A Red Letter Day in Aberdeenshire, 6th June 2019

After yesterdays day of constant rain we awoke to, yes you've guessed it, more of the bloody stuff! This was beginning to annoy me because there were so many places to go and birds to see and wet weather makes things difficult. I know it's Scotland and they have more than their fair share of rain but this was June and it should be better than this. So after a quick look at the weather forecast which indicated it might be better away from the Highlands we jumped in the car, filled it with diesel and headed off to the east coast intending to spend the day at the Ythan Estuary, where Elvis the King Eider usually spends the summer but at present seems to be on a holiday of his own on the Moray Coast, and the RSPB reserve at The Loch of Strathbeg.

Halfway to our destination the phone sprang into life informing us that a male Red-backed Shrike had been found on the coast at a place called Longhaven not far from Fraserburgh. The Shrike would be new for the year so it would reinvigorate the holiday and get the Old Caley year list rolling forwards again. I knew nothing about the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve that we were aiming for so pulled over and made use of the excellent and free SOC App "Where to Watch Birds in Scotland". Now I knew where the bird was and where to look when we got there. We made good time and the weather actually improved as we left the hills and mountains behind, we even saw some sunshine as we hurtled through the Aberdeenshire farmlands. Until we got to around a mile from Longhaven and hit a bank of thick fog!

It took us a while to find the very small parking area for the reserve, tucked away as it is behind a lay-by on the main coast road and hidden by large trucks whose drivers were taking a break. We walked down the wide gravelled track towards the coast unable to see more than 50 metres owing to the almost pea-souper. We were definitely being unlucky with the weather on this trip. We were greeted by several fine male Yellowhammers singing heartily away from gorse bushes and one that stood atop a large boulder. 

Yellowhammer

The reserve had been established on the site of an old quarry and we headed towards an old building near to where the Shrike had been seen. Apparently there would be two Sycamore trees next to the ruin and we should look there. As we neared the building, just visible through the gloom, we met a fellow birder coming back the other way who cheerfully informed us that he hadn't seen the Red-backed Shrike at all despite searching along the coast path for over half a mile from the old house. This disheartened us a little but we were here now so it would be churlish not explore the area ourselves. There was no sign of the Shrike or anything else at the house, save for a couple of Jackdaws, and nothing at all in the Sycamores. The Sycamores themselves were small and stunted bushes really rather than the big old trees that we know Sycamores as back at home. But they were obviously a magnet for tired migrant birds owing to being the only trees of any description on this part of the coast.

We walked along the coast path passing a quarry on the seaward side which we could just make out over the cliff edge. I knew it was a quarry because I had studied the map on the SOC App. We could hear Kittiwakes calling raucously but couldn't see any through the fog. The noise was quite eerie in the circumstances. We carried on towards what I knew would be another quarry this time on the landward side of the path. Before we got there and just at the limit of our vision, remember we could only see 50 metres at best in the fog, was the male Red-backed Shrike perched on top of a gorse sprig! Either the other birder hadn't been looking carefully enough or the bird had been hiding in the fog but we had walked straight into it. I took some record shots of Bird number #231 on the Old Caley year list.

Male Red-backed Shrike (brightened image)

For the next hour and a half we watched the Red-backed Shrike commute between the gorse bushes by the quarry and the Sycamores at the ruined house. The sea fog persisted though and all of our views, though good, were affected by the it and my photos suffered as a result. Our views of the last Red-backed Shrike we saw, at Thursley Common on a blistering hot day last July, were impaired by heat haze and distance. Today we were hampered by the fog and I wondered if i'd ever get a decent chance of photographing a Red-backed Shrike. No amount of effort was going to improve the images taken so after a while I just gave up and hoped for the fog to lift, which it didn't.

We decided that we'd head up the Loch of Strathbeg and spend a bit of time there so made our way back to the car. On the way we bumped into Tim Marshall a local birdwatcher and responsible for the excellent ABZ Rare Birds FB group. In return for us telling him that the male Red-backed Shrike was indeed still present, I had also tweeted the news out, he told us that he'd seen another, this time a female, at Rattray Head just a few miles from Strathbeg. We know Rattray Head reasonably well having been there a few times before, indeed I had self found a juvenile Common Rosefinch there once, one of my better personal finds! It was a long time ago though, September 2008, when all I had to take photos was a small Sony camera and the eyepiece of a scope!

Juvenile Common Rosefinch, 18/09/2008

The road up to Rattray Head is an absolute nightmare to drive, with potholes on potholes and drifts of sand to negotiate. It leads to a large house with an enclosed garden which is extremely attractive to tired migrant birds which are grounded in adverse weather conditions. Obviously the sea fog that had blighted our visit to Longhaven earlier had caused a "fall" of birds to occur and of Red-backed Shrikes in particular. The fog however was consigned to just the north-eastern corner of Aberdeenshire around Fraserburgh and was absent from Rattray Head. In fact the sun was shining clear and bright in a beautiful blue sky! At last we were blessed and our decision to leave the damp and miserable Highlands for the day appeared to be vindicated. As we approached the house and gardens we saw another birder stood looking intently into some bushes at the edge of the garden. We pulled up alongside but even before I had the chance to ask what he was looking at I saw the female Red-backed Shrike perched prominently at the tip of a conifer. Leaning out of the car window I was able to get some shots off without disturbing it.

Female Red-backed Shrike

After the bird had flown back into the garden and we'd had a quick chat with the chap who was spending his lunch break watching birds, lucky fellow indeed to be able to bird Rattray Head during his down time, we moved the car and parked up on the rough ground that counts as a parking area in these parts. It was from here that I'd seen the Rosefinch all those years ago and this time in the same bush sat the Red-backed Shrike. Before I could take more photos though it flew onto the garden fence. We followed its movements, the Shrike would drop into the garden and then return to the fence usually with a beetle or fly for sustenance. Then a new one on me when the Shrike took to the washing line taking its place alongside the row of clothes pegs which made for some different photos.

The female Shrike dropped to the ground and didn't return to the washing line so I peered over the fence and saw the bird in amongst the nettles and weeds that counted as border plants in the garden. I was then treated to another first when the Shrike regurgitated a pellet! In keeping with many birds, Shrikes cough up pellets comprised of all those exoskeleton parts that can't be digested.

Better out than in, pellet expelled by Red-backed Shrike

We walked back around to the front of the house to tell the other birder (my apologies to him for forgetting his name) that we'd just been watching the Red-backed Shrike out the back. "Very nice" he said and then added that he'd been watching another female on the fence along the road! So there were two female Red-backed Shrikes present. A farmer was dragging (not sure of correct terminology) a dry stony and sandy field and many birds including the second Shrike were taking advantage of  prey dragged up by the tractor. The Shrike would perch on a fencepost or wire then fly into the field and snatch whatever was available for food. At one point both Red-backed Shrikes were feeding within 50 metres of each other and both could be watched simultaneously. We'd only seen a handful of Red-backed Shrikes before and now had had three in the same day! Coastal birding definitely kicks inland birding into to a cocked hat. Why can't Oxfordshire be moved to the coast?

Having had our fill of the Shrikes we made our way to the Strathbeg reserve making a momentary stop for a lovely Corn Bunting that also adorned a fencepost alongside the road. Rattray Head is great place to see farmland birds that are becoming uncommon at home. Linnets, Skylarks, Pied Wagtails, Yellowhammers and the Corn Buntings abound in these parts.

Corn Bunting

There is a really good little cafe in the community hall in Crimond village and we rested for a while there before heading into the RSPB reserve. We've never been huge fans of Strathbeg, finding it difficult to bird (a bit like Otmoor is), but having said that we've seen many good birds there over the years including our first ever Garganey, breeding Little Gulls and Grasshopper Warblers. We even heard a Savi's Warbler there once but sadly couldn't see it to count it. From the visitor centre window I found the five Spoonbills that had been present on and off for the past few weeks but there was no sign of a Black Stork that had been seen a couple of days ago (and would be seen again the next day!). The Spoonbills would have been a year tick if we hadn't seen the juvenile at Findhorn Bay on Tuesday. 

Spoonbills

Now there was bright sunshine we thought we'd may as well go back to Longhaven and have another butchers at the male Red-backed Shrike in the hope that our views would be unhindered by the fog of this morning. Arriving back at the reserve the fog had indeed lifted and the whole area was bathed in the same glorious and bright sunny weather that we'd enjoyed at Rattray. Male Yellowhammers looked absolutely radiant now as they perched on the wire fences by the track.

At the house there was no sign of the Red-backed Shrike but we met the Aberdeenshire county recorder who was also looking for the Shrike. We took the path towards the quarry where we'd found the Shrike earlier and were astounded to see in almost the same bush another Red-backed Shrike and another female at that. That was four different Red-backed Shrikes in the same day, that had never happened on our watch before! Before I could get a shot though the bird flew to the opposite side of the quarry where it landed in the same bush that the male happened to be perched in. Now we had two Red-backed Shrikes in the same bush! This was turning out to be a fabulous day.

Male and female Red-backed Shrikes

The two Shrikes were difficult to track since they were very active and flighty and couldn't be approached closely so we had to be content with distant scope views this time. And of course the better weather produced its own complications for the bird photographer in creating the dreaded heat haze! I concentrated my efforts in securing a better photo of the male having had such glorious views of the females earlier.

Then we really got excited when Mark, the county recorder and who we'd just shown the Shrikes to, informed us that a Blyth's Reed Warbler had been found about ten miles away near Collieston, a small village near to the Ythan Estuary. Even though it was nearly 5 o'clock and we still had to get back to the Cairngorms, it was a no brainer to give it a go even though we knew that pinning migrant warblers down can be hard work. The only Blyth's Reed Warbler that we'd seen before was a fleeting view of one at Slapton Ley in Devon many years ago. We arrived at the right place having only been given general information that the bird could be seen frequenting nettles in an overgrown building plot at the back of a church. Luckily another local birder, Forvie regular Daryl Short, was on site and told us that the bird had actually relocated slightly to a willow lined stream right by the roadside and that he'd just had extremely good views of it. He had to leave but armed with his knowledge of the birds whereabouts we at least knew where to look but we'd have to find it ourselves since there was nobody else around once he'd left.

We studied the small willow bushes and for the next fifteen minutes or so saw very little except for Goldfinches and a Blackbird. Then I noticed a quick movement at the bottom of one of the willows and then saw movement on some weedy stems as something moved along the stream. Could this be the Blyth's, the little I knew of the species included that they were skulking little birds, so it could well be. After what seemed an age the mystery bird finally broke cover and I was sure that we had the Blyth's Reed Warbler. I tried to appraise the birds features through the bins but soon found myself snapping away with the camera. I managed a few shots before the bird disappeared back into the vegetation. I studied the images on the back of the camera and was delighted to see a couple that showed the pale supercilium which is consistent with Blyth's Reed Warbler as opposed to the nominate European Reed warbler. Now I was very sure that we had found the rare bird and added it to the year list which increased to #232.

Blyth's Reed Warbler, Collieston, 06/06/2019

Another fifteen minutes had passed when the Blyth's Reed warbler reappeared next to a wooden fence at the back of the stream. This time is was in more open habitat and we could watch it more clearly even though it was further away. The colour of the bird was difficult to judge since when in shade it looked a fairly cold brown but when emerging into the sunshine it looked much paler. The overall impression though was of a much more subdued grey brown upper parts than the warmer tones of a common Reed Warbler with the underparts being a less warm buff colour. The supercilium was striking, more pronounced in front of the eye but still extending behind, while the bill was long with a dark upper mandible as opposed to a pale lower mandible. The legs were a darkish brown colour. 

As we watched the Blyth's work its way through the nettles and bank side vegetation it underlined its own identity by calling a couple of times, a short "tzeck, tzeck". Our views improved once more when the Blyth's Reed warbler suddenly appeared in a willow right in front of us and no more than fifteen feet away so we were now getting amazing views of the bird. The willow was only sparsely leaved but even still the Warbler could be hard to make out at times whereas at others it was on full view. The Blyth's Reed warbler hardly kept still though and many of my resulting shots were of an interesting willow twig or leaf! But I was filling my boots taking frame after frame of the stunning little bird over the next ten minutes or so.

The chap we'd met at Rattray Head earlier arrived for a look at the bird. He'd been told by another local birder that the bird was incredibly hard to see, well I begged to differ! It didn't take long before I'd spotted the bird emerge next to the fence again, having studied it for a while I now had its habits sussed, and then repeat its path through the vegetation and into the willows once more. This time the Blyth's Reed really showed well since it climbed into the higher branches where it was lit up completely by the evening sunshine. My photos were, on the whole, absolute corkers! I just couldn't miss! Frame after frame of pretty much the whole bird with no leafy obstructions.

I was so impressed with my efforts that I submitted a few onto the Birdguides website (to be fair I always put a few on there) and was absolutely gobsmacked a few days later when I was awarded a "Photo of the Week"! I never imagined that I'd ever win one of the weekly contests even though I"d been given several "Notable Photo" accolades over the years. The Birdguides photo pages contain many marvellous images taken by some very able photographers, much more talented and competent than I will ever be. But still, I won it! Yay!!!

The Photo of the Week winning image!!!

Daryl drove up and pulled alongside. He had his family with him since they were heading up north for a holiday but on hearing that we'd found the bird and that it had showed well he just had to grab another look and who could blame him. When the bird popped up yet again by the fence, I put him and the other birder on to it, took a few more shots and left them to it. 

The pair of us had a very happy drive back to Speyside and weren't even bothered when, as soon as we hit the higher ground, it was raining heavily yet again!