring and autumn. The first warbler I heard singing was Blackcap, but that was the only one I heard. Common Whitethroats were abundant and as I walked along the path I began to hear the occasional Reed Warbler. I also heard a couple of Sedge Warblers but there was no sign of any Groppers so that might be one I’ve missed this year. Despite the long drought during spring, the verges were luxuriant so there must have been more rain here last week than where I live.

Common Whitethroat

Linnet

Giant Hogweed

I passed the new bridge to nowhere and then headed down to the Concrete Barges where I heard my first Cuckoo of the year, my main target bird today. The tide was pretty much in so there were lots of gulls on the jetty but they all seemed to be Herring Gulls of various ages. A few Common Terns flew past on the river and a Peregrine bombed over towards Kent but otherwise it was fairly quiet. Some of the pirate signs have fallen to bits but Captain Red was looking rather resplendent.

It was quite misty looking down the river beyond Aveley Bay but on the near bank I found a Ringed Plover, presumably a very late north-bound migrant. There were a few Avocets and Redshank around and I heard an Oystercatcher. I headed round to Serin Mound to look over Wennington Marshes where a pair of Marsh Harrier were flying around as well another female.

I then walked eastwards along the river wall so I could look over the reserve. Three distant white blobs eventually revealed themselves as Little Egrets and a Common Buzzard circled over one of the pylons. Huge flocks of Starlings gathered in the bushes but I couldn’t find any pink ones amongst them. Normally by the time I reach the visitor centre I stop for a coffee and a rest but with the reserve still closed I headed off home instead before the rain that was forecast started.