Last week was the final week completely in 2020 (I can hear your relieved cheers!). Both the winter solstice and Christmas day were last week and the birds were giving us an extra reason to celebrate them - for we've had a smashing week, seeing 3 new species for the blog. Nothing like squeezing in new species for the year list at the last minute! I love going for a walk on Christmas day and had a very nice day out around the Wig - helped out by the mild weather (warm enough for the Fox Moth caterpillar that was seen wriggling along the grass).
Our first new species is one that we have been keeping our eyes peeled for from the onset of winter: an Iceland Gull. Iceland Gulls are almost-annual visitors locally and we have been busy scanning gull flocks for this white-winged gull. However, amongst the 200+ Common Gulls at the Scar there were only 2 Great Black-backed Gulls and small numbers of Black-headed and Herring Gulls. The Iceland Gull (a first-winter bird) instead chose to show itself by flying over our house! Perhaps it was on its way to Loch Connell.
Also near our house and garden, we saw our 2 regular hybrid (Hooded x Carrion) crows and a flock of 11 Collared Doves. 2 Greenfinches flew over the house and a surprise Woodcock was seen lifting off from the garden across the road. I have been on the lookout for Woodcock but the neighbours' garden was the last place that I would have expected to see one! As always, the dominant species of our garden was House Sparrows, alongside smaller numbers of Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Dunnocks and Chaffinches.
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| A furry Fox Moth caterpillar. |
The number of Chaffinches in our garden, however, was outweighed by a single flock of over 40 that was seen at the Wig. Other smaller birds that we saw last week include highest day-counts of 4 Goldcrests, 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 6 Meadow Pipits, a Mistle Thrush, 13 Robins, a Nuthatch, 3 pairs of Stonechats, 4 Rock Pipits and 5 Song Thrushes. A total of 4 Pied Wagtails and also 4 Skylarks were seen over the course of the week and yet another flock of over 1000 Starlings was counted - this time over the Twite Fields. A concentrated effort to count Wrens revealed 6 individuals around the Wig route, while a Treecreeper was seen in the cemetery woods and a Dipper once again put in an appearance at Fisher's Lane Pool. A female Sparrowhawk and 2 Buzzards were seen - no doubt they were also keeping a sharp eye on these smaller birds.
Through one of our readers, we were informed of a probable Pacific Diver that had been seen at Luce Bay at the beginning of December and of another bird that had been seen in Loch Ryan later in the month. Inspired, we resolve to examine all divers we saw in greater detail and sure enough - we found a Pacific Diver! Our first sightings were distant and left us a little dubious but later on the (presumably) same bird was seen closer to, in the same field of view 2 Red-throated Divers, a Great Northern Diver and a Black-throated Diver - brilliant! Not only was this pretty spectacular to see, it was also really helpful for identification purposes. The diver reappeared on two more days throughout the week, providing decent views (through a scope anyway, unfortunately too far out for photographs). The Pacific Diver was the star of the show this week, thanks again to our reader who let us know to look out for one.
Not letting ourselves become too distracted by rarities, there were also a variety of our regular species to enjoy out on the Loch last week. We saw highest day-counts of 101 Common Scoters, 131 Eiders, 5 Red-throated Divers and 23 Slavonian Grebes. Through the course of the whole week we saw totals of 2 Black-throated Divers, 4 Great Northern Divers (3 of which were on the same day), 5 Razorbills (also 3 of which were on the same day!) and 7 Great Crested Grebes.
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| A sketch of our scope view. Clockwise from the front: Red-throated Diver, Red-throated Diver, Pacific Diver, Great Northern Diver and Black-throated Diver. |
Closer to us, the shore was home to good numbers of waders last week. A single Lapwing was seen flying west from the Wig, perhaps on its way to join the 37 others that were counted at Loch Connell. Our highest count of Knot stood at 3 individuals (more than the regular 1, at least) and the number of Curlews has also increased to 99 (alas, that elusive 100th individual refused to be found!). Further highest day-counts stood at 2 Grey Plovers, 220 Oystercatchers 8 Redshanks, 49 Ringed Plovers and 48 Turnstones.
Whilst not a wader (more closely related to Spoonbills and herons, our third and final new species has a similar-looking appearance: a Glossy Ibis. Somewhat akin to a larger, black Curlew, Glossy Ibis are fairly rare visitors to Scotland. Once again we were informed of this by another birder (the bonus of meeting others when out and about) - a visiting birder from Cheshire. Whilst he had seen and photographed the bird on the pool field, this was disappointingly empty. Fortunately, the bird was instead hiding away in the marsh. I hear that another Glossy Ibis (or perhaps the same bird) was seen at the Crook of Baldoon around the same date.
Whilst we are at the marsh, it would be wrong not to mention the other species that we saw there: a single Reed Bunting and over 54 Teal. Teal can be very hard to count when they are paddling about in the many marsh pools. Often they hide amidst the vegetation and the first we know about them is hearing their whistling calls. Other waterfowl seen last week include 8 Shelduck and 6 Scaup. 2 Whooper Swans were in the swan fields, 8 Canada Geese were seen at the Scar and the Wig Wigeon seem to have migrated to Loch Connell (with less than 30 being seen at the Wig and 162 being counted at Loch Connell). Last but not least, the Pale-bellied Brent Goose flock stood at over 260 birds.
With that, I think that it is time to wrap up for this week - and what a week it has been. I'm looking forward to all the things I might see in upcoming days!
[All pictures and photographs belong to Stephen rover, please ask for permission if you wish to use them.]
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