Saturday 5 November 2011

Snow Buntings

I wandered out fairly early on a beautiful still, sunny day. A male Merlin was terrorising The Shunan amd environs. I elected not to go OBP hunting near the airport as it was clear last night.... Probably the reason that despite the initial warmth the moth trap was devoid of moths, although a Small Tortoiseshell was on the wing around midday. Walking back up from searching through the 250 odd Teal for a more interesting duck two Snow Buntings flew over heading south, a new species for the tetrad for me and only 100m short of being a garden tick.

Plenty of thrushes around today with Fieldfare and Redwing around home and Fieldfare being especially evident on Hillside Rd when we drove over to Evie mid afternoon. At Evie there were two Great Northern Divers and a Velvet Scoter. Plenty of gulls but I couldn't weedle an interesting one out of the roost. Waders included three Purps and a single Sanderling.

Other species in and around the garden today were Brambling, probably 8 or so round and about, Reed Bunting, perhaps 6, Robin, 4, Chaffinch, 4, Blackbird perhaps 20. Most frustrating was the brief view of a chat which paused in full view against the light momentarily, it may have been Black Red or even something much more exciting but unfortunately it didn't show again.

Tomorrow is goose count day so I'm off to the East Mainland, it will be a whole day job.

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