It seems like no time has passed at all and February has come to a close, but I for one am glad to see the back of its consistent stormy weather, here's hoping for a brighter March. Bird-wise February was still very active, with another 8 new species added to the blog, including Bullfinch, Waxwing, and for the mammals, a Red Squirrel. My personal favourite had to be the Grey Plovers, which with an incoming tide could be seen really close and afforded some excellent views!
I thought this week I would start by going over the species I rarely touch upon. This is generally because of their commonality, you could almost expect to see them on any outing. Species like Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Blackbirds and Starlings, we probably all see them regularly in our gardens. Certainly, the large gardens on Corsewall Estate are great for them, as up to 20 Blue Tits and Chaffinches were recorded in one visit. These gardens and surrounding woods are always bountiful, and once again this week we had Goldcrests, Nuthatches and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. This is also a great spot to see Roe Deer, as this week we had individuals and pairs spotted on several days.
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| Male Chaffinch - certainly a regular in our garden! |
The great thing about this blog, for me at least, is being able to compare species numbers. From January into February many species have seen a decrease in numbers, including Slavonian Grebes (which were at their lowest this week - an average of only 2 birds a day), Red-Breasted Mergansers, Goldeneye and Red-Throated Divers. Now, this could be put down to the weather, however, it's likely a lot of different factors are at work. Most of these birds are not permanent residents, and there is a constant come and go of new individuals. So the weather combined with a naturally low income of birds has likely resulted in our lower counts over this week and the past month.
One good thing this weather has brought is more birds coming in off the sea. Last week we had our first Kittiwakes of the year, and I'm glad to say that we had a record of 3 more this week. They weren't the only gulls blown in though, as we had 5 Great Black-Backed Gulls, a significant number for the Wig. Gannets were seen on numerous occasions through the week, and have been on the rise as a whole due to them returning to their breeding grounds.
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| A Gannet off to try and fill his gullet! |
Something I haven't mentioned in a while is our Cormorants and Shags. These are common visitors to the Wig, Shags, in particular, can gather in numbers up to 40 birds along the Scar. Whilst still recorded on a regular basis, both their numbers have also been down compared to previous weeks.
Perhaps a little surprising, but this week we saw a lot of activity from our local raptors. There is at least one pair of buzzards locally and could be many more in the surrounding area, as we had records from around the Wig, in the Estate and up at Loch Connell. Sparrowhawks have been a little thin on the ground lately, but they are about, its just a matter of being in the right place and time to see them, so this week it was very nice to get two in one day! The action doesn't stop there, as we had a Kestrel (which over the years have become uncommon in our area) and an unfortunate Skylark which was getting chased down by a Merlin.
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| A Stonechat surveys the scrub |
I really have zig-zagged my way through this week's report, so I'll finish it off by just highlighting some of the noticeable records this week. These include the Pink-footed Geese, which were seen in a flock of over 4000 birds. From many to few, we had a male Stonechat on the footpath this week, and on a wet track in the woodland, a Grey Wagtail! Finally, out on Loch Ryan, we had our usual complement of Common Scoter, but with 3 Velvet Scoters as an added bonus.
And so that's another week wrapped up. Now we head into March where we can hope to see an influx of many birds, including the Spring Wheatears, and if we're lucky the first Swallows and Ospreys. Until then, thanks for checking out the blog and happy birdwatching!
(All records and photos belong to Stephen Grover, please ask for permission if you wish to use them)
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