A
stunning day, very calm with hardly a cloud in the sky; an hour’s walk around
St. Cyrus NNR at dawn produced a Greenshank on the river and a pair of
Stonechats before I drove north to Strathbeg.
A walk round the RSPB reserve produced a Great White Egret (only my second in Scotland), 3 Little Egrets,
an adult female Peregrine, 2 Water Rails, good numbers of Tree Sparrows round
the centre and plenty of birds getting an early start to the spring with
singing Skylarks, displaying Teal and best of all, the Whooper Swans on the
main loch all calling loudly, head bobbing and flapping about – an awesome
noise! A count of the loch from the
other side then produced 458
Whooper Swans and
three Goosander while a Sparrowhawk went over before a walk out to Rattray Head
produced 8 Corn Buntings including one in full song
(again, probably only the second time I’ve seen them in Scotland), 2
Stonechats, 600+ Pink-footed Geese flying around and a few bits on the sea by
the lighthouse including a Black Guillemot and 20+ Great-northern Divers
amongst the Eiders, Long-tailed Ducks and Auks.
Stonechat
Red-breasted Mergansers
No comments:
Post a Comment