We had storms at both ends of this week, and so as you can imagine the weather has not been too kind for birdwatching. Nonetheless, we still have a veritable hoard of records from all over Loch Ryan and even further afield.
Given the weather, a lot of our birdwatching was done from the safety of home. From our upstairs landing, we can gaze out and (with a good telescope) see past the shore and far out onto the Loch. The most common sights are diving birds, which we get a huge variety. Starting with their namesake, we have had as many as 34 Red-throated Divers in one day, as well as a single Black-throated Diver alongside them. There are still some Great Northern Divers on the Loch as well, as we've seen a pair on several occasions this week. Grebes have also been fairly commonplace, however, in smaller numbers with the highest counts being 3 Great-crested Grebes and 5 Slavonian Grebes.
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| A Great-crested Grebe braves the waves |
Another lot of sub-surface feeders are the diving ducks. Of these the most numerous are Common Scoter, of which we saw daily and in numbers up to 260 birds. Goldeneyes, Eider, and Red-breasted Mergansers are just as regular and were seen from as few as 1 bird to as many as 50 individual birds in a day. Finally, we had a lone Scaup on the Wig, though they are more common in other areas of Loch Ryan, with 14 recorded at Bishop Burn.
Bishop Burn is also a great spot to see Pintail, and the same pair has been seen there for a while now. Moving onto our other surface-feeding ducks, and some Mallards made their way round to the Wig this week, as well as single Teal was seen on the marshland just up past the beach. More of both of these were seen on Loch Connell, along with a group of Tufted Ducks. Loch Connell was also the sight of some Whooper Swans, with a flock of 22 present over the week.
Keeping with the theme of alternative birdwatching locations, we also had a lot of records from Piltanton this week. This is an estuary where the Piltanton Burn flows into Luce Bay, but more about that in this week's feature article. It is a very good spot for Waders and this week had Oystercatchers, Redshanks, 3 Greenshank and over 250 Golden Plover. The fields surround the estuary are also great for grazers and contained Curlew, a lone Mute Swan, and on the shores of the burn, over 30 Shelduck. This was a bit of a low count for the area, however, that is understandable given the storm blowing at the time of recording.
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| Shelducks on the Shore |
At the Wig, we had our own selection of waders, including Ringed Plovers, Turnstone and a Bar-tailed Godwit. Alongside them, we also had a great selection of gulls, including Black-headed Gulls, and flocks of over 100 Common and Herring Gulls. We also had the occasional Great Black-backed Gull, as well as an immature Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Whilst the waters of Loch Ryan may have been plentiful, the surrounding fields were less so this week. Despite the apparent scarcity though, we still had a flock of 20 Twite, 32 Redwing, and one Skylark. In the shelter of the woods, things looked much better and we had our many regular species including Blue Tits, Great Tits, and Goldfinches. Whilst not as common, we still had at least one record of Nuthatch, Goldcrest, and Siskin, with the Great Spotted Woodpecker returning too.
Returning to our garden and between the gales, our Tree Sparrow returned. That was until the birdfeeder ran empty! This has been a surprisingly regular sighting over the past few weeks, so it's very likely the same bird that is touring the village bird feeders. Alongside it was, of course, the House Sparrows and our other garden residents including Collared Dove, Starling, and Chaffinch.
Nearby we have several Rookeries, and so it is no surprise that we had a single flock of over 300 birds this week. They weren't the only corvids out in force, however, as we also had a flock of over 100 Jackdaws earlier in the week, alongside the regular Carrion Crows and their hybrid companion. Ravens even managed to brave the winds, with a couple spotted throughout the week.
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| "Rook To C-Shore" |
That's quite a lot on the bird front, however, we have one last record before we finish. Scurrying along the garden wall of Corsewall Estate, we had a Red Squirrel! We do have a small resident population in the woodland surrounding Kirkcolm, but they are still rare sightings and always a pleasure to see.
Somehow I've managed to waffle on even longer than usual so I'll bring it to a close now. As always I hope you enjoyed it, and here's hoping for no more storms this week!
(All records and photos are the property of Stephen Grover, please ask for permission if you wish to use them)
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