Cairngorms 2018

Last week I spent the best part of three days in Aviemore, birding various sites across and around the Cairngorms National Park with my mate Rob. We arrived on Wednesday at 10:00am with the intention of heading straight up the funicular railway to try for Ptarmigan. However, as we drove up the road towards the mountain railway it wasn't looking promising. There was a thick layer of cloud and as we pulled onto the car park it was beginning to snow, so with the prospect a rather cold and wet time at the cafe with zero visibility, we decided to cut our losses and go elsewhere.

Instead we headed to Abernethy and Loch Garten, not so much for the Ospreys but just the general birding around the woods. We did visit the Osprey watchpoint though - who doesn't? A Redstart was singing as we approached which was the first of the trip, and we had some 'limited' views of the female Osprey on the nest from inside the centre. As usual there were Siskins and Coal tits everywhere.

After half an hour or so we left the centre and went for a walk around the Loch. It was pretty quiet, a pair of Goldeneye, a couple of Common Sandpipers and a few Greylag Geese were on the Loch, with Swallows and Sand Martins hawking insects above the waters surface. We heard a Tree Pipit but could only get brief glimpses, however a Treecreeper put in an appearance whilst we were searching and then, out of the blue, a Crested Tit flew into view. Lifer (or more correctly UK tick) number one for Rob and a good year tick for me. By now it was lunch time so we decided to drop our gear off at the Aviemore Youth Hostel and grab something to eat.

A quick word about the hostel. Its a great place to stay for a cheap break. It has good kitchen facilities, a common room, dining area, drying room etc and its really clean and comfortable. An added bonus is that you can see Peregrines from the car park and its adjacent to the Craigellachie Nature Reserve - more of which later. The hostel has a website and you can find them on twitter @hostellingscot.

After dumping our gear the weather had changed and we could see the summit of Cairngorm, so we headed back up. Although the cloud had lifted there was still a good amount of snow up there, much more than when I was there last year, and it was bitter on the cafe viewing terrace, with a stiff wind creating a bit of spin-drift.

View from the terrace!

There was a single birder on the terrace but he hadn't seen any Ptarmigan. But we were there so gave it half an hour anyway (its not like you can just nip back down). It was worthwhile as we had cracking views of Snow Bunting down to just a few feet. After half an hour though we were pretty cold so went in for a brew and a warm up. Just as we finished our drinks the other birder came back in and told us he'd just seen a Ptarmigan fly in, and gave us precise directions to where it had landed. We went out and managed to get on it immediately - impressive as it was a moulting grey and white bird on a very grey and white background! Lifer number two for Rob. A dutch family were intrigued as to what we were looking at so we spent a few minutes showing them the bird. Satisfied we had seen what we wanted we got the train down. Back at the car park we picked up a small flock of Snow Buntings (4 to be exact) and a single Wheatear, my first for the year. After that it was back down and off to get a shower, some food, some beer and some sleep!

Snow Buntings!

Next day we started early in one of the many beautiful woodlands in the area hoping for the elusive Capercaillie. I will point out now that we were not looking for a lek, we were in public woodlands and we stayed on the forestry tracks. The woods were very quiet, spring was clearly a few days behind; last year there had been Redstarts and Tree Pipits everywhere but this year they were few and far between. We spent about an hour wandering around and had started to retrace our steps after covering a few areas of the woodland. We were chatting quietly, discussing where we were going to go next, which path to take when we got to the next junction, when Rob tapped me on my shoulder and simply muttered my name. I knew instantly what he was getting at and luckily I looked straight in front just as a stonking great male Capercaillie walked slowly across the path and into the vegetation! We quickened our pace to see if we could get another view and luckily I spotted its head sticking up amongst the Bilberry and Heather. We stopped and I had chance to set up the scope for a few minutes of excellent views before it decided it had had enough of being looked at and flew off. A superb bird, a lifer for me and lifer number three for Rob.

Bird of the trip - Capercaillie!!!

Even though we had nailed the target bird of the trip we stayed in the woods, birding for another hour or so, during which time we had another pair of Crested Tits, singles of Redstart and Tree Pipit plus a pair of Crossbills which, given the calls, the habitat and the (to me) slightly larger, deeper billed appearance were good contenders for Scottish Crossbill. Lifer number four for Rob.

Now, I will point out here that yes, Rob managed four lifers in 24 hours (admittedly that could easily be the case for any UK birder heading to Speyside for the first time), but, Rob is about the luckiest birder I have ever met. Since he started joining me on trips I have had some of the best birding days ever, adding quite a few lifers and some tricky year ticks seemingly every time we go birding.

After the woods we called at small Lochan to check for Slavonian Grebes but none were present. According to some birders we spoke to later, most territories on other waters had 'Slavs' back on them so it looks like they may have abandoned this particular site this year.

We drove into Aviemore and had breakfast and then headed up to Lochindorb to see if we could see the Black-throated Divers that had been showing so well.

Lochindorb- sadly no Black-throated Divers

When we arrived it was clearly not going to be as easy as we had hoped. There was a very stiff breeze (possibly an understatement) cutting across the loch whipping up a few white horses. Small ones, but still white horses. We drove along the loch edge scanning at every opportunity. A group of birders were parked up in one of the few parking spots and when we pulled in after doing a length of the loch, they told us the divers had been out, but had swam into a bay out of sight. So, it was a waiting game. We amused ourselves watching a few Red Grouse and Meadow Pipits and constantly scanned the water and the sky for divers and raptors respectively. We stayed for four hours and still dipped the divers. But, we did have brilliant views of one or maybe two separate Ospreys, a Red Kite (which was a surprise), and a very distant Golden Eagle. As we waited, we chatted with a few birders, one of which mentioned seeing Wood Warbler at the back of the Youth Hostel in the Craigellachie Nature Reserve, so we decided to go for a look later.

Once back at the Youth Hostel in Aviemore, we parked up and headed out to the nature reserve. Its a brilliant woodland area that was buzzing with birds and we quickly picked up a singing Wood Warbler which eventually gave good views. We then picked up a Tree Pipit in full display mode which was really nice to see. By now though we were both ready for some food, so that was the end of day two.

Our last day started early again as we only had an hour or two before we needed to head home. We tried a route I had been told about that led through Rothiemurchus forest to the estate lodge. The birder who told me about it must have been there a while ago as the Forestry Commission are currently removing vast swathes of Lodgepole Pine to enable the native Scots Pine forest to regenerate. Great, except it wasn't great for us. The birding was, lets say, poor. We walked for 3/4 hour from the car before turning around, and apart from a few Willow Warblers, Coal Tits and Siskins we saw very little.

So a slightly disappointing end to the trip, but overall it was another great visit to this beautiful part of the world. We didn't amass a massive trip list - only about 50 or so species, but the list contained some real quality birds so no complaints at all.

How much would you pay?

Its that time of year when I pay my annual visit to Martin Mere. I blogged about a visit there last year and said how good it could be. Although today wasn't the worst day I've had there, it wasn't the best. Lots of Teal, Wigeon and Pintail, plenty geese, numerous Swans and a couple of Marsh Harriers. Great. But, with the possible exception of the Harriers, nothing I couldn't have seen at Marshside RSPB or Burton Mere. Chances are I could have seen a bit more at Marshside or Burton - maybe a Short-eared Owl, or a Merlin, chance of a Twite at Marshide too. Now, none of this would have really bothered me except that when the friendly volunteer asked me if I wanted to pay the gift aid price for my entry, they quoted me £14 (£12.72 if not gift aided). It doesn't really matter whether its £12 or £14, I only wanted a half day birding. Another 20 mins in the car and I'd have been at Marshide where it would have cost me nothing as this site is free to visit. I chose Martin Mere as I do like to support the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust a couple of times a year and have been visiting for as long as I can remember, so its a bit of a habit. But this is getting silly. There is no way I'll be going back and paying £12 plus for entry. I know I could join - its £50 and thats reasonable I suppose, and I know they do amazing work. But the thing is theres not another WWT reserve for over 100 miles so its not like I'm going to be nipping off to one every weekend. So, £50 is just not worth it. But neither is £12.72. I felt ripped off. I accept this would have given me a day round the collection or the canoe safari if I'd wanted, but Ive been there and done that (and you have to pay extra for the safari too), and I just wanted to visit the hides and see the wild birds.  I'm sorry WWT but at that price I won't be back in a rush. If it was £6 or £7 then I'd probably do two or three trips plus per year but not at the current rate. Is that reasonable or am I being tight? What would you pay?

Anyway, at 1pm I was off. A Hooded Crow had been found literally 10mins walk from where I live and it is a Greater Manchester mega and would be a GM tick. I also wanted to get to the gull roost at Pennington Flash. I dipped on the crow - its been around for 2 months according to a dog walker so I'm hoping I'll see it another day. The gull roost was a bit more successful. No white winged gulls but the 2nd Winter Caspian put in another appearance, so I added this to my GM list instead!

Caspian Gull Phoneskoped at Pennington Flash

Dee Day

I finally managed a full day birding today. Didn't walk too far but had a good 6 hours out solid birding.

I wasn't 100% sure where I was going to go. I fancied Llanfairfechan but the wind forecast for North Wales was a pretty consistent 20mph plus with gusts into the 30mph range, just a bit too strong. So, it was back out to the Dee Estuary where the wind forecast was much better.  I was joined by my mate Rob who usually accompanies me to Spurn. We pulled onto Denhall Lane at about 08:30 and I was surprised to see there was still quite a bit of standing water - evidence of three days of very high tides.

The water in the above photos is standing water, not the river! 

There were plenty of Canada Geese feeding plus a few Greylags and Pink Feet. The usual ducks and waders were around in force as well as a few surprises. A Great White Egret was out on the marsh and a Ruff was feeding in with the Redshank. A sizeable flock of Black-tailed Godwits looked stunning as they flew back and forth across the marsh. After an hour or so we walked up to Decca Pools in the hope of seeing a Short-eared Owl or maybe a Hen Harrier. The pools held the usual Wigeon and Teal, and a couple of Little Egrets were knocking around. The sun was out at this point and the Wigeon and Teal were looking stunning.

A lone Marsh Harrier put in an appearance but there wasn't a great deal different here than at Denhall Lane itself, so at 11.30am we headed up to Heswall for the high tide. 

Its the first time I have been to this bit of the coast for a high tide. By all accounts it can be better than Parkgate as the water can get higher on lower tides (today was only 9.4m or so, and it usually needs a 10m plus to get the best action at Parkgate). 

We arrived at Heswall about 12:00pm, parked up on the car park, and headed straight to the marsh which is only 100m or so away. We walked about 100m or so along the coastal path before finding a place to stop and watch from.

Its a bit different to Parkgate too, its not just a salt marsh, its a bit of a boatyard, so there are very few birds close in. Most are a good 50m or so away. It wasn't exactly dripping in birds but there were enough to keep us occupied for a couple of hours. 

There was a steady stream of skeins of geese going over. Small parties of ducks were constantly buzzing around the marsh and a small party of Pintail out on the river added a bit of extra interest. We had up to four Marsh Harriers in view as well as two Peregrines, the photos above were phonescoped at quite a distance. I did have a very distant Merlin, but sadly no Hen Harriers or Short-eared Owls.

I did see one of the most bizarre sights I've seen whilst I've been birding and it sort of fits with that crass statement you often get when you tell people you're a birder! You know the one - "What, feathered ones?". A middle aged bloke, a twenty something bloke and two young women came walking along the salt marsh carrying large bags and, we noticed later, a couple of cameras. The next thing we saw was this:

 A fashion photo shoot on the Dee estuary salt marsh, in January. It was a bit nippy to say the least,  and the model was wearing that dress for a good half hour. She must have been freezing. Even funnier (for me and Rob anyway) was the fact that they hadn't realised the tide was rising quickly and when they came to walk back to the path there was at least a foot of standing water and only the older bloke had wellies on.

Anyway, after watching these antics for a while we headed off to Hoylake, just to see if the waders were roosting close in, and to see if we could pick up the Scoter flock. The waders were quite distant which, on a positive note, meant they weren't disturbed every 10 minutes by the dog walkers. There were plenty of Scoters moving over the sea, but again very distant so it wasn't worth staying too long and we were on our way home by 15:00. It was a productive day overall in many respects, maybe not in terms of species numbers, but the quality of birds was great and given that two weeks ago I struggled to walk for an hour this felt brilliant.

A taste of things to come?

On the 27th November I injured my back. I wasn't doing anything stupid. I wasn't even doing anything that could be considered risky. I simply turned around.

At first I thought it was just a bit of a muscle twinge, but as the day went on it got worse to the point where my boss sent me home. I spent the next two days in a variety of uncomfortable positions before finally succumbing and going to see a GP who inspired me by saying it would just take time and giving me some painkillers. By the weekend it was worse and had spread into my leg in the form of sciatica. Back to the GP for some more advice and heavy hitting anti-inflammatories. After two weeks I was just able to get into work with a lift - driving was out of the question. And now, a month later I am still suffering with a range of weird and wonderful symptoms, largely affecting my leg but also my lower back. I have seen a physio and his exercises have no doubt helped, but I am some way off being 100%

An added downside to all this is that I haven't been birding (or even out of the house apart from for work) since the 27th November. Until today.

It had got to the point where I had to get out, apart from anything, the dog hadn't had a decent walk in a month. Because I am still struggling to drive I kept it local and went to the Three Sisters. This is somewhere I used to work and is actually somewhere I volunteered at when I was just 10 years old - albeit only once as I couldn't get there when my dad was working, which was every saturday pretty much. It has sadly been the victim of the local authority cuts, in just the same way that lots of places in the area have over the last few years, and is now getting into a bit of a mess. However its still pretty good for a bit of birding, and its only a five minute drive away.

My intention was to spend a couple of hours mooching about, particularly to see if I could find a Long-eared Owl. The site used to hold the odd roosting bird in winter a few years ago. It can also be a really good site for Siskin and Redpolls, holding significant flocks of both in some years. Sadly today I found no Long-eareds and only a handful of Redpolls flying over. A roosting Tawny was a nice, if unexpected find too. A first for me for the site.

But my main discovery of the day was that I was absolutely knackered after just an hour of walking around. My leg was giving me some serious grief which made walking harder and I didn't spend anywhere near as much time out as I had planned. What has me worried is that this could be the new 'norm' if I cant get my back fixed, and as everyone likes to keep telling me, when its gone once it will go again!  A lovely thought. Not. And if I'm honest, quite a scary one.

Bit Windy On't Wirral

I took the day off work today to go birding. I had arranged to go with a friend so even though the weather forecast looked rubbish it was a bit difficult to change the arrangements as we had both booked leave.

After considering our options we decided on a trip to the Wirral. Our logic was that we could at least start at Burton Mere Wetlands and if the weather was as bad as expected we'd be able to shelter in the hides. If it was any better than forecast we'd have plenty sites along the coast to go at.

We arrived at Burton Mere at around 09:30. Barring a couple of showers the rain was largely holding off and the wind didn't feel that bad either.

We did a quick scan around from the reception area and set off around the reserve. It was very quiet.

A ten minute spell in the hide in the centre of the reserve (think its called Marsh Covert) produced nothing more than a few Teal and Shoveler, a single Pintail and a Little Egret. A single Kingfisher was sat on a perch less than 10 feet from one of the windows - a photographers dream but there were no photographers there!

On our way round to the Inner Marsh hide we spent a bit of time looking over what appeared to be a seed crop field. It was just a bit too dense to see into, but there were plenty Chaffinches and Linnets flying around, suggesting other stuff may well have been feeding down between the stems but we couldn't see if there was.

From here we made our way to the Inner Marsh Farm hide, quickly checking the hawthorn where the Long-eared Owl had been roosting a couple of years ago. Again the pool in front of the hide was pretty quiet. There was a flock of Black-tailed Godwits immediately in front of the hide. I love the noise they make when they're feeding. Mixed in were a few Dunlin and Redshank and I picked up a Stonechat and single Whooper Swan on one of the islands. Ian had a go at scoping some distant geese to see if there was anything of interest, but they were so far away it was impossible.

Black-tailed Godwits

The view from the Inner Marsh Farm Hide

We spent around half an hour in the hide before heading back to the reception. On the way we discussed trying Parkgate for the high tide which was at 13:30. It wasn't a massive tide, only around 8.4m and usually a tide of 10m is needed to push things off the marsh. But we decided to have a go anyway. As we got to the car it was obvious that the wind had picked up considerably now that we were out from the shelter of the trees and earth bunds in the reserve. But, we headed off to Parkgate anyway.

To say it was a bit breezy would be an understatement. By standing at the side of the car we managed to get enough shelter to keep the tripods steady and we had a decent hour with at least three, maybe four Marsh Harriers, one male and one ring-tailed Hen Harrier and singles of Greenshank and Merlin. Ian thought he'd got a Great White Egret but it was so distant it was difficult to tell.

We stayed until just after the tide had peaked and then moved on. This time to New Brighton to check out the marine lake. As we drove along the promenade waves were crashing over the sea wall and when we got out of the car on the car park at Perch Rock it was obvious why. Whether it was because it was that bit more exposed or because the wind strength had increased I don't know, but it was blowing a hoolie!  There were very few gulls on the lake itself, but as we walked around to the end with the pontoons we were pleased to be able to see a tidy flock of waders were there, roosting in what turned out to be a very sheltered spot.

The hoped for Purple Sandpipers were there, along with a couple of Knot, a few Dunlin, more than a few Turnstones, a single Greenshank and plenty Redshanks. One Redshank had a Cockle or Clam clamped to its toe. It was obviously uncomfortable for the bird as it kept trying to put the foot down and then pulling it up quickly. Neither of us could work out why or how the bird had ended up with a shellfish stuck to its foot.

By this time it was around 14:30 so we called it a day and headed home.

Gull Season Begins

I'm not going to pretend I'm a gull expert. I'm certainly not going to pretend I'm a gull fanatic like some birders. But I am trying to 'get better' and that means 'doing the gull roost' as as they provide such a great opportunity to observe and compare birds of different species and races.

I managed to get to Pennington Flash roost for the first time this afternoon.The window to make the most of the roost is quite small, normally gulls start to gather from around 14:00 but the light goes by 16:00. I don't finish work until 15:00 at the earliest, so my chances to watch the roost are limited to weekends.

Today the light was excellent, no wind and a reasonable number of gulls (eventually). The best place to watch the roost is usually the opposite side of the flash to the nature reserve so that's where I headed. At 14:30 conditions were perfect as you can see below.

I was joined at around 15:00 by another regular and we set about checking through the birds. There were around 7000 Black-headed Gulls and a few hundred each of Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed. Two or three Great Black-backed gulls were also present. What I was really hoping for though was something a bit different. There have been a couple of Mediterranean Gulls recently, an odd Iceland Gull and two or three Yellow-legged Gulls. I had seen what I thought was a 3rd winter YLG just after I had arrived, but at a considerable distance, near the hide on the opposite side. John, the other birder, confirmed that a YLG had indeed been where I'd seen my bird as he'd been in the hide at the time. After about 20mins John picked it up again a bit closer, perched on a buoy. Ten minutes or so later John found another bird, an adult much closer. This bird was incredibly clean and was a great individual to study and compare with the other Herring and LBB Gulls.

I managed a few phoneskoped shots which I think just about show the key features - obvious darker mantle, white head and longer winged than the Herring Gulls. The spot on the Gonys was also very obvious but doesn't really show up in these photos.

Unfortunately nothing else of interest turned up but it has piqued my interest for the rest of the winter, and I expect I'll be back a few times as the year goes on.

Another Spurn visit

So, another visit to Spurn Bird Observatory comes to an end. Its been an enjoyable few days. The weather has been less than brilliant for birds, or more specifically migrants from Europe and farther afield. The westerly/south-westerly winds were just the wrong direction for species like Redwings and Fieldfares, and although there were a few about, there were nowhere near as many as I had  hoped for. A south westerly can be good for visible migration, and although it wasn't too bad on Thursday morning, on the other days it was just too strong. However, it wasn't all doom and gloom.

On our arrival on Tuesday there were still seven good birds hanging around from the previous week - Slavonian Grebe, a Barred Warbler, a Rose-coloured Starling, an Olive-backed Pipit, a Red-backed Shrike, a few Bearded Tits and an Arctic Warbler. We made a point of going for the Bearded Tits and Barred Warbler first as they were the nearest to the Obs. After a slow walk down the canal I heard the Beardies pinging and two birds appeared briefly flying along the reed tops before disappearing into the reedbed. A few minutes later and two birds popped up and flew back north, but they had come from a different spot to where we saw the first pair drop in, so we waited and sure enough five minutes later another two came out and flew past us in the same direction as the first two. Great to see them and a nice Spurn tick for me and a lifer to start Rob's week off. We dipped on the Barred Warbler

We then tried the churchyard for the Arctic Warbler, also without success, so after lunch we decided to go for the Starling.

The Starling was frequenting a garden in a group of bungalows. Not a very 'birdy' location but it was supposedly quite an easy bird to see, and it was. After only a couple of minutes it showed really well for a good ten minutes perching in bushes and on the roof of the adjacent bungalow.

 

Rose-coloured Starling

 

 

Unfortunately it wasn't a black and pink adult, but still a nice bird and another lifer for Rob. From here we went to the Olive-backed Pipit (or OBP) site. We had to walk along Vicars Lane and the site of last years Siberian Accentor, which brought back some brilliant memories, especially as it was almost 12 months to the day since its appearance.

 

Our search for the OBP proved fruitless, as did all subsequent attempts. A pity as it would have been yet another lifer for Rob. Still two lifers in a day isn't bad going.

 

The wind on day two (Wednesday) was a strong 20mph+ South Westerly and most things were just hunkered down. We started the day in the hide at Kilnsea Wetlands where we had great views of good numbers of waders, including a few Little Stints. Sadly we couldn't find the Spotted Redshank or Curlew Sandpiper - both lifers for Rob, but he did get the Slavonian Grebe that was hanging around. We didn't stay long as there was some interesting 'hide etiquette' on show, Some people are just plain rude.

 

From here we went to see the Red-Backed Shrike. It was showing really well, perched on top of a bush along the hedgerow.

 

 

 

Phoneskoped Red-backed Shrike

 

 

Then, it was off to see if we could nail down the Arctic Warbler which we did after a bit of chasing between the churchyard and the Crown and Anchor car park (yet another lifer for Rob). Trying to photograph this little cracker was a challenge with my limited gear - the photo below is about as good as it got. Don't think I'll ever make a wildlife photographer.

 

 

Arctic Warbler (if you can find it)

 

 

Thursday was a day for a bit of 'Vis-Migging' and between 08:00 and 11:00 over 1800 Goldfinches were counted going south, along with a couple of hundred Skylarks, good numbers of Redpolls, plus a  few Siskins, Greenfinches etc etc. Sadly, not much else was around so we spent the rest of the day having another look at the Arctic Warbler and chasing a Pied Flycatcher!

 

 

Vis-Migging at Numpties!

 

 

On the way to the pub on Thursday evening the sunset was stunning. As per usual, I had left my main camera with its wide angle lens in the car so I had to make do with an iPhone picture, which I think does the sunset justice.

 

 

Sunset across the Humber Estuary

 

Although the birding was a little bit 'slow' the 'Observatory Experience' is about so much more than just the birds - although birds are obviously a very important bit! The characters you get to meet are so varied and interesting that there's always someone to talk to who has a story to tell, or who is doing something unusual. This time I had the fortune to meet Bob Pyefinch - a name I recognised but couldn't place until we chatted for a while when I realised he was the co-author of the Atlas of Breeding Birds in Lancashire and North Merseyside, a book that I have used a lot over the years. Another 'Obs' guest was a birder called Ross. It turned out he was the finder of the Eyebrowed Thrush in the North East last autumn, an experience that encouraged him to become a birder. Another birder I've met a few times before but had not really spoken to, turned out to be an expert entomologist and we had a good chat about carabid beetles, and then on the last day I met Tiffany, a nature writer who was doing a bit of research and brainstorming. Sounds like her new book is going to be very interesting.  Really interesting people with great stories. Well worth the fee for staying over.