Return of The Redpolls - turn of the year, 2017/18

For a number of years now, we've been fortunate enough to have Lesser Redpolls visiting our garden each winter. Their numbers vary considerably, with small flocks of 8 birds being recorded several times.

I was concerned that this winter we might not be so lucky due to the noisy building work going on adjacent to our garden. I was, therefore, delighted when the first of these birds of this winter appeared on December 27th. The situation was probably helped by building work being on hold for the Christmas period from 22nd December to 3rd January.

From 30th December we were getting a pair of these delightful small birds visiting us on a daily basis, and they are still with us as I write this. I have not yet managed to get any shots that I'm fully satisfied with, and the female is proving to be less obliging than the male. Here, however, are a few that I've managed to grab so far.

Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret) (female + male) - our garden on 30th December, 2017

Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret) (male) - our garden on 30th December, 2017

Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret) (female) - our garden on 31st December, 2017

Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret) (male) - our garden on 31st December, 2017

Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret) (female) - our garden on 4th January, 2018

Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret) (male) - our garden on 5th January, 2018

I'm now hoping to get some better images, and also hoping that the number visiting us increases. The weather, however, has not been playing ball of late.

2018, Week 01 - 1st to 7th January

GARDEN RECORDS

For a number of years now, I've been keeping a daily record of the birds that set foot in our garden. In the past, I've shown a table in the right-hand column of this blog, showing the species that arrive in our garden for a particular year, the date they first arrived, and the maximum number seen at any one time. This fell into disuse last year so this year I intend to append, on a regular basis, a copy of the table I produce each week that summarises the garden sightings. Whether or not I keep this up remains to be seen! Week 01 of 2018, has been quite a good one for us from the point of view of variety of species arriving.

We do have some consternation at having seen a Hedgehog on two consecutive nights - it should be tucked away for the winter. I am continuing to monitor that situation, with two trail cameras set up for night operation.

Thank you for dropping by. I have done little photography of late, with my main lens being away at Sigma for repair. My substitute lens is more of a handicap than I remembered! I have, therefore, no idea at all as to what the subject of my next post will be!

Sprawk !!! - on 29th February, 2016

Since December, a male Sparrowhawk has been making a real nuisance of himself in our garden, visiting several times a day on many occasions. Fortunately he's not been a very adept hunter, although there have been a few casualties.

More recently I'd been convinced that a female of the species had been paying the occasional visit. A few times I'd see the birds in the garden suddenly vanish as a flash of brown passed by. 

On 29th February, I was sitting at my desk when I caught a flurry of activity in the corner of my eye. Yes, it was the female Sprawk, and she'd brought down a Collared Dove about 10 metres from where I was sitting! My first reaction was to try and get some photos through the glass of my window. Sadly, there were obstructions to the right of my view which prevented me from getting a decently composed shot. The bird was removing feathers from its prey with great rapidity.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (female) - our garden

It's always a dilemma when such things happen - do I take the photos whilst I have the opportunity, or do I protect our garden birds by trying to frighten the predator? The answer is usually a compromise, and it was on this occasion. Having taken a few shots, I banged on the window - and it ignored me! 

I made a quick dash through the kitchen to our back door (taking my camera with me, of course!) and started to confront the Sprawk. She was in a position where I couldn't get any sensible photos, and she ignored my initial approach. She stayed her ground for a while and then retreated by about 3 metres into the corner of our garden in front of one of our hedgehog houses, taking the hapless Collared Dove with her.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (female) - our garden

She stayed a while as I got closer, and then decided I was too much of a threat, and took flight, leaving the Collared Dove behind. Convinced that the Dove was stone-dead, I returned to my study. I can see from the camera data that this whole episode took approximately 45 seconds.

I'd been sitting at my desk for a few minutes when, to my amazement, I noticed that the Collared Dove was now upright, and moving its head a little. I hurried out to see if it could be saved, and as I approached it flew up into the Sambucus in our garden.

Twenty three minutes after the Sprawk had flown off, I was back in my study again and noticed its return. It made straight for the place where it had first struck the Collared Dove, not seeing that it was now in the Sambucus, maybe 6 metres away. I took a few photos but, again, I've had to crop them heavily because of the obstructions on the right hand side of the images.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (female) - our garden

The Sprawk seemed most confused by the lack of Collared Dove - it must have thought that it had done enough to mortally wound it. It was then as if it had suddenly remembered taking it to the corner of the garden, as it trotted off there. Here she is, stepping towards the corner.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (female) - our garden

She ended up searching round the Hedgehog nesting box, and then standing on top of it. Fearing for the continued safety of the Dove I again went to scare off the Sprawk, making sure I took a photo beforehand!

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) (female) - our garden

Once again, the Sprawk left empty-handed, leaving the Dove in the Sambucus. 

It was maybe an hour later, with me wondering if the Dove was going to fly off or cock its clogs and fall out of the tree, when the Sprawk returned once more. She grabbed the Dove and flew down behind our back fence. I got the ladder out so I could see over the fence, but could see no trace of it so, presumably, it had flown off at low level with the Dove.

It wasn't long before normality returned to the garden, and the regular birds returned, possibly safe in the knowledge that the local killer was well sated!

Here's one from that afternoon that the Sprawk missed. In line with recent comments received, I'm just calling this 'Redpoll' and not showing the old sub-species scientific name

Redpoll (Carduelis flammea) (female) - our garden

Both male and female Sparrowhawks have visited since then, but I don't think that either of them have caught anything in our garden.

Thank you for dropping by. At this point in time I have no idea what and when my next post will be as I seem to have little up my sleeve except, perhaps, some of my garden birds so far this year.

Snow! - on 17th January, 2016

In 2014 we had our record year for the number of bird species in our garden with 38 species putting a foot down (fly-overs don't count!). We hit exactly the same figure in 2015, although the mix was slightly different. Fieldfare, Redwing and Whitethroat from 2014 were replaced by Grey Heron, Mistle Thrush and Pied Wagtail in 2015. I was sad to have missed out on Fieldfare and Redwing for the whole year, but the Heron was a bit of a surprise as it must be four or five years since we've had a pond in the garden!

2016  has got off to a reasonable start, although the very mild winter has meant fewer birds visiting us in desperation  - an altogether 'good thing' really! 

You can find my 2015 garden list, and my 2016 list to-date, in the right hand column of this blog.

I originally intended to do a post on my garden birds in winter. However, on 17th January we had a fall of snow, although not nearly as much as they had just 10 km away! This change in weather brought plenty of birds to our garden, so this post will totally focus on that day, although not all species seen were photographed. It was a dull day, so photography was not good, although it would have been far worse without the new camera! Some of the images, below, are shown 'just for the record'. With the exception of the last image, they were all taken through the glass of my study window, and in the morning.

It seems that not too many people in this area get Redpoll to their garden feeders. We've been having them every winter for some years now, and if we get a day we don't see one, it's usually because we haven't been looking!

Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis flammea ssp. cabaret) (male) - our garden on 17th January

Chaffinch is a regular all-year-round visitor, although numbers build up in the winter. Sometimes they bring a Brambling or two in with them, but it hasn't happened so far this winter.

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) (male) - our garden on 17th January

At one time, many years ago, Greenfinch used to be the most common bird in our garden - then they all but disappeared. Now, I'm delighted to say, their numbers are building up again.

Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) (male) - our garden on 17th January

Bullfinch is an occasional visitor, although we've been getting more sightings than usual over the past six months.

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) (male) - our garden on 17th January

The real star sighting of the day was a Grey Wagtail that stayed around all morning. We used to get Grey Wagtail when we had a pond. For some reason, we've started seeing them again occasionally. It makes me wonder if there's some genetic imprint there that brings back subsequent generations?

Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) (male) - our garden on 17th January

Long-tailed Tit are an occasional visitor, and usually come in a small group. On this morning we had nine of them. Here's one:

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) - our garden on 17th January

We see a Wren on most days in the winter, but relatively rarely in the summer. To me they're delightful little birds and always bring a smile to my face.

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) - our garden on 17th January

The ever-present Goldfinches add a splash of colour to the garden. They are particularly feisty, and will aggressively discourage other considerably larger birds that try and compete with them for the sunflower hearts.

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) - our garden on 17th January

As we'd been doing quite well for birds, I took my camera with me when we went into the conservatory for lunch. I'm glad that I did so as we had a rare visit from a Reed Bunting, at 13h10. It was, however, at a distance.

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) (male) - our garden on 17th January

We ended up with 21 species for the day (our best daily total so far this year) as follows (alphabetical list with maximum numbers in brackets):-

Blackbird (6); Bullfinch (2); Bunting, Reed (1); Chaffinch (9); Dove, Collared (11); Dunnock (1); Goldfinch (9); Greenfinch (1); Magpie (1); Redpoll, Lesser (3); Robin (1); Sparrow, House (5); Starling (5); Tit, Blue (1); Tit, Coal (1); Tit, Great (1); Tit, Long-tailed (9); Treecreeper (1); Wagtail, Grey (1); Woodpigeon (5); Wren (1). 

Finally, if you've not seen this video, please watch it. My thanks to Linda Yarrow for bringing it to my attention:

Thank you for dropping by. I suspect that my next post will feature owls again - but who knows!!

A Canadian Visitation - Pt.3 - 1st to 3rd August, 2015

This is the third part of my account of our adventures when Canadian friends David and Miriam came to stay. The first two parts of this account can be found here, and here.

Saturday, 1st August

We woke to a promising looking day with some sun around so, having had a good breakfast and purchased sandwiches for a picnic lunch, we set off northwards.

Our first stop was at Dulsie Bridge, where we took a walk beside the River Findhorn in the hope of finding Dipper - a bird that was proving to be uncharacteristically elusive for these parts! It was a pleasant interlude, but no Dipper was seen.

We departed Dulsie and headed west towards Drynachan. A comfort stop along the road resulted in me getting a quickly grabbed record shot of a Common Hawker dragonfly. It flew whilst I was adjusting my camera settings and then settled on my chest! I didn't get another chance as it then disappeared.

Common Hawker (Aeshna juncea) (immature male) - near Dulsie

Further down the road we found a rather tatty fritillary butterfly, subsequently identified as a Dark Green Fritillary, although the underside didn't show any signs of a green colouration!

Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja) - near Dulsie

We stopped for a wander down to the river at Drynachan - no Dipper, but several Song and Mistle Thrush were there.

Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) - Drynachan

Song Thrush (Turdus philomelus) - Drynachan

After this, we headed northward up over the moors, on to Cawdor, and then to the Moray coast at Findhorn. It was time for our picnic so we sat in the car behind the sand dunes, where were were entertained by a Hooded Crow feeding its young, and a gull that was trying to get in on the action.  It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, when processing my photos, that I realised that we'd been looking at a Yellow-legged Gull - a rarity this far north! - UPDATE: The identity of this gull has been called into question. Whilst one of Canada's leading gull experts has confirmed this as a YLG on the basis of colouration and the two small 'mirrors' on the primaries (a LBBG has just one on primary 10), Scottish authorities are suggesting it is a Lesser Black-backed Gull. Our money's currently still on YLG!

Hooded Crow (Corvus corone cornix) - Findhorn

Yellow-legged Gull (Larus cachinnans) - Findhorn

After lunch, we had a walk over the dunes and round the spit, seeing a few seals in the water, and this same gull (same dirty mark on neck) on the shoreline. After refreshments in the chandlery café we set off for Burghead.

At Burghead, we visited the harbour area first. Here, David was happy to pick up Rock Pipit, and we had the unexpected sight of a Pink-footed Goose in the harbour!

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) - Burghead harbour

Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) - Burghead harbour

A visit to the other side of the headland didn't yield anything of moment, and so we set off for the nearby coastal village of Hopeman. It was starting to rain, and so we spent a while in the harbourside Footprints Gallery and Craft Shop. Whilst we were in there, the rain became torrential for a while.

When the rain abated, we went over to the north side of the harbour and, while we were scanning the area, a small group of Turnstone arrived on the rocks below the wall. These were exhibiting a wide range of plumage variations. It was the one with the largely white head (full summer plumage) that I found most attractive.

Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) - Hopeman

After Hopeman, we visited the Lossie estuary at Lossiemouth, but the tide was in, and nothing of any great interest was seen. 

We returned to Grantown via Lochindorb where we saw a couple of Ospreys flying high as we arrived, but not much else. It was then back to the Grant Arms for dinner, followed by an early night.

Sunday, 2nd August

David and Miriam had booked another day out with John Poyner, and I was looking forward to taking a day of rest - although it didn't work out like that!

I started with a visit to my favourite location near Nethybridge, in the hope of finding Short-eared Owls. I didn't, but although nothing desperately exciting was seen, if I'd have been at home, what I did see would have been exciting enough!

Whilst sitting in my car, Meadow Pipits were landing on the wires near me. I include the second image for its comic value!

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) - near Nethybridge

Whilst sitting there, I noticed a yellow bird on a distant fence line beside the conifer woodland, but I couldn't get a good enough view to identify it. However, I did manage to identify the Redstarts that were also on the same fence line.

Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) (male) - near Nethybridge

I confess, here, to breaking my usual rule which is to not get out of the car here. However, as there was not anything sensitive visible at the time, I took a wander along the road to try and get closer views of the Redstarts. I only halved the distance between the car and the woodland but it did allow me better views of a Redstart and a Spotted Flycatcher. 

Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) (juvenile) - near Nethybridge

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) - near Nethybridge

For some reason I decided to leave the area, but now wish I hadn't as, on reflection, I'd probably have had a more relaxing and productive time if I had. As I left, I passed an area of 'clear-fell' where there were a number of piles of  severed branches. We'd previously commented that these should have been real bird magnets, but they hadn't been - that is, until this day! Sadly there was nowhere I could park to observe the birds and I did not want to upset the estate staff by obstructing the road so I had to make a slow pass. This resulted in a few 'don't knows' - possibly the most in one session since my early birding days! Here's my best attempt at a few!

I think that this is probably a juvenile Redstart.

probable Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) (juvenile) - near Nethybridge

This next one is possibly a Wheatear - but maybe not!

possible Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) - near Nethybridge

 I've no ideas at all on this next one - unless it's another young Redstart!

? - near Nethybridge

If you've got any ideas on the above, please let me know! The one on the left in the next image I think is a Willow Warbler, but the one on the right I'm sure of, however!

probable Willow Warbler (Philoscopus trochilus) + Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) - near Nethybridge

One of the reasons for my decision to depart was to try and find more dragonflies and butterflies on the road between Dulsie and Drynachan. I soon gave up on this, however, due to the huge numbers of flies (no, not midges) that made a total nuisance of themselves. Instead, I went up onto the moors above Drynachan. Here, at a small roadside boggy pond I saw what I believed afterwards was the rare Azure Hawker dragonfly. The habitat (open moorland at an altitude of around 300 metres) and behaviour (staying close to the ground, flying between reeds, landing on the ground as soon as the sun went in) fitted, but I've started to doubt my ID of this and wonder if it was just a Common Hawker. I'd have persevered with trying for photos, but it coupled up with another dragonfly and sped away across the moorland into the far distance. I'm left with a couple of images that probably don't even pass as record shots. The first is a screen grab of the location, taken from Google Earth

location of possible Azure Hawker sighting

possible Azure Hawker (Aeshna caerulea) (male) - near Drynachan

After this brief session I headed back towards Grantown, making a few diversions en-route. At one location I went to check for Red-throated Diver at Black Loch, above Dava, but drew a blank. However, as I returned to my car in the now dull day a small flock of Redpoll flew into a nearby tree.

Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret) - by Black Loch

A further diversion on the way back yielded nothing but a Red Squirrel.

Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) - near Grantown on Spey

I returned to the hotel, feeling exceedingly tired and, as we'd arranged an evening out, went to my room for a nap before dinner.

After dinner we were to meet up with a gentleman who is something of an unsung hero as far as wildlife is concerned. Allan Bantick has recently been awarded an OBE for his services to wildlife. His current projects include Badgers, Beavers, Goldeneye, and Red Squirrel. He's led a fascinating life, and has, in relatively recent years, enjoyed the company of Royalty, wildlife celebrities, and even the Pope! Miriam was feeling unwell that evening and retired to her room just before the end of dinner, so it was just David and I who went off to meet Allan in order to see Badgers.

Having met up as arranged at the Boat Hotel, Allan drove us to a gateway where we climbed over a five-bar gate to take the walk that led to his Badger hide. Alan was a delightful and fascinating host, and his set-up is impressive, to say the least. We learnt a lot about Badgers, and only had to wait a few minutes before the first Badger emerged. By the end of an hour, we'd seen at least four Badgers (simultaneously) but probably six. Sadly, my camera does not perform well in low light, so these are the best that I could manage.

Badger (Meles meles) - near Boat of Garten

David and I agreed that this had been one of the most memorable wildlife experiences in our lives, and I take this opportunity to thank Allan for his generosity in showing us these wonderful creatures. If you're in the Speyside area and want to see Badgers, do contact Allan - details on the Cairngorm Wildlife website.

It was a very happy couple of guys that returned to Grantown on Spey that night - somewhat earlier than we'd allowed for!

Monday, 3rd August

This was our last day in Scotland as we would be returning to England the following day. I think we were all a little weary by now as we'd been virtually wall-to-wall birding for the past eleven days, and Miriam was still under the weather, so we'd agreed to be a little later for breakfast. We were on our way again at around 09h00 with our first stop being at Dulnain Bridge. A significant part of this day would be spent searching for the elusive Dippers, but we dipped on this species once more here.

The back road to Carrbridge didn't produce any excitement, and Carrbridge itself was also a Dipper-free zone when we arrived, although I felt obliged to take a shot of the scenic bridge here, before we drove over it - only kidding!

Carrbridge - without Dippers

From here we continued to Avielochan, to the north of Aviemore. As we passed down the road to the hide, a Slavonian Grebe was just off shore, and the light wasn't too bad for photography.

Slavonian Grebe (Podiceps auritus) - Avielochan

The weather had started off quite warm and, I'm delighted to say, continued that way. I'm usually lucky with weather when I go on holiday, but up until now this trip had been cold and windy and a little wet at times - a pity it waited until the last day to buck up! At the hide we relaxed and watched the numerous birds, but little exciting was seen until an Osprey appeared (unringed), being harassed by a gull. This bird clearly demonstrated how such birds of prey moult single matched pairs of feathers at a time.

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) - Avielochan

Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) - Avielochan

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) - Avielochan

A stop at Feshiebridge produced a brief and distant sighting of a Dipper, but it headed off before David and Miriam could reach my position. Then the tubers appeared, having great fun, but creating all sorts of mayhem as far as the birds were concerned.

We then headed up Glenfeshie to see what we could find. The answer was virtually nothing, so we stopped off at Uath Lochans for a lunch break in the car park before taking a walk. I'd intended that we take a walk round one of the trails, but there was flooding, with much of the boardwalk area under a significant amount of water.

We'd not gone far before I spotted a large beetle on the trail. Not wanting it to get squished, I picked it up, but accidentally dropped it again. I just couldn't believe what I saw when it landed on its back! Sadly we were in shade and I didn't manage to get a good image.

Dung Beetle (Geotrupes sp.) - Uath Lochans

Further on, we came out of the trees, and by a very small pond I tried to photograph a Large Red Damselfly. Unfortunately it refused to move to a more photogenic location, and I did not want to spend too much time at the task in deference to David and Miriam.

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male) - Uath Lochans

Along the path I found a fly which had landed on a sheet of tinfoil with such force that it had dented it!

Common Pondskater (Gerris lacustris) - Uath Lochans

 OK, so I was kidding again!

Soon after this we turned back, as the bridge over a stream was under water!

We were foiled from having coffee and cake at The Potting Shed at Inshriach Nurseries as it was closed on a Monday - they're missing a trick, being closed on a Bank Holiday Monday. We tried for Dipper at Tromie Bridge, and again at Feshiebridge, but the tubers were still at it so, at David's request, we returned to Avielochan.

Nothing new was seen, but I did take a photo of a distant Slavonian Grebe and a Little Grebe with a large (for a small grebe!) fish.

Slavonian Grebe (Podiceps auritus) (adult + juvenile)- Avielochan

Greylag Goose (Anser anser) - Avielochan

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) - Avielochan

Not being used to warm weather, we seemed to tire quickly that day, and were back at the Grant Arms quite early. I went for another much-needed nap!

It was a very enjoyable last dinner that night, and David and I rounded it off with a coffee in the bar afterwards. The following morning we would be leaving directly after breakfast.

The final part of our friends' visit will feature in my next post. Until then, thank you for dropping by.