Winter arrives

Last weekend it blew and this weekend it snows, winter has arrived.

The seawatching last weekend was great on the Saturday in the strong westerly with an unprecedented Kittiwake count of 1104 in two hours. They were still going at the same rate over an hour later when I returned from walking out to beyond the Whalebone so I will have seen many more. Also 13 very late Soots and best of all two Common Scoter, very uncommon from Pt of Buckquoy. Much was expected from the Sunday but the expected return movement didn't happen and it was disappointing.

Pile of Linnets in the garden was unusual.  And a Raven was hanging around the rookery.

During the week Louise had a white morph Gyr zooming around the back of the house on Thursday lunchtime. No sign today though.

Not much of a seawatch today, just 2 GND and a Red-th Diver. But a Grey Plover along the beach was new for the year.

Driving back home though there was a Short-eared Owl sitting in the middle of the road. Stop, reverse, it was obviously stunned. I managed to catch it and get it back up to the house and stick it in a cardboard box to see if it would recover but a couple of hours later it was dead. When I looked at it closely one wing was missing from the shoulder. Subsequently saw three live ones during the rest of the day. This was the second I've found killed on the roads in Harray this year.

Much rather see them like this... 

In the garden there was a Goldfinch, just the second of the year, late in the afternoon (too late for a photo). Smart House Sparrow in the sunshine earlier on...