In the Pink! West Scotland, 12th June

We were on a roll after picking up the sought after Dotterel yesterday so we had (well I had) hatched a plan over a pint of cider the evening before to carry on and attempt to "clean up" on the species we still needed to see. This would need a bit of travelling around so today we decided to head west towards Applecross. We've usually had success in finding good birds such as the two eagle species and divers on such trips before so were optimistic as we set out on a bit of a cool and grey morning.

Our first stop was made near Lochluichart where Ospreys nest on a platform that has been erected on top of an electricity pylon. I guess anything is as good as tree if you're an Osprey, providing it's high enough and secure enough from predators that may come from below. We've been visiting this nest for a few years now ever since we noticed it in spring one year because it was covered in snow and stood out like a beacon! In the summer it is much more difficult to find since the roadside trees, when in leaf, mostly screen the row of pylons from the road. We pulled up in a convenient spot and within seconds the male Osprey had flown over to check us out, they obviously need to know what everything is that enters into their territory. He let us be though when three Ravens entered its airspace, they were far more demanding of his attention and a lot of effort was exerted in removing them from the area.

The Osprey nest at the top of the pylon

male Osprey

Raven

Loch Cowan provides a convenient stop off and we spent a few minutes there surveying the water and surrounding marshes. There are rare breeding waders at this site but this time we only saw a Greenshank in one of the channels along with some more common waterbirds such as Grey Herons and Common Gulls. A Hooded Crow passed overhead, they become more common the further west you travel. 

Grey Heron

We were looking forward to driving up the Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle), the highest road in Britain, stopping at the top and looking for Ptarmigan and then down the other side to Applecross, but in truth were dismayed by the amount of tourist traffic on the route (yes I know we're part of that but it was never this bad). How times have changed! The road lies on the North Coast 500 route and it is being tainted by an endless barrage of cars, motorcycles and motorhomes that are clogging up the narrow roads. It was busy enough in Lochcarron but in Applecross it was much much worse. The beautiful small coastal village was practically gridlocked, there were hundreds of vehicles, people were queueing to get into the pub (nothing wrong with that, I admit) and it was barely midday! We just couldn't bear it, making a mental note to never come back in June again, and chose to drive straight out towards Shieldaig on the scenic coast road instead, also part of the North Coast 500 but quieter since everybody was in Applecross! We did stop at the Walled Garden Tea Rooms for a coffee and cake and to look at the fabulous Highland Cattle on the estate. 

Highland Cattle

While watching the Coo's my phone sprang into life and a very interesting message scrolled across the screen, "Rosy Starling, Torridon...."! Now if you follow my blog (my thanks to both of you, you know who you are!) you'll know about the trials and tribulations of last Friday see (A frustrating day!) when we managed to not find 2 Rose-coloured Starlings on the Moray coast. Now we had another completely unexpected chance! Torridon was about an hours drive away, I consulted the map to see exactly where the bird was, apparently in a hamlet about 5 miles west of Torridon itself and set off at apace. A Lesser Black-backed Gull stood on a fencepost appeared to be urging me on and pointing the way (although it seemed confused as to the actual direction to take!).

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Just past the smallholding made famous by Monty Halls in his TV show, I spotted a chap looking through his scope at something so, despite my haste, naturally pulled in alongside and inquired as to what he was looking at? On a small Lochan about a hundred yards away a pair of Red-throated Divers were idly swimming. Although I'd seen one from the boat to Handa last week, they are birds that I always enjoy seeing. They are also a bird that I still don't have a decent photo of, and unfortunately this sighting wasn't going to change that situation but, like I said, nice to see. They didn't linger either and were soon off leaving me with just a crap record shot. But we had rarer fish (birds) to fry (not literally).

Red-throated Divers. 

Heading straight to Torridon meant ignoring Shieldaig and driving straight past but we'd return the same way later after we'd hopefully seen the Starling. I turned in off the "main" road and towards Torridon village thinking that I still had another half dozen miles to go when I noticed first a familiar car parked and then a familiar figure stood at the side of the road and peering into a small garden through binoculars. It was Steve, who we'd met the other day during our failed quests to find the Rosy's, I parked, wound the window down and asked what he was doing? "The Rose-coloured Starling is in that bush" was his reply. Talk about luck?! If I hadn't have spotted him we'd have been 5 miles away looking in the wrong place! We parked the car around the corner and joined Steve next to the garden. "It's here but it's just dived back into the bush" and then he showed me a back of the camera shot showing the most gorgeous adult Rose-coloured Starling in its splendid pink and black plumage. For the next hour and half the three of us stared hard into the bush, around the bush and just about everywhere else and had no sight of the Starling. This was driving me nuts! My third chance of seeing an adult Rosy, a bird I hadn't seen for 15 years or more (have seen plenty of juveniles in Cornwall and elsewhere but no adults) and I was being frustrated once again. Arghhh! At 4 o'clock we gave up and decided to go for a coffee and something to eat in the village. But I don't often give up so an hour later was back outside the garden. I lifted my bins and couldn't believe it when perched quite openly on a fence wire was the Rose-coloured Starling! A few moments longer to get Mrs Caley on it and relax, phew!

Rose-coloured Starling

I now watched this most beautiful and exotic looking bird at length although it didn't do a lot. In fact, apart from moving it's head to watch me as I altered my own position to get different photos, it didn't move and stayed perched on the wire. Five minutes later it disappeared into a nearby denser bush and we didn't see it again. Actually nobody did since there was no sign the next day. Fortunately I had managed to obtain some nice shots to savour later.

There were other nice birds visiting the garden, in particular several Lesser Redpoll's which were feeding on the ground under the empty feeders as well as also using the fence and a handrail for perching. If I lived in such a place I'd be sure to keep all the feeders well stocked since you never know what could turn up in these remote situations and gardens are a magnet for rare and scarce birds as well as the more common garden birds, as the Rose-coloured Starling proved. On the Isle of Skye two years ago we had been lucky enough to see a fine male Black-headed Bunting at a feeding station in somebody's back garden. Keep those feeders full!

Lesser Redpoll

We returned to Shieldaig and sat on a picnic bench while I half looked at the photos I'd just taken and half peered out at the island where Long-eared Owls are reputed to breed and also where White-tailed Eagles are known to have joined them in island living. Our vigil was rewarded when one of the Eagles flew in from the bay and made directly for the trees that stand on the island, sadly disappearing from view before I could nab a record shot. Completely satisfied it was time to head back to Speyside and plan tomorrow, only 3 days left and we'd yet to visit Elvis!

Staring up trees! 17-18th November.

During the week I had got wind of a couple of special species of birds, in terms of Oxon birding anyway , that had been showing well locally. So with a whole weekend to spare, I am beginning to like the international breaks in the football, and a really good weather forecast for a change, I hatched a plan, with help from my good mate Jim who provided detailed directions to each site, to get them in.

Common Crossbills are always good birds to see and are very localised in Oxfordshire, mainly because the county lacks the large conifer forests that the birds tend to be associated with. I've found a couple in Blenheim Park before and seen some on the Chiltern ridge but have had most sightings of  these specialised fir cone feeders in Scotland and Wales. A small flock of Crossbills had been showing well in a mixed woodland, Buckland Warren near Faringdon, for the last couple of weeks so we chose to go in search of them on Saturday morning.  At the parking area we had met fellow Oxon birder and very skilled photographer, Steve (aka The Tall Birder) who was also in pursuit of the Crossbills, although he recounted that he'd been here the week before without any success. The walk to the wood was easy along a level farm track and we found the favoured Larch trees easily. We'd already heard Crossbills chipping away overhead so were very hopeful of a quick and easy fix but nearly an hour and a half later of staring up trees and seeing nothing we were becoming rather anxious! Not quite nothing since a couple of Sparrowhawks had been present on and off, no doubt not helping in our quest to see the Crossbills, and large flocks of Fieldfare were passing overhead. There was also a good sized flock of Siskins around and they would frequently drop into the larches and pick seeds out of the cones. I had been told that the Crossbills were associating with the Siskins but at this stage they had obviously had a tiff and fallen out with each other.

Siskin

Sparrowhawk

Mrs Caley and I went wandering while Steve remained sat in his birding easy chair, I often wish I carried a seat around with me then these bloody feet of mine might not hurt so much! There is a beautiful Yew tree tunnel that the track passes through and I wondered if any Hawfinches found it during last years invasion of those big billed finches. There were Mistle Thrushes and Redwing enjoying the Yew berries but it's so dark when under the trees that it's a job to see anything clearly let alone photograph any of them. A couple of very bold Muntjac Deer eyed us up but hardly seemed in the slightest bit bothered by our presence, they must be used to people walking past here. On exiting the Yew tunnel towards the way we had come, we became alerted to the calls of the Crossbills once more and looking up saw about a dozen fly over heading in the direction of the larch trees where we'd been looking before! We hurried back and asked Steve if he'd seen them land anywhere. His response was negative so we assumed that they must have flown off to a different part of the woods. I concentrated my efforts at a couple of trees that were close to some puddles reasoning that the Crossbills may want to drink at some point, as they are very prone to do, since their diet of cone seeds requires a lot of water to aid digestion. Mrs Caley called from further up the track, "I've got some!" and I scurried up to join her just in time to see two Crossbill sized birds fly off further into the trees. Bugger! Another fruitless ten minutes of searching the most likely looking trees and I was off wandering again but this time I had only gone a few yards when Mrs Caley called me back once more. There feeding quietly in one of the larch trees was a female Crossbill! Hallelujah and thank goodness for my good lady wife!

female Crossbill

Once found Crossbills are fairly easy to observe since they stay fairly still in the trees gorging on the cone seeds. Common Crossbills are the smallest and most dainty (but still big in finch terms) of our UK Crossbill species, we also have Scottish (if you subscribe to some taxonomic orders) and Parrot varieties in order of ascending size and robustness. Common Crossbills are Larch specialists, their smaller and thinner bills enabling them to tease out the seeds from the smaller and denser Larch cones, the larger species favour bigger Pine tree cones. I say that Crossbills are fairly easy to observe excepting the fact that they tend to feed on cones high up the trees so a very long ladder would come in handy! Much craning of the neck is required to watch the birds and that is very tiring after a while as well as the cause of much aching in the back! Luckily I am used to aches and pains in the back area, although I do most of my staring down at the floor rather than upwards. I had also luckily taken my monopod with me for this excursion, obviously I knew about Crossbills and their habits, and that helped greatly in taking the weight of the camera as well as helping hold it steady. There were now at least four Crossbills feeding in the larch but only one male and that was proving hard to pin down in the middle of the tree.

male Crossbill

For some strange reason female Crossbills are more showy than males. In Crossbill species males are a bright brick red colour and females are a duller yellowy green. In my experience, the females are good at choosing exposed perches at the very end of branches whereas males tend to pick more concealed cones. Hence the females seem to be a lot easier to photograph than males but it's the males that are most photogenic and thus sought after! The weather had indeed turned out nice as promised too so we had good conditions and nice blue backdrops in which to work with. After fifteen minutes or so of watching them, the Crossbills suddenly exploded from the tree when spooked by one of the Sparrowhawks. We had counted four in the tree and yet at least ten flew out! It was the same when we watched a flock of (Scottish) Crossbills in Speyside in June this year. Then we had counted around eight birds but at least twenty flew out from the Scots Pine on that occasion. It is amazing how many birds can feed undetected in a reasonably open and sparse tree top.

We gave it another ten minutes or so but when the Crossbills didn't return we left for lunch at a nearby pub bidding Steve good luck in his continued vigil. Our original plan for the day had been to pop into Farmoor on the way back home but nothing of note had been reported from there today (lazy birders are we) so we discussed other options. The Short-eared Owls at Hawling were suggested but it was still only early afternoon and they wouldn't show until nearly dark so we put that plan on hold until another day. So we thought "why don't we have another go at the Crossbills?". Why not indeed! Thinking that the light would be even better in the afternoon, I imagined that should the birds be present then I would be able to get stonking photos for posterity. It took us less than ten minutes to relocate some of the Crossbills, this time I spotted them feeding in a larch just a few yards away from the original tree. Much to my disappointment though the chosen tree was deep in the shadow of adjacent larger trees and I spent the next hour or so trying, mainly in vain, to get an angle that would enable illuminated views and photos. Again there were around four, or it may have been five, birds on view and two were males one of which was at least showing clearly this time. Most of my efforts were concentrated on this male bird but it never emerged into full sunlight. I tried photographing from the other side of the tree but from there you couldn't see the birds. Such are the trials and tribulations of the bird togger! 

male Crossbill

(Quick joke: Q. Which side of a tree is the front?) 

Of course the females were more obliging and just loved sunbathing at the end of the branches!

female Crossbills

Having had our fill, and leaving a couple of appreciative birders that we'd shared the Crossbills with, we left them all to it and called it a day.

On Sunday morning we headed into the affluent South East area of Oxfordshire near Nettlebed in a search for Firecrests, one of our most diminutive of resident birds. We are lucky enough to know of a very small local breeding colony of these birds and had great views of some earlier in the year but, since we'd drawn a blank with them in Cornwall during our holiday a few weeks ago, thought we'd give it a twirl at seeing them again. If Crossbills are tricky to observe then Firecrests are very difficult to see, particularly in the woodland we now walked into where very tall trees abound. At least Crossbills remain fairly static within the tree tops, Firecrests, along with their close relatives the Goldcrest, are very active little birds and are continually on the move. Indebted to Jim again, we knew exactly where to look but that didn't make it any easier! For an hour we scrutinised every Holly and Laurel bush looking for any movement that might denote a crest of some description without any joy. The only bird of note that we did see was a Jay that posed nicely on a fence at the edge of the wood.

Jay

Eventually we came across an active flock of birds, Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed Tits as well as a splendid Marsh Tit were all part of the flock which also contained some Chaffinches. We could hear some crests calling and located them high up in the canopy where they flitted quickly from branch to branch. One of them proved to be a Firecrest but there was no chance of capturing it via the camera. No chance of snapping the fine male Brambling that flew into the same tree either since that departed too quickly. At least a dozen Goldcrests were seen both in the tree tops and in some larger Holly trees but none came within reach of my lens. It's not often that I fail to capture at least some record shots of the birds that I see but on this occasion I did exactly that! We'll return to the local breeding site in the spring and try our luck again there. 

Firecrest, undisclosed location, Oxon, 21st April 2018

On the way home we dropped into Swyncombe Church where we'd seen Hawfinches at the turn of last year. Hawfinches invaded the country in huge numbers last autumn and winter but as yet there was no sign of a repeat this year. Firecrests have also been seen in the churchyard Yew trees but there was no sign of anything save for a couple of Collared Doves and the ubiquitous Red Kites. We took a stroll along the Ridgeway path, seeing very little except for Wood Pigeons and Pheasants until I noticed a medium sized bird flying rapidly across an open area of grassland. I got my binoculars on to it and was delighted to find myself looking at a fine Peregrine Falcon chasing some of the Wood Pigeons which were scattering in all directions. Aiming the camera at the falcon I clicked just in time to be thwarted by a bloody great tree which suddenly moved right in the way! Double bugger! The chance was gone, the Peregrine flew into the wooded hillside and was lost to view and despite waiting for a while didn't come out again. One of those days, good birds but not a single photo to record them!

(A. The opposite side to which you go for a pee! Get it? Because you always pee behind a tree. I'll get my coat......)

Calm after the storm, 14th October

After spending the evening listening to more heavy rain and strong winds battering the cottage, oh yes, we live it up alright, the morning welcomed us in with persistent but lighter rain. So we sat still and took our time, relaxing (hardly) and winding down like you're supposed to do on holiday. Except we are not, or at least I'm not, like most folk on their vacations and as soon as the skies brightened a little bit out we went!

The forecast was for the weather to improve into a fine and sunny day (wow!) so we decided to take in a cliff top walk around the old tin mines, famous for being used in the Poldark TV series, at Botallack just a few miles down the road. This part of Cornwall is very popular with tourists (because of that TV series) so can get busy,, in relative terms of course. I resisted, thankfully I hear you all say, stripping off to the waist and gazing longingly out to sea as per Ross Poldark himself, but stared just as eagerly into every bush, patch of gorse and tree instead. Rough weather can bring scarce and rare birds into this part of the world but, as my regular reader will know, the chances of me actually finding any are extremely slim (I did find a Wryneck here once, just once). The weather hadn't quite settled yet and there was still rain on the air so Mrs Caley and I did have the area to ourselves for a while longer at least.

It was evident that there had been a minor "fall" of thrushes and chats to the scrubby area at the cliff edge and many Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Robins were evident, many using the puddles left over by the storm to wash and brush up. The migration of birds is a subject that (mildly) fascinates me and I never cease to marvel at how birds that weigh less than the filling of a Cornish pasty can survive on such long journeys. If there are a lot of common birds around then there's always a good chance that something less common may be around too. Except you know the answer that question already!

Blackbird

Dunnock

We encountered the local Kestrel pair perched upon one of the old mine buildings. This time last year we had watched them go through the initial stages of producing more Kestrels but this year they were obviously fed up at being ogled at and flew off at our approach. The Kestrels would be hungry too after the foul weather and any one of the tired migrant birds would make a good breakfast. The female of the pair soon returned but appeared to be grasping a big cricket or similar insect of some variety (photo is rather blurred but you can see the prey item).

"Not today, thank you!"

Breakfast, Kestrel style

Without us even noticing, the sky had metamorphosed into a brilliant blue and there was barely a cloud! Good things come to those that wait. With the warmer and more settled air came the rest of the avian predators. We spotted a pair of Raven drifting toward us bound for the same pile of rubble and stone that the Kestrels had just vacated. One of the Ravens passed very closely and appeared to have its own take away breakfast, not sure what it may have been but the Raven looked fairly satisfied.

Raven with breakfast

Once settled the Ravens also had a preen and spruce up, they are really handsome birds when the sun illuminates their glossy black feathers. Ravens also have an air of intelligence about them and are definitely much more sophisticated than the evil brutes that are frequently portrayed in films and books. Mind you they may still be as sinister as they are perceived, I just think they are a beautiful evil. 

The pair of Ravens were joined by a third bird which had a look of freshness about it so I assumed it must be a juvenile bird. The younger bird decided it would be good fun to circle low over our heads a couple of times seemingly as interested in us as we were of it. I'm not sure what I said to upset it but we were lucky to only just avoid wearing a deposit of the stinky kind! 

The next birds to check us out were a couple of the "Cornish" Choughs. The Cornish folk have become so enamoured with their local Choughs that they've adopted them as their own. These most acrobatic of our corvid species were as vociferous as ever as they enjoyed, as they always seem to do, flying in the updrafts at the cliff edge. Mrs Caley loves Choughs but despite that outpouring of affection she couldn't woo them in close enough for my liking and for the lens to reach them adequately.

The bird that I wanted to see and to hopefully get a decent photo of was the Peregrine Falcon. We had seen one earlier fly south but far out to sea and now I had spotted one soaring above Kenidjack Castle (a ruin stuck out on a headland above the valley). I watched the raptor just hanging on the breeze as it surveyed the ground below for a good five minutes or so hoping that it would come a bit (a lot actually) closer so that I could get that photo but the Peregrine was having none of it. Then it drifted slowly northwards without coming any closer before plunging steeply down until lost below the cliffs. I wondered what unfortunate bird had probably succumbed to the supreme predator.

Peregrine on the attack

It had been a nice and refreshing walk along the clifftops but it was getting busy now with wannabe Poldark suitors and Dog Walkers so we retreated to the car and drove down to the head of the Kenidjack Valley. On our walk back we surprised a fine male Merlin from the track. Merlin would definitely be chasing the small migrating songbirds in the hope of catching one or two. As usual it was away quickly over the scrub reacting far faster than I ever could with the camera and so, not for the first time with Merlins, another photo opportunity was lost. 

After the wild conditions of the previous day it was good to be working the valley in more sublime weather, at least now we'd have a chance of seeing some birds in the trees. A Grey Wagtail looked rather incongruous perched in a roadside tree and a young Kestrel, a bird that we'd become used to seeing through the following week, stood sentinel on a tree stump, totally unfazed by anybody that walked past.

Grey Wagtail

Kestrel

By the engine shed a few birders were stood looking into the sycamore trees and, when asked upon what their attention was focussed on, informed us that both a Yellow-browed Warbler (the bird that I most have to catch up with in Cornwall in October) and a Willow Warbler were present. At first I could only hear and see Chiffchaffs and Chaffinches but after a few minutes the unmistakeable "tsweeeeet" call of the Yellow-browed was heard. The bird itself though was tricky to pin down but eventually we had views of the little sprite flitting amongst the branches. Last year it had taken us all week to "get" a Yellow-browed so seeing one so soon into the week was a blessing and I, for one, could relax a bit. I'd be sure to get better views and photos later in the week. The Willow warbler put in an appearance and showed much better than its smaller cousin, staying out on view in the sunshine for a fair while.

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

We headed down further into the valley and were alerted by the calls of another (or the same) pair of Choughs. These birds appeared to be occupied with harassing one of the local Buzzards although in truth they may have just been sharing the same thermal since there was always a bit of distance between them.

Buzzard & Chough

Our most favoured spot in our most favoured of valleys is at the Donkey paddocks at the seaward end of the valley. The house that nestles in against the hillside there would be our dream house to own since the garden and the trees opposite are a well known hotspot for migrant birds. I could, and have done many times before, spend hours here searching through the stunted trees for warblers and crests. It is a reliable spot for Yellow-browed and we saw a fine Red-breasted Flycatcher here a few years ago. The birds tend to do a circuit of the garden and the paddock trees and the views are good since from the path you look down at the action. Initially the only birds we could hear and see were once again Chiffchaffs. Interestingly they kept low down in the branches often dropping to the ground to catch food, perhaps insects were dislodged from the trees during the stormy weather and were now stricken and easy pickings down there. The Chiffchaffs were actively feeding on the sunny side of the small sallows, I guess insects are attracted to the warmth and soon a smaller and quicker warbler joined them, a Yellow-browed! Last year it took me until the final day of the holiday to see a Yellow-browed so I was delighted to see one so quickly this time. Typically it was very nimble and would only be on view for a few seconds but with perseverance I managed a couple of record shots.

Yellow-browed Warbler

As Mrs Caley will testify I would quite happily spend hours watching and trying to photograph Yellow-browed Warblers but time was pressing and the sun began to dip behind the cliffs so for once I dragged myself away and back towards the car. I took a few shots of some of the local Jackdaws, a much ignored subject, lit by the late afternoon sunshine as they flew around the tall chimneys of the old mine workings.

Jackdaw

It had been a good day and the calmness of the weather after the storms was welcomed. Hopefully we'd be blessed with decent conditions for the rest of our stay and maybe a new bird for our life list would appear and be twitchable! Watch this space......