Treecreeper along the River Nairn

A lovely walk today in the sunshine along the River Nairn path with Kate, Mike and Susie.  It's always exciting when a treecreeper flies past and lands on a tree right next to you - but when it poses in the sunshine for a photo!  Another good day on the River Nairn path.

Goosander on the River Nairn

These beauties are showing really well this year.  These were on the banks of the River Nairn this afternoon.

Brent Geese at the Links Cricket Pitch

Up to 80 Pale Bellied Brent Geese winter in Nairn every year, travelling from their breeding grounds in the Norwegian Artic Archipelago, Svalbard.

For some reason this year they've chosen to feed on the cricket pitch and the football pitch at The Links.  Their usual feeding area is on the eel grasses on the shoreline around the golf course and along to the pool.  A friend has suggested that these may have been covered by the moving sands, and so the geese have been forced onto the pitches to feed on the grass.

 
Hopefully they will not be put off returning to Nairn, and we see them back on the beach next year, where they have been a regular source of interest for bird watchers in the area.

Little Grebe

This little beauty is still showing well on the river just around the Merryton (Sewage) Bridge. It's been around for a good six weeks (or more) now. It's the one that keeps diving just as you're trying to focus on it, and then pops back up miles away!

Christmas Cards from Nairn

A selection of Greetings Cards suitable for Christmas, or any occasion, with photos of waxwings from the recent influx to our gardens, or Robins by the River Nairn. They all come with an optional greeting on the front page: 'Happy Christmas from Nairn'. The back page gives details of the bird and where the photograph was taken. The inside of the card has been left blank for your own message. They can be purchased via my Facebook page www.facebook.com/thenairnbirder/ (just leave a comment against the selected card or message me via Messenger) or via a special website at www.seamusmcardle.co.uk or via a message left on this blog.  The cost is £2.50 each, or five for £10, plus p&p.

These cards and many more are available from The Woolshop on the Brae and Crafty Wee Birdie, the craft shop on the Brae, as well as a small selection at Strachan's. Here are a few examples.

Yellowhammers

A quick pop to the golf course and then my back garden to get a few pics of the very active Sand Martins and a couple of Yellow hammers and a Song Thrush in full song.

I was so busy trying to get a focused shot of the Yellowhammer that I didn't realise the other one was also in frame!

And these Sand Martins just don't stop catching and feeding.

This thrush has been waking us up in the early hours of every morning!

Lochindorb

We had a lovely day at our favourite place in the country at the weekend (although it is getting a bit busy!)

Here are a few birds we saw on the day.

Willow Warbler

 We really struggled with this one!  Our instinct was that it was a Willow Warbler - but it is a very pale version.  If it had sung it would have been confirmed - but it stayed quite.  But, once we checked the photos on the computer we confirmed it as a Willow Warbler.  In general they are still singing, but not in so many numbers now.  In my experience these will soon go quite; around the end of June.

Common Sandpiper

Every summer the Common Sandpiper visits Lochindorb.  It's presence is signaled by a very familiar, high pitched call.  Always check the shoreline for one, or at most two (paired) birds.  Their flight is low over the water with very quick wing beats.

Common Sandpiper

Oyster Catcher

Strath Conon

We left sunny Nairn and popped over to Strath Conon for a day out in the rain on Sunday!  But it was worth it as we were visited by a pair of Stonechats.

Stonechats a summer visitors to the Highlands to breed each year.  They always perch high up on gorse or any thing that stands out - so they are quite easy to spot.  We spotted this pair as I was driving through Stath Conon, so I parked and set up my tri-pod, with camera focused on what I hoped would be a good perch - and sat there hoping they would choose it to sit on! Here's the results.

Note the dark head and white collar - and the rain!

This is the female

Brent Geese are still here!

I was wrong! In a previous blog I'd commented on not seeing the Brents for some time and assumed they had headed off. Well today, 23 of them were feeding on beach west of the golf club. It was good to see them!

Further east toward the harbour wall, 14 Widgeon resting among about one hundred of Black Headed Gulls and Herrings and Commons. There was a real mêlée further out at sea with undreds of gulls sitting or diving into a very small section fo the water, no doubt feeding on a bountiful quarry. There were smaller sea birds too, but my telescope is not powerful enough to identify, and the sea was very rough which makes it even tougher. Our regulars are always about though – the Eiders, Turnstones and Oyster Catchers.

Talking of a mêlée out at sea. A few days ago Charlie reported a similar sight off Burghead – and ‘the largest number of dolphins he had seen in the area’. So it’s worth keeping your eye out for both dolphins and Minke Whales.

Further afield. Yesterday we went up toward the foot hills of Ben Wyvvis around Loch Ussie. Lots of activity here with trees full of Fieldfare patrolling their area in groups. Flying from tree to tree and then onto the field to feed. Lots of smaller passerines, mainly finches and Tits. A Greater Spotted Woodpecker bounded across the open field to the safety of the nearby trees.

I will be talking more about this area over the ext few months as we plan to visit there regularly.

Séamus

Spring is springing!

We had a lovely walk along a very calm sea front, with binoculars in hand, but no telescope, enjoying the warm sun on our backs and giving us hope that spring in around the corner. The sun attracted people from all over the area to walk the beach with their families and their dogs (yes - more dogs! We actually observed someone clear up after their mutt, so well done them). But, where were the birds?

The sand bar to the west of the harbour wall was full of gulls – all three of the more numerous ones (Black Headed, Herring and Common); but on closer inspection we spotted 23 Widgeon foraging among them. Of course we had our friendly Oyster Catchers with their distinct call but even they were small in numbers.

We did see the local Turnstones feeding on the mud flats in the harbour – 19 of them in total. And a couple of Heron struggled in to get some height, possibly full after an ice free lunch at last!

On the way home and up The River Nairn we saw a number of Carrion Crows and a solitary Goosander bathing as a local fed the squabbling Mallards, who were soon swamped by the Herring Gulls swooping to the food ahead of them. One other point of note; 73 Wood Pidgeon fed in a field further down river, just south of the town

In the past week the skies have been full of skeins of geese – mostly Pink Foot, but the Brent seem to have left the beach for another year.

More later. Seamus.