Withsails and I

The patch year list continues to develop as January progresses, with additions of little auk yesterday and meadow pipit today, bringing the months total up to 64. This is the highest score I've ever achieved in January, although thats a somewhat misleading statement as In he last 5 years I've never spent so much of this month at home. All that will soon change though as I'll be off to the G.O. Sars on Tuesday, meaning that Monday will be my last chance of the month to add some dross like kittiwake or skylark...

Still, it's been a good month - or at least it has ended will, with 2 otter sightings this week, along with little auk, med gull and iceland gull. It sounds like the icer ended up in Seaton Park as Phil Cruttenden had one there yesterday, a dark 1st winter - which is exactly how I'd describe mine (well, the dark bit anyway - I didn't see it well enough to try and age it)

Aside  from the meadow pipit, todays main 'interest' came in the form of an eider sporting a rather prominent pair of sails. It was displaying to a couple of females with 8 other adult drakes in the harbour, and as a result of being pretty distracted, showed really well. Aside from the sails, it showed pretty bog standard bill colour and frontal process structure that was well within variation for common eider. It's legs were a little on the yellow side - but then I didn't really note the leg colour of any of the other drakes.

two gulls with white wings

I had two white winged gulls today. One of which got the pulse really racing as I was visiting the Scotia to set up the bird boxes. It flew past me and all I got on it was a gleaming white pair of wings. When I followed it round the corner I was disappointed to be confronted by this monstrosity - an all white herring gull...

Apologies for the quality of the video - I only had my phone with me.



Later in the day though this little beaut flew past me and the monstrosity was forgiven. I've now seen lesser black-back, mediterranean and Iceland gulls on patch before I've seen kittiwake...

Med gull

I spend a lot of time (a lot more than I should, at least) looking out of the window at work. It paid off twice today - once in the morning when a 1st w Mediterranean gull flew past and headed up the river, and again in the afternoon when the otter returned. The fact that I can get out of my seat and be confronted by something like this (or a dolphin, or any number of decent birds such as slavonian grebe, black-throated diver, glaucous gull, waxwing, peregrine, green sandpiper etc) makes my job a lot more tolerable! Things looked a lot more atmospheric today as well, with all the big discs of ice floating down the dee into the harbour.

flurry of patch ticks

Having bemoaned the lack of action with regards to the patch year list in my last post, its only natural that I've had a flurry of new birds to add to the list. Nothing earth shattering in any sense, but the 6 additions include peregrine, red-breasted merganser, teal, a very early lesser black-backed gull and a collared dove, which it wouldn't be inconceivable to go a whole year without seeing. And mallard. All of that puts me on 58 for the month, which is my second highest Jan score (falling behind last years total of 61 - still a bit of time to go and plenty of 'dross' to catch up with though). Of course none of this is of any significance compared to what happened on the morning of the 15, when I spent an extremely pleasant 15 minutes watching an otter from the office window!

Excuse the quality - it was a long long way in the dark. Through a window.

In other news, it was good to see that all three of my greenish warblers from August 2013 were accepted by SBRC - including the non-phototgraphed bird that I accidentally tape-lured! Scroll down to batch 191 if you're reading this in the future.

SOC recent decisions 

all quiet on patch

It's all gone downhill a little since the harlequin - although that might have something to do with the fact that it coincided with me going back to work. I've been out every lunchtime but it's been particularly quiet - no additions to the patch year list and nothing of not, although a very briefly seen weasel the other day was nice, and the snow buntings that Mark Hammonds had in the golf club car park would have been nice as well!

Even counts of common species are low. Eider have peaked at 106 and purple sandpiper at 145. The only really notable count has been common gull, which numbered c.1200 the only time I've tried to count them.

More on colour ringed BH's

Got some great feedback from Calum Campbell on the ringed BH's from the other day. Two were so recently ringed that the ringing details hadn't been passed on yet, but the other two came with interesting (if a little sedentary!) histories - note that one was originally ringed in 2004.

2XIK)	ET73895	5	Dee, opposite Duthie Park	28/02/2004	RD/IL/RR/EW (Metal Only)	N
(2XIK)	ET73895	6	Dee, Duthie Park Lower Pond	02/01/2007	RD	S
(2XIK)	ET73895	6	Dee, Duthie Park Lower Pond	16/12/2007	RD	S
(2XIK)	ET73895	6	Dee, Duthie Park Lower Pond	29/11/2008	RD	S
(2XIK)	ET73895	6	Dee, Duthie Park Lower Pond	24/11/2012	RD/EF	S
2XIK	ET73895	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	02/01/2013	RD/EF (DARVIC ADDED) 9+years old	R
2XIK	ET73895	6	Rive Dee, Opposite Duthie Park	27/10/2013	RD	S
2XIK	ET73895	6	Rive Dee, Opposite Duthie Park	09/11/2013	RD	S
2XIK	ET73895	6	Rive Dee, Duthie Park Pond	23/11/2013	RD	S
2XIK	ET73895	6	Rive Dee, Duthie Park Pond	08/12/2013	RD	S
2XIK	ET73895	6	Rive Dee, Duthie Park Pond	28/12/2013	RD	S
2XIK	ET73895	6	Rive Dee, Duthie Park Pond	03/01/2015	Mark Lewis	S

2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Bridge of Dee Burger Van	10/12/2012	RD,EF,JW	N
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	15/12/2012	RD	S
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	30/12/2012	RD	S
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	26/01/2013	Jim Quilter (PHOTO)	S
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	28/12/2013	RD	S
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	11/01/2014	RD	S
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	13/12/2014	RD	S
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	19/12/2014	John Chapman	S
2XID	ET72086	6	Dee, Ruthrieston Bothy	01/03/2014	Mark Lewis	S

 

January 5th, the mighty Quinn!

After the news broke of a harlequin on the Don after dark on Sunday, I went into a bit of a fluster hoping it would stick around and hoping I'd be able to twitch it before work today - especially after the photos were put on line, showing it to be a 1st summer bird. First light today (well, actually well before first light!) found Will Miles and I pacing along the River Don in Seaton Park, enjoying dipper, kingfisher and an otter before getting the call that Nick Littlewood had relocated the bird.

After a short walk along the river (literally about 30 yards from where Will and I stopped and turned round 20 minutes before...) there it was, perched up on rocks by the river before taking to the water and feeding, sometimes down to a range of about 15 metres. With frame filling views through the scope revealing plenty of that steely blue plumage coming in around the face, it was an absolutely stunning little bird. Sneaking through the rapids here and there, briefly popping out of the water onto a rock and then feeding some more before flying up the river, it entertained us for a good half hour. Encouragingly, it looked nice and settled - with the tooing and froing up and down the river probably quite natural behaviour. Here's hoping it hangs around for some time, developing it's breeding plumage and being as showy in better light than today!

Unringed...but not particularly wary!

After that the patch seemed a little tame this lunchtime, although the river duck theme was continued with my first patch goosander of the year. 

January 4th, Girdle ness

Another smashing crisp winters day. Nothing special out there but grey wagtail, common scoter, curlew, and coal tit were all new to the patch year list, bringing the total along to 51 spp. 127 purple sandpiper, 70 pink-footed geese and 11 red-throated diver were of note as well.

The three goldcrests remain in Nigg Bay, and were showing beautifully in good light. I managed a few photos that I'm pretty pleased with. If they'ed stayed still I might have managed a few more!

January 3rd, Girdle ness

The most notable bird today was an intermediate type juv arctic skua that was lingering offshore at the foghorn - also here were 6 red-throated diver and a long-tailed duck. The goldcrests were still in Nigg bay, and nearby I flushed a male pheasant - a potentially tricky one to get so nice to have under the belt this early. Several other expected year ticks were added too, including sparrowhawk, putting me on to 47 spp for the year.

On the north bank, the seal carcass had attracted a brutal looking GBBG as well as a herring gull and a few crows.

Jan 3rd - colour ringed black-headed gulls

Spent some time around Duthie park in the morning with the intention of photographing gulls (Claire) and trying to read some colour rings (me). Managed to get 4 black-headed gull 'combos', all of which are presumably locally ringed birds. There was also a white ringed bird that got away before I managed to get anything on it - possibly one from a different ringing scheme.

Ring numbers were: all LL

2XIK
2XVK
2XVJ
2XID

January 2nd - Girdle ness

A beautiful crisp, winters day, and perfect for getting 2015's patching under way. It was pretty productive for a first jaunt of the year, with a woodcock flushed at the sewage works and at least three goldcrests both pleasant surprises. No sign of any chiffchaffs here but I wouldn't be surprised if there are still some around - and likewise for snipe and jack snipe around the muddy bits.

Best birds were a pair of stonechats that seem to have taken up residence along the south bank. in April 2014 I was absolutely thrilled to see a continental type stonechat near the battery, but over the autumn they became more regular. These two birds have been lurking around the south bank since late October and if the winter stays mild, fingers crossed they'll linger to breed.