Thursday was an absolute stunner with the sun shining and the day to myself I headed off to try to get a few photos in the good light. First port of call was the Water Pipit that I had missed out on Sunday. I headed for the spot that the pipit was frequenting and found the bird on the footpath but with the sun behind it. I followed the bird until it ended up in it's favourite place on a few boulders, tucked away in a corner of the beach.
The Water Pipit was quite ferocious in defending this small territory from the Rock Pipits. It would fly into this area every time a Rock Pipit turned up and chase it off but it didn't seem to be bothered about the Pied Wagtail...you can see the fly this bird has it's beady eye on.....
....or the Grey Wagtail that was hanging around.
The tide was just starting to go out so the Golden Plover, lapwing and Curlew were all in the fields.
I was struggling to get any flight shots of these birds as they wheeled around so I headed for the wetland area instead. A few Gadwall at close quarters were worth looking at....
....and the Teal were just stunning in the sunshine...
....and the Lapwing can't be ignored either.
It was certainly nice to see the birds at such close quarters as we don't have the luxury of a hide up on Mull! I headed back down to the shore as the tide dropped and exposed the rocks for the birds to start gathering on. A decent flock of about 20 Sanderling had a Redshank sitting amongst them.
Three Purple Sandpipers were a treat for me as I'd not seen any since a single bird in May.
I moved on to the Briar Dene car park for the Med Gull and bumped into fellow blogger
Brian who was in search of the gull too. The bird was actually on the sea so I had to amuse myself with the local Starlings....
while I waited for someone to entice the gulls into the car park with some scraps. I didn't have to wait too long before it appeared....
I called in to Earsdon cem to see if there were any owls there. A Tawny Owl was sitting in a hole in a tree but it was in the shade so not a good photo opportunity. Next stop was Prestwick to try for the Short-eared Owls. The birds are reluctant to get into hunting mode until the sun is low in the sky so I wasn't too hopeful of getting any photos. Another blogger
Davy Turner arrived just after me so we exchanged pleasantries while we waited. We finally got a view of four birds just after 3pm but only one bird came in close enough for a photo.
The large flock of Fieldfare and the occasional Common Buzzard had kept us going until the owls turned up so it was a successful day all round.
Friday we set off in a real pea souper. It didn't look like the fog would lift through the day but as we drove North it did, thankfully, clear. We'd heard about a Pomerine Skua that was feeding on the beach at Hauxley so that was the first port of call. It's a surprise that we were too late for that but we did have the consolation of 5 Scaup on the sea.
We headed back onto the reserve to see what was about. A moorhen feeding in front of the hide...
...a couple of Little Grebe, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit, four Snipe and about forty Redshank were a good haul. A not too shy Carrion Crow provided a nice view....
...but the Tree Sparrows were difficult to see unless you peered out of the toilet window! These Pheasants were begging to be photographed as we left the reserve.
We cruised past Cresswell to see if anything was on offer and I was delighted to pick up four Grey Partridge from the roadside. Not seen one of those for about 3 years! Next stop was Newbiggin for more Med Gull madness. We turned up in the car park with nothing but a bag of crisps. Before the bag was opened this Rook was ready and waiting...
...and when the bag was opened a few gulls came in for a closer look. One of the many Med Gulls in the area perched up pretty much straight away.
I threw a few crisps onto the ground hoping the gulls would come down but all I got was two Greyhounds who wouldn't go away! I left them to it and headed off to see if I could improve on the Tawny Owl photos. We arrived in Earsdon in heavy fog which is not the best. The bird was present again but the fog was not helping matters.
By Saturday the fog had cleared enough to warrant another visit to the Tawny Owl but I was thwarted again this time by the presence of someone in a luminous coat close to where the bird roosts. We called in yet again later in the day to view the bird - success at last. It was pretty dull conditions but I'd best give you something to look at!
Sunday saw us heading back to Mull. A fairly uneventful trip back except for the foggy conditions around Stirling and stunning scenery as we cleared the fog at Tyndrum.
Two juv birds keeping close company and looking good as the sun catches them. Just look at the huge, sword like bill and the bump on the head and the scaly back marks them out as juvenile birds. Next on the list was one of those moments you treasure. I picked up an Otter in the distance and kept the binoculars trained on the area just waiting for it to surface. It was down for a wee while and it exploded into view, water spraying everywhere and you could see the small puff of steam from the mouth and a bigger spray of water off the whiskers. The sun made the water droplets glisten as the Otter held it's head high for a moment before diving again. The best thing of all was I could hear it too despite the distance! Classic moment. I moved around for a closer look to find it was the mum and cub. I struggled to get a shot of both of them together and then the battery ran out - no complaints from me though!
Today I had half a day to play with. The weather was calm, cold and overcast - the threat of snow was in the air. I drove to the west end of the island and I probably could have used Buzzards as mileposts! Nothing was keen in getting up in the still conditions so the Buzzards were littering the fence posts and telegraph poles. My first proper stop was to check a freshwater loch and I was surprised to see 5 small Canada Geese on the far side. Out with the scope to get a few photos for posterity. I'm no expert on the races of Canada Goose and the photos aren't up to much so Lesser Canada Goose will have to do.
No sooner had I taken the photos and they were off into the distance. I headed off in search of the Greenland WF Geese and I was slightly disappointed to see there was only 28 birds with only one of these a juv. There were three juv birds when they first turned up so I wonder if the others were just out of sight somewhere. I had to get back home for 12 so I headed back along the way just enjoying the views. I stopped off at a couple of places to see the odd GN Diver and Common Seal but nothing too exciting until I was nearly home. I'd pulled over to check a large part of the loch and I could hear the gulls calling and also the GN Divers were calling to each other - there must be something causing the disturbance. I picked a group of six GN Divers that were making the racket just before I saw the WT Eagle dropping out of the sky to land on a small island of rock. Best go for a closer look, eh? As I arrived at the best viewpoint a Raven was telling everyone what was going on.
The light was fading as the snow started to fall but I managed to get a couple of snaps of this wing tagged WT Eagle.
This is a bird from the island that was tagged in 2007. You can see the bill is almost fully yellow and if it turned to face the camera the front of the bird is white spotted down the chest. I had just enough time to get a shot of the first decent snow shower approaching....
...and another shot of the end result about and hour later.
Just as I started this blog the top of Ben More cleared and the sun was dropping so I thought I would leave you with that view - stunning!
Continuing the dash we picked a few Buzzard, Slavonian Grebe, RB Merg, GN Diver all while travelling at speed! We had a brief look over a bridge for Dipper and dipped then another short stop for a few Fallow Deer. We were running late so I couldn't wait for the deer to get it's head up but the Red Deer in the background was keen to show how it should be done!
We finally met up with the group of 14 bird club members and set about some non serious birding. There is always plenty of catching up to do in the Winter but there are some sharp eyes in the group too. Nothing startling to start with as the regular Redshank, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Goldeneye, GN Diver and Slav Grebe were all noted along with the absence of any WT Eagle and Iceland Gull! We located Song and Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Greylag Goose but no sign of Fieldfare or Redwing - you can probably tell what we were starting to think! Off to the bridge for the Dipper and at last we connect with a target bird.
A coffee stop next to give us time to view the loch and scan the ridges. Three GN Divers, 1 RT Diver, 5 Slavonian Grebe and 2 Golden Eagles were winkled out in our short break. Another stop halfway down the loch got us an even closer view of a juv GN Diver with what looked like a Rock Goby in it's beak. I missed that bit with the camera but I did get a snap of the bird.
Another two Golden Eagle cruising the ridge behind us added to the interest before we moved along to the lunch spot. We picked up our first Buzzards along the way as we disturbed them from their perches on the rocks at the side of the road. We had a sheltered spot for lunch and with the sun shining on us it was very pleasant. We had about 140 Barnacle Geese grazing the grass on an island in front of us and 3 RT Divers and 5 Black Guillemot on the sea in between. A lone male Eider duck was a nice find for the day too. A female Stonechat was doing it's best to mind it's own business while a territorial Robin tried to chase it off.
An Oystercatcher provided a photo opportunity as it stood on the rocks just behind the warring chats.
A couple of Hooded Crow were arguing the toss behind us before one of them decided to come down and investigate what we were doing. The Hoodie floated above us giving a superb aerial display before settling in front of us and proceeded to pretend we weren't there.
We headed through the glen to Loch Scridain where we picked up a distant Black-throated Diver. A closer look was required so we travelled on to get cracking views of the bird as it was fishing. Two Crossbills called as we were leaving the diver but they were quickly out of sight. A lone Otter on the seaweed was a welcome find as we neared the end of the day. More Ringed Plover, a single Greenshank, Lapwing and Dunlin, two Little Grebe, 4 Turnstone were picked up along the way. Another two Golden Eagle and two more Otter completed a difficult day.