A Hopelessly Wild Goose Chase. 24th February 2019

After settling into our favourite Holiday Cottage close to Nethy Bridge, we've stayed here over a dozen times since first visiting Speyside in 1997, Sunday morning dawned bright, sunny and warm. A far cry from the cold weather of the previous year. A Yellowhammer greeted us with his song issued from the top of the telegraph pole at the end of the driveway. We ventured out early choosing to go and look for some Waxwings that had been reported just outside of Nethy Bridge over the previous few days mainly because sunny conditions enhance the photographic opportunities. We'd seen Waxwings already this year (see Waxwings) so didn't need them for the year list but they are such beautiful birds and you never tire of seeing them. The birds had been reported feeding on roadside rose hips but despite driving slowly back and forth along the wild rose bushes there was no sign. It would prove to be the first "dip" of many during the day! We did however, have the consolation of finding a huge flock of Brambling, maybe 200 strong, feeding in a stubble field along with similar numbers of Linnets and Chaffinches. This flock had been starred on the recent BBC Winterwatch programme but until I found them I'd had no idea of the location. There were also a couple of Lesser Redpoll feeding in a birch tree that offered decent photos although nothing like at WWT Washington a couple of days previously.

A few of the Brambling and Linnet flock

Lesser Redpoll

In keeping with our holiday taken at the same time last year, our plan was to travel around and "pick up" some scarcer species. Twelve months ago we had ticked off a Ring-necked Duck at Lairg, which incidentally had returned to the area a few weeks ago, but had failed with an American Wigeon and a pair of Shore Larks. This year I had American Wigeon on the itinerary again along with another Green-winged Teal, a Lesser Snow Goose, a Greenland White-fronted Goose and, if I could make the long drive north, a couple of Bean Geese. We began by driving to Munlochy Bay on the Black Isle, north of Inverness. The rich farmland in this area attracts the large herds of Pink-footed Geese that winter in the bay and surrounding area. In the preceding few weeks before our arrival a Lesser Snow Goose (Blue Morph) had accompanied the Pink-foots to a field next to the small hamlet of Killen. We drove slowly (again!) up and down the only road in Killen but there was absolutely no sign of any Geese. We tried hard for over an hour to spirit the Goose flock up out of nothing but to no avail although we did eventually find some way off in a field but scope views proved them to be Greylags! So no luck there, but I hatched a plan to return on the way back to Speyside later that afternoon since I know that Geese are highly mobile birds and may well be present at another time. 

The next place to try was at Tain some 30 miles to the north where both a drake American Wigeon and a drake Green-winged Teal had been seen over most of the winter. We walked the short distance down to the waterside, known as Tain Links, where the river Tain flows into the Dornoch Firth. The tide was out and the exposed mudflats held lots of birds so I set up the scope and scanned through them. Some of the ducks were helpfully feeding close by at the river mouth but I could only find Eurasian Wigeon and Eurasian Teal along with a few Mallard and Shelduck. I looked further away and found a large group of Pintail, more Wigeon, lots of Redshank, some Curlew and a few Hooded/Carrion Crow intergrades but still couldn't find either of the American species.

"Hooded" Crow

I scanned again and this time noticed a flash of green amongst a few sleeping Wigeon about 50 yards away. Checking that it wasn't a Mallard, the duck very obligingly stretched its head up and gave away its identity, that of the American Wigeon! It promptly went back too its slumber but at least it had given itself up and upped the year list to 134. Now we had the whereabouts of one scarce American duck I looked hard for the other but there was no sign at all of the Green-winged Teal but having seen one in Northumberland a few days ago I wasn't too concerned. After 15 minutes or so the American Wigeon awoke and set sail but frustratingly instead of following the Eurasian Wigeon in towards shore it swam further out and away towards the open water of the Firth leaving me with just a few distant record shots. I decided as we left that I'd return in the afternoon (it's going to be a busy afternoon!) and see if the bird was closer in at high tide.

drake American Wigeon

We headed to Lairg to see on the off chance if the Ring-necked Duck was present (it wasn't) and to have Sunday lunch at the excellent Pier Cafe (it still is). The cheesecakes made there are some of the best I've ever eaten. and the cafe is well recommended. The drive both there and back to Loch Fleet was uneventful with nothing bar a couple of Kestrels seen. I'd dismissed the notion of driving north to the Bean Geese by now since it was too far for the amount of time left in the day. At least the tide had come in whilst we were dining but the Mound at the head of Loch Fleet held nothing except Curlews and Shelducks so we drove out to Coul where we had dipped on the Shore Larks last year. We found the flock of around 500 Pink-footed Geese easily enough but couldn't find any Greenland White-fronted Goose, this was not a good Goose day at all. At the entrance to Coul Farm a stubble field was attracting interest from a large flock of Finches, Reed Buntings and Skylarks. Among the Finches, comprised mainly of Linnets and Goldfinch, there were some Twite that continually flew up and perched on overhead wires before descending back to the stubble. I reckoned there were about 30 in total of these understated little finches which became number 136 for the Old Caley year list and a nice bonus for the day.

Twite

Reed Bunting

Next it was on to Embo, a place next to the sea that I've always enjoyed visiting. No time wasted there since you can park right next to the rocky shore. On the rocks we clocked our first Ringed Plover of the year, six of Mrs Caley's favourite wader shared the space with around 30 Dunlin, c20  Turnstone and c20 Purple Sandpipers. I checked the southern beach and found 3 pale-bellied Brent Geese, another year tick.

Ringed Plover

Dunlin

Purple Sandpipers & Turnstones

Brent Geese

We kicked on and checked out a lek site for Black Grouse that had been recommended by a friend, it was empty, before returning to Tain. The high tide had indeed pushed the Wigeon flock into the river itself but there was no sign of the American and we didn't have time to search any further since I wanted to have another go for the Snow Goose before dark. I needn't have bothered because the fields at Killen were still Goose free. I decided to re-christen the area "Unlucky Bay".

I felt we were having a bit of bad luck in our efforts to find scarce birds, seemingly dipping more than we seeing but there's always tomorrow in this game.