Summer may be coming to an end but we're still getting some excellent weather, and some great birds to go along with it. We've seen a lot of birds over these past few weeks, but amazingly we are set to get even more as Autumn and Winter approach. Many of our wintering birds have started to arrive already, whilst many summer species are just preparing to leave. With so many birds around, there is always something exciting to see, and we expect to only get more as Autumn rolls around.
This week I thought we should start with some smaller birds, after all, they're often overlooked in favour of larger, easily recognizable birds. I myself have the bad habitat of lumping them all together into "small brown jobs" that will go unidentified unless they helpfully land nearby. We start off with Linnets, of which we saw small (14-22) flocks throughout the week. A bird we haven't seen in a while is the Rock Pipit. They breed locally, however since they prefer rock cavities for nests, they are often further up on the coast. Another such returning species is the Wheatear. Normally they are returning from breeding grounds in Greenland, however the few birds we saw were British birds. They will all be making their way to Africa soon enough, and we expect to see more of them in the coming days. To make way for these species we have to see some leave, and fortunately, we were able to get a glimpse of a Reed Bunting before it moves to a warmer habitat.
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| Rock Pipits can be quite hard to spot when they remain still |
Scaling up a bit, and this week has been good for ducks. Eiders are a staple on the loch, and once again they have been gathering in their hundreds. Another wintering species is the Red-breasted Merganser, which normally breeds in freshwater lakes before redistributing across the Uk. Winter will see many more ducks arriving on our waters, and so in the coming weeks we'll keep our eyes peeled for Common Scoter, Goldeneye, and Long-tailed Ducks. Up at Loch Connell there has been a good variety as well, alongside regular Mallards and Teal, our first Tufted Duck has made its way back to the Loch.
Back at the Wig, and we're beginning to see more of the seabirds leaving their nesting site on Ailsa Craig. Last week we had a Guillemot, and now we've supplemented that with a pair of Razorbills. Whilst still seabirds, Black Guillemots are not unusual to see around the Wig, and this week we recorded 12 on a single day. Finally, Gannets are still fishing in the Loch in good numbers, with a max count of 69 birds on Wednesday.
Waders are a constant around the Wig, and it seems that we get many different species on a day by day basis. Curlews remain here all year round, however many also migrate and so that may explain our recent boost in records, with regular sightings of over 40 birds in a day. Alas, our Whimbrels seem to have completely left us now for the warmer shores of Africa, but at least you don't have to worry about muddling them up with Curlews any more! We've also seen good numbers of Ringed Plover and Turnstone this week, with maximum flock sizes of 60 and 19 respectively. Finally, back up Loch Connell we've seen a surge in Lapwing numbers, with a mighty 17 birds recorded this past weekend.
As always there are some stand out species that are particularly interesting, or irregular and so always exciting to see. Swifts have been very scarce around the Wig this year, but not so over in Stranraer. This week we had a record of 24 Swifts above the hospital, an impressive count indeed. Back on the Wig we had a female Sparrowhawk, and then later in the week a juvenile Mediterranean Gull.
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| Catching a hedgehog in your garden is such a delight |
Recently we added Hedgehog to our garden list, and this week we've expanded it further with yet another mammal. On quite a few evenings we've seen the rapid movement and distinct fluttering forms of bats. Thanks to our handy Bat-detector which measures the frequency of their sonar calls, we were able to identify them as Pipistrelles. There are many bats that roost in different locations around the village, but we don't often see them over our garden, and so to record 5 was a lovely surprise.
That about wraps it up for this week. As always this was just a selection of the many things we saw, and going into the coming weeks I am sure that we will see plenty more exciting birds as well.
[All photographs were taken by and belong to Stephen Grover, please ask for permission if you wish to use them.]
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