Windy days, songs and courting Goosander!

The last few days have seen some spectacular waves along the beach walk from The Harbour to The Golf Club. It has washed up a load of debris washed onto the paths and road. The path by the tea rooms is nearly impassable! Rough weather like this on the one hand makes it very difficult to identify the birds as they bob up and down on the rough sea, or in the blowing trees, as well as providing the inherent difficulties in keeping the binoculars steady! But on the other hand, it often blows in interesting birds.

Over the past few days I have been about town, along the beach and down the A96, (where the flocks of Pinkfoot (and some Greylag) have been vast). On the rocks by the Golf Club, a flock of Turnstones swooped in and I was pleased to see a group of five Purple Sandpipers among them. In the distance a lone Bar Tailed Godwit on the sand and a number of Curlews beyond it and two Shelducks on the rocks.

In town today, walking through the park around The Museum, I heard all the resident song birds singing their hearts out; they ranged from Wren, Robin, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin and one Goldfinch! I actually didn’t see any of them! The wind and increasing Spring growth results in the need to listen that bit harder. Some of them are migrants from further afield, but I can’t tell the difference between a resident and a migrant Robin I’m afraid!

Having said this, it won’t be long until these birds are joined by the obvious migrants that fill the air with sounds of summer: the Chiff-Chaff’s easily distinguishable ‘chiff-chaff-chiff-chiff-chaff’. (I wish all birds sang their name like this!) The Willow Warbler should follow with it’s cascading watery song. This is a really exciting sound and makes you feel really summery. They seem to go quiet by the end of May – which is good really because it can be a bit annoying! Listen also for the Blackcap – or is it the Garden Warbler. Another one I always get confused with is the Whitethroat – it takes a few sighting of it singing before I can confidently claim the Whitethroat without having to strain my binoculars through the blossom of the tree to see it More on bird song when the visitors arrive.

Once through the park I headed for the pool and along the wall to the golf club. Very, very windy – head on! The Goosanders were active; I’m wondering if all four are going to remain this year. There was obvious courting activity as the males competed with each other for the attention of the two females; ‘standing’ high in the water, stretching their necks skywards, showing their colours well. Later on in the walk all four were up river by the foot bridge. It was very hard to make anything out on the waves, so I headed back and over to the harbour.

The debris strewn path was proving difficult, but I made it. I had a quick chat with a couple of men enjoying the bracing breeze and discussing the Goosander. The chap from Nairn agreed with me that we normally have one that remains all year, but maybe this year… The other chap was a visitor from the central belt who was forced to stay in the region one more day as the rail track south was blocked. He was pleased as it gave him to opportunity to experience the wonderfull views from the harbour wall. As we talked, about 40 Redshanks swarmed about us and settled on the opposite wall. I suppose these are the same birds that rest up on the central harbour wall. As usual the Turnstones were not far away.

On the way home I met up with Kate and we walked up river to the footbridge and we saw our first Grey Wagtails of spring. Three in total – I guess another one wasn’t far away. These are beautiful birds – and their flight call is really distinctive which always make them easy to spot. The yellow and grey really make this striking bird; always found bobbing up and down on the rocks close to, or in the river. Welcome back.

Séamus

Edinburgh and the Garden

We’ve been away from the area over the past few days and so have little to report locally. Having said that, we did notice that hundreds of Geese are still using the fields along the A96 toward Inverness. Unfortunately they’ve chosen a place where it is too dangerous to slow down or stop, so I can only hazard a guess that they are the Pinkfoot we spotted a few weeks ago.

We had spent a few days at the rugby in Edinburgh over the weekend. (How did Scotland fail to beat them?!). On the Monday, I dropped Kate off at an event in Cramond so I took the opportunity to do some birdwatching down at Cramond Island. What a great spot this is; in all the years that I’ve visited Edinburgh I have never found this place! It’s quite popular with the locals, but still quiet enough to observe the various waders. I was counting my way through the hundreds of Redshanks (I gave up counting!) when I spotted a solitary Greenshank. It remained nearly motionless for at least 15 minutes, ignoring all the other activity going on around it.

Other species included 105 Curlews, thousands of Dunlin; or were they Knot? As ever, very hard to distinguish between them at this time of year, particularly when the light is difficult. None of them had the beginnings of the summer plumage (a distinctive dark underbelly), which would be the give away, but they were smaller than Knots, so I settled on Dunlin. There were also nine Shelduck and two Teal, but I suspect there were many more around the corner as they usually come in great numbers.

Heading back north we noticed the numbers of Buzzards increasing, a sure sign we were approaching home. Talking of home, five Lapwings flew over the house yesterday. We have noticed a real decline in the numbers of Lapwing. Not many years ago you were likely to see great flying displays of these birds in flocks of hundreds flashing black and white as they dived down to the fields and up again. Fantastic birds to watch; but where have they all gone?

Also at home we’ve been lucky enough to have two regular visitors in the garden that we have christened ‘the odd couple’. One is a full plumage Hooded Crow and the other a Carrion Crow. I suspect the latter is a cross, but there are no signs of the grey plumage. They visit together often during the day, with the Carrion dominating the partnership, always getting first stab at the food, and when it leaves, the Hooded follows. A great couple to observe as they go about their daily chores. Less welcome visitors are two Wood Pigeons that have just discovered our feeding station. These birds can dominate the garden. When we lived down south they were everywhere, and so I am not enamoured by their presence at all, which sounds a bit hypocritical I suppose, but hey ho!

Séamus