littoralis rock pipits, late March 2015

I've been interested in Scandinavian (littoralis) rock pipits ever since I knowingly saw my first one - a strikingly blue and pink bird feeding on the golfcourse at Girdleness, early one spring, probably in the early 2000's. Ever since seeing this bird I've paid much greater attention to the resident rock pipits, especially at this time of year, in an attempt to see another beauty like the first, and also with the intention of picking out some of the more subtle birds that might pass through.

I've failed miserably. I've come nowhere near anything like the first, and I've only ever had a few 'might have beens' in terms of the more subtle ones. This makes me think that they are actually rather uncommon in North East Scotland - a thought that is backed up by the text in Birds of Scotland, which states that they are regular in the south eastern counties but nowhere else, and also the North East Scotland bird reports.

Between 1974 and 2008 there are only 19 records of rock pipit that are assigned to littoralis - although every mention of this subspecies is caveatted along the lines of 'scarce, but hugely under-recorded'. Undoubtedly this is so - but I suspect that they are also pretty scarce as well. I reckon the boring looking ones must slip through the net very easily - but the more contrasting grey and pink birds are strikingly colourful, pale, and notably grey backed, even in flight. Surely people are noticing them, when they turn up?

All this makes the occurrence of a very obvious bird on March 22nd, and another bird joining it on 23rd more interesting to me, and a great opportunity to catch up with, and familiarise myself with this form.

Bird 1

Bird 1 is pretty streaky, with course flank markings and streaks right across the breast that merge into a smudge in the centre of the chest. The ground colour of the underparts is also much darker and warmer than the second bird. The grey on the upperparts appears to be restricted to the crown and on some coverts, but is quite obvious, as is the strong super, white median covert bar, and pinkish throat.

Bird 2

Bird 2 is a belter - almost slate grey upperparts with nice white wing bars and a decent whitish super. The flank streaks are neat and narrow, and set on a pale, cold ground colour. The throat is less intense pink than bird 1, but is a stunning pastel shade and almost streak free. It also seems to have much paler legs than the first bird but that may well be a function of the conditions the pictures were taken under.

Mid March patch gold

This is always the time when I get ahead of myself. "That wheatear will be hear any day now"...is the thought that runs through my head every morning, but in reality its often the very end of March or even the beginning of April when the first of the true migrants start to come in. It's a great motivator to get out at a time when the rewards are not always obvious though, and it certainly adds to the year list.

There are certainly signs of movement - long-tailed ducks are becoming regular, and red-throated divers more numerous. There has also been a bit of gull vismig. Common gulls seem to be trickling past, but black-headed gulls are more obvious, with a couple of deccent flocks noted passing north, including one of about 40 birds.

There has been a fair bit of patch quality, with further records of shelduck, rook, mistle thrush, yellowhammer, reed bunting, lesser redpoll, stock dove and golden plover all added to the list - talk about a fine selection of patch gold! There have also been a few pleasant surprises in the form of peregrine, and some genuine migrants like goldcrest, and a woodcock that came in-off on Monday 23rd. On top of all this there have been a couple of littoralis rock pipits - but they deserve a post all to themselves.

warming up

Not literally - it's been freezing - but certainly spring seems to have sprung as far as the birds are concerned.

The pomarine skua continues to linger offshore, but on the 7th it was upstaged by a chiffchaff (not often I'll say that...) at the sewage works. I'm pretty certain that the bird was new in to the sewage works, having specifically looked for overwintering chiffs in the new year and not seeing any. However, it's more difficult to say whether the bird was a genuine migrant or not - it could well have been flitting undetected on Tullos hill for the winter, and March 7th is a very early date for a 'new in' chiffer up here.

The 8th was also productive with plenty of pinkfeet on the move, 4 whooper swans, and perhaps best of all from a patch point of view, a northbound shelduck. Having noted that whoopers were being noted moving north over the previous few days I'd gone out specifically with this species in mind. It's good when a plan comes together. Which doesn't happen often...

The decent run continued on to the 9th, when 2 stock doves were noted flying north past the battery - still a really good bird patch wise, with possibly only 5 or 6 previous records and the vast majority of them coming from Nigg bay.

As the weather deteriorated through the week, so did the quality of the birding - early morning seawatches have failed to deliver, and a lunchtime seawatch on the 11th was only notable due to the close up views of a couple of rain covered ringed plover taking shelter behind a rock. You can see the rain on the birds feathers on the second photo.

Roll on the proper migrants...

the lull...

It's been a long period without any real 'movement through the crease'. For the remainder of February there seemed to be very little change at girdle ness, although the wheezing of greenfinches and the tinkling of linnets was an expected, but nonetheless welcome addition. As for the rest of the month, the highlight continued to be the otter, which showed from the office window with relative frequncy, and once in it's favoured area when I happened to be outside - so I finally got the opportunity to get some shots of it without having a murky window in the way.

As soon as February was out, the birds started picking up. Nothing remarkable but both greylag goose and pomarine skua have the potential to be tricky. A dunlin also put in an appearance, making it three additions to the patch yearlist in three days.

The first of the wildflowers are on show as well, as of the last week or so, with coltsfoot and lesser celandine both brightening the place up.