American Wigeon

Last week Dave and I paid a return visit to Scotland. The key reason for going was to see a number of Butterflies that we do not get in the South of England but I was also hoping to see the King Eider "Elvis" that has been based around the Ythan Estury and Nairn for the last couple of months. Needless to say Elvis waited until we had booked our hotels and then did a disappearing act.

To stop the blog getting too long I have split it into three parts covering birds in the first and butterflies in the next two.

First stop on the way up was at Old Moor RSPB where an American Wigeon and a Little Bittern had been reported. We had limited time so it was unlikely that the Bittern would appear whilst we were there but the American Wigeon would be a life tick for me. Well we saw it, but it was very distant.

American Wigeon

American Wigeon

Compensation, of sorts, for the poor shots of the Wigeon came in the form of close views of a Green Sandpiper and Redshank.

Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Redshank

We spent about an hour looking for the Little Bittern but it had not been seen all day, so in the end we decided to move on. We did have one scare whilst we were there, when a "common" Bittern flew over being mobbed by an assortment of Gulls, and other birds. Any other day we would have been overjoyed at the sight but not on a day when there was a possibility of a Little Bittern. 

Day 2 was mostly about butterflies but we ended up late afternoon at an Osprey site that Dave had visited before. I was expecting another Loch Garten or Bassenthwaite lake where you are kept four hundred metres or so from the nest. When I found that we were standing only sixty or seventy metres away I was a bit wary of disturbing the birds.  However, there was a well used footpath going past the spot and groups of kids moving through between us and the nest tree and neither the movement or the noise seemed to bother the parent Ospreys.

It was late afternoon and the lighting was poor so the picture opportunities were limited but it was great seeing the birds so close and getting glimpses of the chicks as they moved about in the nest.

Both parents on the nest with one of the chicks also visible

Male on his favourite perch

The weather looked even worse on Wednesday so we decided to spend the afternoon over in Oban harbour looking for Black Guillemots. Whilst we had both seen them before neither of us had managed to get a good picture. We stopped off first at the Corran - Ardgour ferry just off the A82. This was our fallback site if Oban failed to deliver. We could see the Black Guillemots on the sea loch and also landing on the pier on the other side of the crossing  but we decided to carry on to Oban rather than take the ferry across.

Oban delivered but we had our doubts for a time. We eventually managed to track them down to the sea wall just in front of the cathedral.

Black Guillemot

A Rock Pipit turned up whilst we were photographing the Black Guillemots and there was also a tame Chaffinch that had joined us for lunch one day that was worth recording.

Rock Pipit

Chaffinch

The bird list for the five days sits at around seventy which is not too bad when you consider that we spent most of our time looking for Butterflies. As ever, time was all too short and there are many more places that I would have liked to visit during the trip.

Irish Birding

Whilst the birding has started to improve of late my photography seems to have taken a real nose dive. I have seen some good birds, but most of my shots have been taken at a distance and in this hot dry weather the air quality and heat haze have had a devastating effect on picture quality. The trouble is that I know this and I should have been spending more time getting closer to the birds.

Still this is a diary of what I have seen and photographed so you get the bad as well as the good.

The first success was the Turtle Dove which had been at the top of my hit list for a couple of months. I had looked at various sites and despite hearing them on a number of occasions there had been no sightings. My luck changed when I picked up Dave and we headed over to Pagham North Wall. It was all very quiet on the wall but we did manage to spot the Turtle Dove in the trees by Honer Farm. The bird was very mobile though and despite waiting a long time we could only get distant shots.

Turtle Dove

Dave was only carrying a 400mm lens but his pictures looked better than the ones I had taken using a 500mm and 1.4 converter. Heat haze, air quality, or just better skills?

I then headed off on a touring and walking holiday with the wife taking in Pembrokeshire and the South and West of Ireland. It was not a birding trip but I did have a target list and was intending to get a few hours birding along the way.

Pembrokeshire gave the first opportunity when we spotted Chough whilst walking over Stackpole Head.

Chough - It looks as though Junior still wants to be fed!

You can actually see the heat haze in the back of this shot

 Dave had told me to look out for Black Guillemot when we arrived at Rosslare Harbour and sure enough there was one there albeit a bit distant.

Black Guillimot

 One thing that I had not expected in Ireland was a complete roll reversal of Crows and Rooks. A Hooded Crow was top of my target list and I assumed that it would be easy to get a good picture of these as with Crows back home. In practice they seemed very shy and wary of anyone approaching them. The Rooks however had filled the vacant slot of picnic scavengers and were quiet happy to have their pictures taken.

Rook - beautifully groomed for the photo shoot

Hooded Crow - looking a bit tatty

Definitely does not want his picture taken

 There were lots of Terns about. We looked at the Tern Colony at Lady's Island Lake hoping to see a Roseate Tern. No luck with that but there was an Arctic Tern that ventured close enough for a picture.

Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern

And, sitting on the beach one evening we watched a long procession of close on a hundred Sandwich Terns fly past carrying Sand Eels. I assume they were also heading for Lady's Island Lake but the odd thing was that there was not a single Common Tern amongst them.

Sandwich Tern

We spent a few days around the Killarney National Park and the Cork and Kerry peninsulas and I spent most of the time with one eye on the sky waiting for a White-tailed Eagle to appear. I had one slight panic when a couple of ravens drifted over a hill we were climbing but that is the closest that I got.

Lots of the usual small birds about and lots of Juveniles in confusing plumage. I got some nice pictures but I am still trying to work out what they are.

No black Guillimots as we left Rosslare, so I was unable to improve on my record shot taken on the way in, but I was tipped off that the Tuskar Rock Lighthouse, just off the coast, was a good area to look out for Manx Shearwaters. Sure enough there were lots flying about. Most were distant but I did manage a couple of decent shots before the boat disappeared into a fog bank.

Manx Shearwater

My overall impression of birding in Ireland. There are not so many species about and some of the sites are hard to find or access but overall nature is having a better time of it over there. There were far more birds and butterflies about than I see in England.