Northern Lights over Kelty

 Spent some time in the back garden the other night taking a few photos, it's not birds or wildlife, but it was up in the sky, so that counts! 😂

 

Isle of Bute

 As I said in an earlier post, we had a trip to the Isle of Bute in September, it wasn't a birding holiday as such, more Prosecco and Ale!! But we had a great time. Here's a few scenic shots and there might be a a couple of birds as well.

View from the digs!

Farmyard Duck or as we like to call them Heinz 57!

Little Grebe in the sun.

A nice night!

Grey Seal.

Greylag Geese.

Curlew on the shingle.

St Ninian's Bay

That'll do!

RSPB Loch Leven (27/09/24)

 We spent a great few hours at Loch Leven the other week, the Pink Footed Geese were there in large numbers;

But the outstanding bird of the day for me was this one:

Spitfire T.9 based out of Biggin Hill, so what it was doing over Loch Leven is anyone's guess!

So keeping to this theme, here are a couple of gliders from the nearby club:

Back to the birds! Greenfich,

Kestrel, why when the appear do the always fly or hover between me and the sun!

Pink-footed Geese grazing,

with a few Greylag Geese for company.

In the woods behind the visitor centre there was lots of bird activity, but only manages a Blackbird and Robin for a decent photo.

Other birds seen where Whooper Swans (10), a Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, no winter ducks yet, the usual Tufted Duck and Mallard. In the woods, Long-tailed, Blue, Great and Coal Tit, a Spotted Flycatcher. I won't list them all!

But the star of the woods was this chap

It doesn't matter how often we see Red Squirrels, it's always a joy!

It's been a while!

 Well it's been a very busy summer with one thing and another, so there's been very little time for birding as such. We have been away a few times but not on birding trips. 

We had a spectacular 10 days in Switzerland and we did see some birds on our travels, notably a Nutcracker and Alpine Swift from a cable car near Zermatt and Alpine Chough at Jungfraujoch:

Otherwise plenty of Red Kites seen from the car plus plenty of common UK species.

Back on our home patch we have managed a couple of walks recently, firstly Seafield (Kirkcaldy), this is a favourite walk and one which we have neglected, so it was great to get back there.

Nothing out of the ordinary on a very dull day, but here are a few photos:

There were 3 Wheatear on the sea wall,

Some Redshank,

Ringed Plover,

Cormorants,

plenty of Seals on the rocks just past the tower.

and a Kestrel on the hunt.

Also  seen were Twite, a solitary Curlew, Eider, Sandwich Tern, Purple Sandpiper, distant Gannets, a Fulmar, a Merganser and plenty of Gulls

 

We followed that up with a walk at Portmoak Moss a couple of days later, the highlight was a Spotted Flycatcher who was to quick for a photo and a Red Squirrel way up in one of the conifers munching on cones:

Otherwise plenty of birds about, but all too shy for any photos; Bullfinch, Great Tit, Siskin, Chaffinch, Wren, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, a mass of Swallows by the small car park and a distant Kestrel perched on a tree in the peat bog.

We are off to the Isle of Bute soon so hopefully I might have something to post after that.

TTFN