Autumn

You know that the summer is coming to an end when its time to visit Baron's Haugh for waders. It didn't disappoint today with 2 Green Sandpipers, 1 Ruff & 5 Black Tailed Godwit.

Green Sandpiper

Crete

Spent 2 weeks with the family based in Georgioupolis on the western side of Crete. Lovely place, crap hotel.

Very little birding was done, too hot ! 4 Griffon Vultures at the Samaria Gorge was by far the best. Saw a few Red Rumped Swallows, a probable Crested Lark, some probable Black Eared Wheatear and very litte else.

A Double Lifer Weekend

St Fergus by 6am on Saturday morning provided my first lifer of the weekend in the shape of a very obliging Rock Thrush:

Juvenile Male Rock Thrush

Just round the corner was a female Red Backed Shrike:

RB Shrike

Just up the road at Rattray there were c6 Corn Buntings:

Corn Bunting

An Arctic Skua flew past offshore.

Headed back south to Blackdog and got lucky & picked out a Drake Surf Scoter almost straight away in a flock of thousands of loafing Scoter.

Sunday involved a return to Northumberland for a second go at the Bridled Tern that has been leading many a merry dance over the last few weeks. When I boarded the boat at 12:30 there had been no sign for almost 24 hours and I wasn't particularly hopeful. The journey to Inner Farne seemed to take an age as it did a tour of all the other islands first. I tried to busy myself trying to photograph some of the sea birds but my heart wasn't really in it. These are the best of a bad lot:

A couple of Manx Shearwaters from the boat was another year tick..

When the boat eventually got to Inner Farne, there were already about 25 twitchers on the jetty scanning the rocks that the Tern had been favouring.  Some of the faces were familiar from my own failed attempt 2 weeks ago. Amazingly, and no more than 15 minutes after arriving, a shout went up and the Bridled was back. There was that awful period trying to get on to the bird. However, all was well as it settled down in with the flock of other loafing Terns:

It all made the journey worthwhile. Role on the next one !

Bloody Frustrating

When a Bridled Tern appeared on the Farne Islands at the start of the week I hoped it might stay & allow me to attempt a twitch on the Saturday. When it disappeared mid week I thought that was probably that. However, even better, it appeared on the mainland at Cresswell on the Friday & so a twitch was on.

Leaving Glasgow at 5am I was at Cresswell for 7:30 and promptly took up my position with about another 50 birders and prepared to wait. Hour after hour passed with only 2 Ruddy Shelducks and a Med Gull to break the monotony. One Surrey twitcher went on an on an on and on about how if the Tern did not show in the next 2 hours he was going to miss the boat for Islay that night. Was I the only one who wanted to tell him to "STFU"? This guy never raised his binoculars once to help look for the Tern or indeed any other bird but just went on and on and on in a very loud voice about not getting to Islay. What a boring bastard !

Anyway after 6 hours, news came through that the Tern was at Saltholm RSPB, about 50 miles down the coast. I hastily climbed into the car and proceeded south. I unfortunately, missed the bird by perhaps up to 30 minutes and despite waiting for it to appear back for 3 hours it never did, preferring instead to return to East Chevington about 5 miles north of where I had started at Cresswell.

On the credit side, it is worth saying that the diversion to Saltholm did provide some compensation in the form of a cracking adult Roseate Tern & a Hobby.

As I write this (Monday evening), the Bridled Tern is still appearing at East Chevington. If it is still around on Thursday I'm going to give it another go on Friday.

Mull

I last visited Mull some 40 odd years ago as part of a family caravan holiday to Oban. I remember my Mum pranging her, a black vw beetle, on that particular visit and that probably put me off going back. However, now some 40 years on I returned with my family with coincidentally a somewhat newer black Volkswagen.

We traveled north to Oban on a rather wet Saturday morning. By the time we reached Oban however, it was much drier and by the time we got on the ferry it was dry. Once on Mull, we drove north from Craignure and soon had splendid views of an adult Sea Eagle just north of Salen. We had a B&B for 3 nights in Dervaig just west of Tobermory.

Tobermory with its famous coloured houses

The B&B overlooked Loch A Chumhainn and within a short distance I was seeing Whinchats and Common Sandpipers appeared to be everywhere.

Day 2 was dull and windy and we drove south to Loch Na Keal. Here we eventually had good views of 1 Sea Eagle but otherwise the weather was a bit of a limiting factor.

Sea Eagle

Day 3 was glorious and we did the touristy thing and headed for Iona. The drive takes about 2 hours and there was much stopping in the various passing places on Mull's narrow roads. The ferry to Iona goes from Fionnphort :

View from Fionnphort Harbour

Once on Iona I quickly found Corncrake. There was no shortage of birds calling but seeing any proved impossible.

View from Iona Harbour

View to the North

Iona Abbey

Returning view Loch Na Keal I staked out a known Golden Eagle site and had 2 birds in the sky over the ridge. Back at Darvaig, a ringtail Hen Harrier was quartering the marsh and then proceeded to fly past the bedroom window.

The last morning was spent at Grass Point where I failed to see any Sea Eagles but 2 Whinchats and a singing Grasshopper Warbler were notable.

All in all a really good trip.

Lack of Chat

Whinchat have been becoming scarce and more & more difficult to find with each passing year. Loch Ardinning, just north of Glasgow has always been a good spot although even here they have become scarce. Despite an extensive search this morning I could not find any at all. It is always sad to witness the decline in a species but this is what we are faced with here. Hopefully, they can recover.

On a more positive note Cuckoos still appear to be plentiful with several calling. Willow Warblers that I think have been comparatively scarce this year were in abundance:

Willow Warbler - Endrick Mouth

Another Chat that has been in steep decline, possible due to hard winters, is the Stonechat. I managed to find 1 today for the yearlist.

Roe Deer- Loch Ardinning

Mute Swan with 4 Cygnets - Loch Ardinning

Moving on to Endrick Mouth, I walked right out to the end of Ring Point. Best here were 2 Osprey, Grasshopper Warbler, Garden Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher.

The downside was 2 aggressive dogs, the same two as last year. Is it too much to ask to have a day in the countryside without being bothered by bloody dogs. The best of it is they were with an owner who the dogs simply ignore. "Oh she'll not bite" I don't bloody care I simply want to be left in peace. If you can't control the bloody thing, KEEP IT ON A LEAD!!!!!!

Sun Room Completion