Back in Scotland! Fife Ness

 We managed a day out last week to Fife Ness, Lobster Rolls were on the menu from the Lobster Hut at Crail, which we took down to the hide at Fife Ness for Lunch. Lovely it was too!

We did also pop into Kilminning NR and had a coffee there, where this Yellowhammer sang distantly:

there were some lovely Orchids about,

and a lovely Whitethroat added to the chorus,

Down at the hide, we had a lovely time eating our Lobster and watching the Gannets wheel by over the waves:

Other than the Gannet, there were plenty of Eider and Cormorant about. With a few Sandwich Terns, Guillemot and very distant Razorbill putting in an appearance.

Our next trip will be a double, Orkney and Shetland. So lets hope all the migrants that are popping up there at the moment stay put!

Crail & Fife Ness

 What can I say! It's been a while since the last post, it's just we are so busy getting out (and of course that's the beauty of living up here!) and about, there doesn't seem much time to sort photos out and then do the blog. So here we go with a bit of a catch up again.

We had a great day out at Crail and Fife Ness.

Crail beach and harbour....

Fife Ness,

Cormorants,

Lesser Black-backed Gulls,

Gannet,

Oystercatchers 

and Goosander.

In addition, Curlew, Shelduck, Guillemot, Razorbill, Fulmar and Kittiwake were seen as well as the common gulls. We popped to Kilminning NR as we left and added Linnet, Yellowhammer, Whitethroat and Meadow Pipit. A good day!

A Sunny (but cold) Fife Ness

 We visited Fife Ness for a few hours last Friday as we were over that way. There wasn't too much activity and my camera played up for some reason, it seems fine now! So not a lot of photos

We did see Red-throated Diver and Common Scoter flying through as well as the usual Cormorant, Shag, Eider, Oystercatchers, Curlew, Turnstone, Gulls and Redshank. Also a Rock Pipit foraging in front of the hide.

Fife Ness Again!

 We took another drive up to Fife Ness last week in the hope of seeing some of the rarer birds that had blown in (Red-flanked Blue tail, Black redstart, Richard's Pipit etc.) We actually found none of them!!

Never mind, we still had a lovely time, doing a bit of sea watching, although that was quiet too!

Se here's a few photo's from some things we did see;

A Rock Pipit (one of four) on a rock!

Surfing Seals,

Plenty of Eider passing through,

Some Brent Geese (our first of the year!) 

Oystercatchers of course,

and quite a few Curlew about

Plus Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Cormorant.

Also seen were Red-throated Diver, Goosander, Shag and Gannet.

Usual small birds around the old airfield plus some Grey Partridge in one of the fields. Lovely Day!

A bit of Sea Watching at Fife Ness

 Last week we went up to Fife Ness and spent some time in the Fife Bird Club hide near Crail. Usually we have the place to ourselves but on this occasion we shared the hide with 4 experienced sea watchers from the Bird Club. I'm not sure sea watching though is our thing, our sea bird identification skills are poor and although there were large numbers of birds on passage, I couldn't identify them moving that fast and that far out.

Not so for our hide partners, they were calling out all manner of birds as we sat and took it all in. Having said that with their direction we did manage to get eyes on a Sabines Gull and a Sooty Shearwater. Both of which were lifers for us. Other birds passing through, there were huge numbers of Kittiwakes;

The Kittiwakes were a bit closer, so I took a record shot! Others that flew by were; Little Gull, Common Scoter, Red-throated Diver and Manx Shearwater. The experts also saw Arctic and Great Skua but we didn't see those.

Apart from the passage birds there of course plenty of Gulls, Cormorant, Shag and Gannets about.

After leaving the hide we explored the nearby rocks;
Redshank & Turnstone,

Dunlin,

Oystercatcher & Curlew,

Shag,

Oystercatchers, Curlew and a Bar-tailed Godwit

and another Curlew:

It was a great afternoon out!

Fife Ness

 We paid a visit to Crail and Fife Ness a couple of weeks ago, distant views were had of a Manx Shearwater and passage Common Scoter. But these at least came close for a few photos:

In addition to the Gannets and Oystercatchers, there were Goosander, Cormorant, Shag, Eider, Fulmar, Curlew, Sandwich Tern, Arctic Tern & Common Tern

Fife Ness

 Catching up again! This is a brief post with some pics from our visit to Fife Ness and The Fife Bird Club hide there (we are members!)

As you can see this is predominantly a sea watching hide, the "Bird Traffic" is fabulous and on occasions pretty close in, so most are easily identifiable. Plus some good photo opportunities!

And a few more Gannet shots: