Last week saw some rain but it soon became clear (if cold!) skies - perfect for birding. We finally broke our recent trend of seeing a new species per week - by seeing two new species instead of one! More on those later...
Let's start by considering some of our commoner species. Typical 'garden species', we expect to see these birds every day and so I often neglect to give them a mention. We see good number of corvids - jackdaws and rooks especially. Carrion crows are also regulars, both in our garden and on the beach. We have two hybrid (carrion x hooded) crows that visit our garden and this week we also saw a different hybrid individual (distinguished by its different markings) strutting about on the beach. We also see a pair of ravens fairly often, or at least hear their cronking calls.
House sparrows, starlings and feral pigeons are present in abundance. We had a largest flock of 14 collared doves this week and robins, wrens, dunnocks and blackbirds are also frequently encountered. The other thrushes are less common for us, for example we only saw a song thrush twice this week. Great tits, blue tits and coal tits do regularly visit our garden but only ever in small numbers. We see more of these species in roving tit flocks in the woods, sometimes accompanied by other species (this week we saw goldcrests and treecreepers). On the finch front, chaffinches are a staple species but goldfinches and greenfinches are much less common - we often only see the species down at the wig (flock of 10 greenfinches this week).
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| Male blackbird in the garden |
Around the wig we see many such small passerines (perching birds). This week saw highest day-counts of 2 meadow pipits, 5 pied wagtails and 2 rock pipits. The twite flock is still feeding in the fields, if in smaller numbers than when they were first arriving (roughly 40 birds this week). Stonechats are also seen almost every time we go around the wig - we saw 3 pairs this week. Pairs of stonechats tend to stay together over the winter, so these birds will likely have bred together during the summer.
We had a highest day-count of 55 turnstones running along the shoreline and we saw a total of 10 grey plovers. Lording over the waders, two graceful herons were feeding in the shallows. However, out on the water of wig bay saw some of the most exciting species this week. First and foremost amongst these, was one of our new species for the week: a gadwall. These dabbling ducks are annual locally but are hardly usual, so it was very nice to see this male duck paddling about near some wigeon. Also not common at the wig was a redhead goosander and a little grebe (we more often see these species at Loch Connell). More typical species: the wig's local pale-bellied brent goose flock saw a highest day-count of 182 birds (a little down from last week) and there were 8 shelducks present.
Further out on Loch Ryan was a whole host of other species and we were not the only birders out enjoying them. Gill Deacon went to Marian jetty and had some very nice views of a velvet scoter - it's nice when you can actually see them close to rather than as distant blobs! It's been a good week for velvet scoter sightings: we saw a male, an immature bird and then a male and a female together (across 3 different days). In amongst the goldeneyes and long-tailed ducks (highest day-counts of 16 and 14, respectively), Gill also had some nice views of a great northern diver catching and eating a flatfish. It's been another good week for great northern divers (highest day count of 8) but we certainly never saw one with a flatfish. That must have been brilliant to watch - you'd think that it would catch something a little easier to swallow!
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| Winter-plumaged great northern diver |
Also out on the loch this week were up to 14 cormorants and 168 common scoters. We counted 140+ eiders and saw one red-necked grebe. Single razorbills were seen twice during the week, as was a black-throated diver. We have also seen good numbers of scaup. While only 3 individuals were at the wig, over 320 scaup were present off Innermessan and the next day saw 127 birds off Low Balyett (although perhaps these were some of the same individuals - the scaup flock is rather mobile).
Finally, that just leaves us with a couple of species that came in at the end of their respective day lists (one is of course the second new species for this blog that you have been waiting patiently for!). Failing light at the end of the day meant that a quick look at Fisher's Lane pool revealed only a podgy silhouette. I was quite surprised when, after raising my binoculars, I was confronted with a dipper. Whilst familiar to many on their regular haunts, in the winter dippers disperse out to any available feeding areas and this is when we might see one locally for a short time. While I don't expect it to hang about, it was certainly a very nice way to end the day.
Last but not least, this post's final species was heard but not seen. A familiar hooting sound to many, a male tawny owl has begun to call once again. As the winter goes on it will probably be heard calling more and more often as it begins to establish its territory in preparation for spring - we'll keep you posted!
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| Dipper at Fisher's Lane pool in low light conditions |
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