Another week has been and gone and October is really showing its stuff - there are so many birds about that it makes it difficult to decide what to talk about first! I guess I'll just have to start alphabetically and see where things go from there! Two bar-tailed godwits have been present for most of the week, with another being spotted at Loch Connell. Whether these are the same birds or not is difficult to tell. Other waders of note include a ruff, 6 knot out on the scar, a total of 230 oystercatchers, 22 golden plovers and 24 ringed plovers. There must be more of the latter about, but spotting ringed plovers is very much looking for moving pebbles!
Out on the loch, many of our wintering birds are increasing in number. Common scoter are up to 138, the single goldeneye of last week has increased to 6, red-breasted mergansers are up to 116 and our highest count of eiders this week was 398. Typical - of course the number of eiders would increase after we went out to specifically count them (see last week's blog post!). 153 shags were seen one day, alongside over 140 common gulls and over 100 herring gulls. 59 red-throated divers were joined by 2 black-throated divers and 21 Slavonian grebes were joined by 2 red-necked grebes. The Slavonian grebes are looking particularly nice at this time of year - many are still moulting out of their summer plumage and have patchy red-coloured necks. Two velvet scoters were also seen this week: a male and a female.
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| A knot - my favourite wader for the sheer number of terrible pun opportunities that it provides! |
Closer in to shore, 80 mute swans have been scattered in a number of flocks around the loch. To our delight, these were joined by 15 whooper swans at the wig. These slightly smaller swans have been returning to spend the winter here and it was great to finally see our first for this winter. Hopefully we will see many more in the weeks to come. 5 mallards were also seen paddling about - these are more often seen on Loch Connell than at our end of Loch Ryan. On top of this, our pale-bellied brent goose flock has increased to up to 120 individuals.
Winging about with their bouncy flight, the start of the week saw 4 sandwich terns. It appears to have been a very poor year for terns locally, so it was nice to see these individuals about. These weren't the only terns of the week either. Just sneaking into this week's records, Sunday saw another tern. Not just any tern either, a new species for this blog: a juvenile black tern. Black terns are from a different genus from sandwich, arctic and common terns - a genus known as marsh terns (so called because they may breed in marshes and, unlike other terns, can readily be found feeding inland). Marsh terns have a distinctive flight that is different from the feeding pattern of other terns. They have a fast flight and will rapidly veer about and change direction, pausing only to snatch insects from the air. This was the first black tern I've ever seen (only the second our family has seen in this area), so needless to say I was rather excited about it! It just goes to show that you never know what might be flying around.
Keeping our eyes to the skies, we've also seen many more familiar migrants this week. 11 pied wagtails way our highest day-count for this week, along with 2 grey wagtails, 29 skylarks and 10 meadow pipits. It was also a good week for wheatears, with 17 birds being recorded in total (with 11 in one day, so we at least know that these were all different birds). We also saw 3 greenfinches at the wig - just after last week I said that they weren't very common for us!
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| 'Common and brown' to some, I think house sparrows are beautiful and their cheeping flocks are welcome in my garden any time. |
Our garden this week played host to a nice range of species, with the usual suspects (house sparrows, starlings, blackbirds, dunnocks, chaffinches, blue tits, coal tits and great tits) being joined by a small migrant: a willow warbler. Other resident species that were spotted this week include 3 buzzards, 2 nuthatches, 2 ravens (we normally hear more than we see!), 2 siskins and a flock of 38 goldfinches. Hopefully the latter two species will starts turning up in gardens (specifically, ours!) with more regularity soon. I may have to fill up the feeders again first though, the sparrows appear to have emptied them again already...
Finally, I just want to finish the week off with a few non-avian sightings (please forgive my digression!). Throughout the summer our garden has been a feeding ground for (at least one) hedgehog and it was nice to see it again this last week. More often we can tell that Oggy (my name for every hedgehog I see) has been visiting by the occasional whuffling noises as they devour any bird food that has been spilled and the poo that is left behind. Our other mammals were slightly more unexpected. A weasel was spotted at the scar hut and a trip to Loch Connell provided nice close views of a fox. I think it is safe to say that the fox was more surprised - having been making its way down the side of the hedge it clearly had not expected to see a human with a tripod and spotting scope standing in the gateway! After freezing to take in the situation, the fox decided that it still wanted to continue and charged past the gate at a run. Magic!
I think I've waffled on for slightly long this week, so perhaps I'd better stop now. It's been a great week for birding and (the advantage of writing the log later in the week) I can safely say that it's only going to get better...
All photographs were taken by and belong to Stephen Grover, please ask if you wish to use them.
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