Birds at last! And Dolphins! Tuesday 4th June 2019

Our trip from Northumberland to The Cairngorms on the Saturday 1st June was unremarkable even allowing for the fact that, despite leaving in sunshine (a rare commodity during the previous week), it was raining heavily yet again by the time we approached the mountains. We had tried and failed to locate a Common Crane on the English and Scottish border for the second time this year after a similar dip in February and there was little on offer at our chosen coffee stop at Loch Leven bar the usual Tree Sparrows at the feeders in the garden. We drove the long way round passing through Braemar and Tomintoul rather than get bored on the A9, pausing at Glen Tanar to take in a bit of reconnaissance for a future trip later in the year. The drive was largely uneventful but at least we saw that some Black Grouse still persist on the outskirts of Tomintoul. We arrived at our holiday home in Carrbridge excited to be back in Speyside for another fortnight, one day we'll make it a permanent home. And yes, it was still raining!

We were eager to get going on the Sunday morning and there were some good birds to be had that would all be additions to our year list. I planned out an itinerary that would take in a fair chunk of the Moray coast searching out a King Eider, Spoonbill and Iceland Gull amongst others. We were also hopeful of watching Ospreys fishing at Lossiemouth and an Otter that had taken up residence in a small pond in a public park in Elgin. The day ended up being one of our most frustrating days birding ever, since we managed to find absolutely none of our target birds or mustelids! Apart from a good lunch in the Old Mill at Brodie, it was a desperate day, despite plenty of walking and effort on what turned out to be a very warm day, and we were left empty handed. 

Monday was spent driving north and westwards to a small hamlet called Mellon Charles to twitch a Blue-winged Teal. The weather had reverted to bordering on horrible again and had thwarted us in our efforts to see Eagles since we could barely see the hills for most of the day but we were at least ultimately successful in seeing the rare Duck but even that was hard work. You can read that account here Blue-winger.

So we were already into Tuesday of our first week, how time flies, and we had a good weather forecast for a change. The decision was made to repeat Sundays expedition to the Moray coast and have another attempt at year ticking the same birds that we'd missed out on a couple of days previously. In the meantime I had also armed myself with more information so wasted walks shouldn't be on the agenda this time.

First though we made our annual excursion to a well known local lochan where one of the UK's rarest breeding birds make their summer home. We've been responsibly watching Slavonian grebes at this site for nearly 20 years now but this year circumstances have changed. For some reason the BBC chose to pick a nest at the Lochan as a feature for their Springwatch programme despite filming at another well known breeding locality a few years ago. This not only advertised the location, they very helpfully showed a panoramic view of the area which aided folk to know exactly where the birds were, but also aroused Joe Public into wanting to see the birds for themselves. The irony being that the BBC then had to broadcast a warning on their programme about it being illegal to approach any schedule 1 breeding bird too closely without a license, since so many birders and toggers had been to see them! It wasn't helped by the birds themselves building their nest very close to the main path (public access) that runs around the Lochan. So we arrived early but kept a long way away from the nest and stayed less than 10 minutes in total. I took photos from over 50 metres away but if you look hard you can see a chick sat on the back of the female while she was being tended to by the male.

The warning signs

male Slavonian Grebe

Slavonian family, chick is just visible on the back of the sitting female

We headed up to Nairn on the Moray coast. On Sunday we had taken a fairly long walk out past the golf course and onto the fine sandy beach to view the equally sandy Culbin Bar a few hundred metres off shore. We were looking for "Elvis" the drake King Eider, a bird that we normally encounter on our day out to the Ythan Estuary each summer, but Elvis has decided to do a tour this summer and has spent a lot of time gigging off the Moray Coast. There was no sign of him on Sunday and we just got roasted by the unfamiliar sunshine and heat of that day. This morning it was again sunny but being still early it was also fairly cool, particularly at the end of Nairn Pier which was, I had learned since Sunday, the best place to look from for the King Eider. Sure enough I quickly located the Eider flocks, maybe containing a hundred or so birds, and shortly after the King Eider, #229 for the year, which was slightly apart from the main body of ducks and keeping company with just a couple of Common Eiders. Enjoy the record shot below, in my defence the birds were probably 400 metres away, but I have better photos of him taken in previous years so I wasn't too bothered.

King Eider (honest!)

Our next stop was at Findhorn Bay where the Spoonbill and Iceland Gulls were purported to be. I had done my research here too and now knew that the birds were frequently seen in the south-west corner of the bay. Findhorn Bay is a very large tidal basin roughly measuring some 2 miles square and when the tide is out acres and acres of mud are exposed presenting a rich feeding ground for birds. Once we had found a parking spot close to the access track, we walked down to the Bay and  that huge expanse of mud stretched out in all directions. Add in a now fierce heat haze and this was obviously going to be very difficult viewing indeed. There is a grassy track that runs around the bay so we elected to take the the path in a westerly direction towards the place where the River Findhorn empties into the bay. At the furthest end of the path where it meets a tributary and goes no further we set up and scanned the immediate area for birds. We found a couple of Little Egrets, an Osprey sitting on a dead tree that had drifted down river and snagged in the mud, and various Gull species, although not the targeted Iceland Gull. The heat haze and distance made getting any shots of anything impossible apart from a Shelduck that flew past offloading as it went.

Bombs away!

We were joined by a local chap, Iain, who I had been in conversation with via Messenger the day before and had been the source of much valuable information for which I am grateful. He told us that the Spoonbill would be out there somewhere, it always was, and it would just be a case of finding it. He had had the bird at close quarters just a few days before. I scanned different areas of the bay and after around ten minutes did indeed find the Spoonbill but at around 200 metres away and certainly not close enough for any decent shots. This was a record shot kind of day! The Spoonbill was bird #230 on the Old Caley year list and I felt we were doing well. As we chatted away to Iain we watched the tide roll in covering the muddy expanses very quickly indeed and it wasn't long before all of the birds were forced either onto small grassy islands or into the remaining shallows.

Spoonbill 

At high tide there just wasn't enough dry ground to go around and the Spoonbill which had been under almost constant harassment from Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls was forced to take to the wing. In flight it was pursued by an unrelenting Herring Gull and chased out of the vicinity. Luckily they both flew past us, albeit still some way off, enabling me to get a few half decent flight images, the black wingtips designating the bird as an immature that hatched last summer.

I had inquired of a rather special Gull that had been seen on and off at Burghead Harbour over the past few months, a Gull that is known as a 'Viking' Gull, a cross between a Glaucous Gull and a Herring Gull. Iain had seen the Gull just the day before so we made the short journey along the coast to look for it. We walked around the harbour but couldn't see any unusual Gulls at all so decided to stride out to the end of the quay and see if the Viking Gull was resting out on the water since I'd been told that it follows the Prawn fishing boats as they come back into harbour. I noticed a nice Rock Pipit feeding on the concrete pier and stopped to take a shot.

Rock Pipit

I was interested in the behaviour of a couple that were also walking out, rather quickly I thought, towards the pier end. Interested because they were filming something with their mobile phone cameras. I looked out at the sea, I was still some 50 metres from the end of the quay, and saw that they were watching Dolphins! Turning to Mrs Caley I shouted "There's Dolphins!" and started running towards them. I'd only seen Dolphins from afar before and these animals were swimming and leaping just metres out from the harbour wall. For the next 15 minutes both of us were enthralled as the small pod of Dolphins pulled their antics right in front of us. There were maybe 8 altogether and they just appeared to be playing and having fun. At times they would clear the water completely as they leapt up and would frequently roll completely over in the water, I guessed they were having a Dolphin equivalent of a brush up but I admit to knowing very little about Dolphins or their behaviour.

Bottle-nosed Dolphins

More accurately these were Bottle-nosed Dolphins and I think the first of that species we've ever seen. We've always shunned going to Chanonry Point on the Black Isle because it's very popular and just too "touristy" so seeing them here with just another couple of folk present was brilliant. The stars of the show were, presumably, a mother and her calf which made many leaps and dives. Taking photographs was a bit and miss since it was hard to fathom where they'd surface after going underwater so I just pointed and fired at a likely spot whenever I saw activity at the surface. Luckily I got lucky once or twice!

Bottle-nosed Dolphin calf and mother

After the Dolphins had moved away to the north and I had regained my composure, it had been a very exciting and exhilarating experience, I suddenly remembered why we had come to Burghead, and that was to try to see the Viking Gull. I looked across to the other side of the harbour and there laid down on the tarmac amongst the crates and creels was the bird. And what a brute it was! Definitely at the Glaucous Gull end of the scale and would certainly dwarf any Herring Gulls.

'Viking' Gull

We made our way around to the area where the Viking Gull, sadly not a valid addition to the year list, was loafing but before we got there we saw a fisherman walk straight through where it had been. When we arrived at the spot we couldn't see it and yet we hadn't seen it fly off. Even large birds can disappear as if by magic it would seem. I scoured the harbour and adjacent buildings for the bird to no avail so we made to leave, at least we'd seen it and I had a record shot. Then as we passed the central quay I looked up and sat on a metal container was the Viking Gull. In the position it had taken it couldn't be seen because of another slightly higher box on top of the container. The Viking Gull was once again laid down not doing much at all but was extremely wary and watched the comings and goings with its very beady and sharp eyes. If there was a fish going spare then that bird would be ready to go for it!

The Viking Gull looked essentially like a pure Glaucous Gull apart from some darker feathers in the wings and I believe it was first identified as a second calendar year Glaucous. However better judges than myself had since decided that it wasn't a pure bird and had given it the 'Viking' tag. Still a handsome looking beast though with its most prominent feature being a rather outlandish and elongated bill that looked as if the original beak had had an extension added!

A fishing boat chugged into the harbour and the Viking Gull erupted from its stationary lookout post and flew strongly away to investigate. It came so close to us as it departed that we could feel the rush of its wings and most of the photos that I took only caught parts of the bird since it was so big!

Next we went to Lossiemouth, firstly taking in a rudimentary but perfectly satisfying lunch at the west beach cafe. We watched Ringed Plovers, Dunlin and Sanderling scuttling along the sands and were grateful for the warm sunshine after the miserable weather of last week in Northumberland.

Ringed Plover left, Dunlin right

Sanderling

We had come to Lossiemouth to watch Ospreys. The river Lossie empties into the North Sea on the other side of the town and the stretch of river in front of the caravan site had become locally famous as somewhere to watch as many as 10 Ospreys fishing. The Osprey's attendance was far from guaranteed though and we had already spent a couple of fruitless hours there on Sunday evening. This time though we were in luck as two Ospreys appeared after just a few minutes. Unfortunately though for us the wind was blowing onshore towards us so that when a bird decided to hover over the water while looking for prey it was facing in the other direction! 

Osprey

But we were getting fantastic close views of these fabulous Birds of Prey as the two birds patrolled up and down the river. Frustratingly though neither of them made a single dive for fish while we watched and I wondered if the water was too dirty after the heavy rainfall of previous days. So, apart from when one of the Ospreys landed on the opposite river bank, all of my views and photos were of them soaring and flying overhead. At least I had good clear conditions for photography.

We ended our long day out by driving past Lochindorb where we easily added Red Grouse to our holiday list. Red Grouse are very numerous on the moorland that surrounds the Loch but sadly we all know why. I watched some young Grouse chicks cross the road and hoped that they'd survive the awful slaughter that marks the shooting season in August.

male Red Grouse

Red Grouse chick

Rather more happily we spotted a Common Sandpiper by the Loch-side and were delighted to see that it was guarding a small chick that scrambled clumsily over the rocks. At least we knew they'd be safe from the guns since they would have departed the area well before the very wrongly named 'Glorious twelfth'.

adult Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper chick

As we left Lochindorb behind the rain had started falling heavily once more but at the end of the plantation we managed to stop and watch a Cuckoo in the failing light. 

Cuckoo

It was time to bring the curtain down on a long and busy day and one that had many highlights not least those fabulous Bottle-nosed Dolphins!