Lochaber area - West Coast of Scotland

We had a two week stay in Scotland the first week should have been on Islay, but due to the high winds we couldn't get on the island, so after lots of phone calls and gnashing of teeth we managed to swap our two weeks around.

So we started at Glenuig on the west coast, the main objective here as last year were the Pine Martens in the Cottage Garden. This is a video from one of the camera traps we put up, I have loads on the video camera too, but decided most were too big to put up on the blog.

Another regular visitor was a Badger, again here's a bit of camera trap footage:

So apart from this we went out most days, these are some of the highlights:
A mean looking Buzzard giving us the eye!

 Golden Eagles over Glenmoidart,

 Oystercatcher at Glenuig,

 Otter, one of three seen, all at a distance from the Wildlife Hide on Loch Sunart,

 Common Seal - Loch Sunart,

Not quite Monarch of the Glen,

 Grey Heron - Loch Sunart,

 Goosander - Loch Aline,

 Golden Eagle - near Loch Linnhe,

 Goldeneye - Loch nan Ceall, Arsaig

 Red-breasted Merganser - Loch nan Ceall, Arsaig

 Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Cottage.

A Quick Trip to North Devon and a bit of Birding!

We just spent the weekend in Ilfracombe, somewhere we haven't been for at least 35 years!

So we planned to explore the north coast and Exmoor a bit on the Saturday, the weather was horrendous, lots of rain, so going walking wasn't exactly on the agenda.

We went along the north coast, stopping at a reservoir first, where we saw only Herring Gull and a Coot! From there we took the coast road, stopping off at various places, Combe Martin providing us with our first Oystercatchers of the year.

We stopped for coffee at a 'private' deserted jetty in Woody Bay, watching the Gulls swooping around and were then treated to a distant view of 3-4 Dolphins passing through.

As the weather was so bad we saw very little wildlife, so headed inland to Wimbleball Lake, by which time the weather had improved and the rain eased off. Sadly there was little to see, a single Wigeon, Mallard, one Cormorant and the obligatory Herring and Black-headed Gulls.

Although a Kestrel did hover briefly between us and the shore line.

So that was day one.

Day two took us south and west out towards Westward Ho! We started at the Northam Downs Country Park and the Rivers Taw & Torridge Estuary. Although the sun was shining the wind was gale force and the wind blowing the car door back, nearly took my leg off! Even when we were walking to the car in Ilfracombe we were being blown about and out here on the exposed headland it was 10 times worse.

So we used the car as a hide, as it was difficult to hold the binoculars or camera steady in the wind.
As a result I managed a few shots;
Golden Plover settling down,

 Shelduck,

 Pied Wagtail,

 Curlew and an Oystercatcher.

In addition there were large 'Flings' of Dunlin (been looking up collective nouns again!) moving around, finally an Oystercatcher gave me a good close up;

Using a guide we found for the area on the excellent Devon Birds website (www.devonbirds.org) we made our way back towards Barnstaple, stopping at Appledore for the loo, but with the tide in there was little to see, just a few Gulls and Pigeon on the rocks.

We had a look at the Gull roosts on the river Torridge down in and near Bideford for winter gulls, but only Herring, Lesser Black-back and Black-headed were seen. If the wind hadn't been so fierce we may have investigated bits of the Tarka Way as the guide suggested but we opted not to this time.

We did make our way to Fremington Quay, this looked like a great spot and we stayed here a while, watching the Redshank, Little Egrets and Curlew.

But the star was this Spoonbill:

We had to walk just a short way to find it, after we were told by some other birders that they had seen it, trying to keep my camera still in the wind was nigh on impossible!

So apart from scenery that's it!
Scenery!

A bit Foxy in the Garden

After 30 odd years, had our first foxes in the garden, well that we have seen anyway! Then two turn up at the same time!

Another Stroll Around Haden Hill

Difficult to find time at the moment to do any birding posts, indeed to do any birding! But we did manage a quick turn around Haden Hill last week.

Again pretty quiet on an overcast day, I nearly didn't take the camera as it was so dull, but I'm glad I did, just to get a close up of this young Buzzard:

It was sitting in a tree just off the path leading down from the park, above the stream.

Otherwise the usual was seen Tits, Pigeon, Corvids etc. Plus a couple of Nuthatch, a Goldcrest and our first Kingfisher of the year down on the stream near Corngreaves Hall. It never gave us time for a photo though.

Tomorrow if they are still about we may head up to Hednesford to see if we can see the Waxwings, then on to Cannock Chase for a bit of a walk, weather permitting!

RSPB Ham Wall Starlings

Been quite busy since the turn of the year, we started our birding year on New Years day with a local patch walk around Haden Hill Park and Corngreaves NR. It was a quietish day with very little activity at first, other than a Jay posing well at the lower pool.

We then had a flurry of activity with Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits, with the start a single Goldcrest among them. Nice start to 2019! This was followed by Nuthatches calling to one another, in the end we counted I think 5 all within 100 feet of each other.
That was about it though apart from the usual parkland birds, although a Buzzard did put in an appearance late on.

Anyway on to the title of this post, last Thursday Tina suggested we head down to Ham Wall to see the Starling Murmuration as we had seen good reports on social media. It is a two and a half hour drive almost, but hey ho!

The weather was surprisingly sunny, which made for some nice photos (I think!)

 Little Egret,

 Great White Egret,

 Snipe,

 Teal,

 Tufted Duck,

 Aggressive Coot,

 Shoveler,

 Long-tailed Tit,

 Marsh Harrier,

 Gadwall,

 performing Shoveler,

 another smart Gadwall,

 Great Crested Grebe,

 Teal and Snipe.

 The sunset was magnificent.

So onto the Starlings, well they started showing up about 16:15 in at first very separate flocks,

but as the different groups started arriving, they decided that they were too tired to join up and murmurate (is that a word?) a great deal, after a a few quick murmurs, they decided to drop into the reed beds right in front of us:

 A Starling Bush!

They just kept coming for at least 30 minutes, the RSPB estimate was half a million birds!

It was truly amazing, then just as the numbers arriving started to calm down, they proceeded to leave the bed in front of us and relocate over the Tor View Hide, (the noise of the mass lift off us was fantastic), and settle in the reeds on the other side. Again it took at least half an hour for them all to move, by which time it was well and truly dark, so it was time to go home.

A couple of video clips:
The Starlings going down;

Relocating at low level!