Crane Lifts British List to 400

An adult Sandhill Crane at Loch of Strathbeg in Aberdeenshire as well as being a lifer for me also had the added significance of being my 400th British bird. The fact that this milestone could be reached in Scotland was an added attraction.

I left a rather soggy Glasgow at 4:15 am but as I pushed North & East it became drier and by the time I reached Starnaffin Farm Visitor's Centre it was a fine morning. I was met by a group of twitchers who had already seen the bird from the Tower Pool hide, but it had flown and was now somewhere up towards St Combs. It had spent a good time the previous day in a field near at Gowanhill and so that was the obvious place to head for. A search for the bird in this area was fruitless, but a Lapland Bunting picked up on call was a bonus. With up to 50 other twitchers in the area, it was not long before the Crane was refound, some half a mile to the South at Corskelly Farm. After a short search I had my 400th British bird. Soon however it flew off and I headed back to Starnaffin where I hoped it would reappear later in the day.

My optimism was rewarded when it flew back in around 1pm and settled on the low ground and was viewable from the Tower Pool Hide. The following images although poor convey the scale of the bird particularly when compared to the Lapwings in the foreground:

Other notables on the reserve today included 2 juvenile Pectoral Sandpipers, 1 Spotted Redshank and 2 Greenshank from the Visitor's Centre and 4 Black Tailed Godwit & 1 Ruff from the Tower Pool Hide. There were also large numbers of Pink Footed Geese already on the Reserve. Numbers already up to between 3&4 thousand.

I spent an hour or so in the afternoon seawatching from Rattray Head. Lots of Gannets & Kittiwakes and a single Arctic Skua. Up to 5 Wheatears in the rough ground behind the dunes:

Wheatear