Pretty sure one of today's Great White Egrets entered "air-space" above the garden. I was too busy trying to get photos, but on flight path I'd guess it made it. A beautiful day, and my usual morning stroll down to The Shunan to count the ducks and waders was enhanced by not just one, but two Great White Egrets. This species first graced the patch list in August last year, indeed it got on the "from the garden" and "from the house" lists too. At the time it was a first for my "self-found" list. I know that south this species is these days pretty much two a penny, but here it is still a quite scarce bird, so chuffed.
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| GWE x 2 at The Shunan. |
One bird was bullying the other, presumably this is a survival strategy to keep a feeding place for itself. The dominant bird seemed to be tucking in to sticklebacks and didn't waste too much energy chasing the other bird which shortly left to the east, and in the process seemed to get itself directly over the garden, close, anyway.
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| GWE leaving air-space. |
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| As we headed out to do the recycling the dominant bird was conveniently on the road side of The Shunan. |
I watch Blackbirds scrapping over apples in the back garden. It occurs very regularly, even when there's plenty of apple for all. And Robins are not at all keen on Blackcap feeding on apple, although the Robins themselves are not all that interested in the fruit and only take the occasional piece. There would have been plenty of feeding space and plenty of sticklebacks and probably Eel for both birds.
Sadly the Nikon 50mm Fieldscope was a right-off. Not repairable. Fortunately I'd pre-empted this eventuality and having spotted what looked like a brand new body on eBay acquired it for a very good price. When it arrived I was very, very pleased to find it was pretty much brand new and unused. Using it I've now realised that my old one had been pretty knackered for some time. Nikon have been good enough to give me a 20% discount voucher as they've recycled my old one. Nikon service for optics has in my experience been spot on. No carriage or administration fees (Leica) and dealing with Nikon direct, not a third party agent (Kowa). I suspect my next bins will be Nikons. Having said this we've just replaced Louise's Opticrons with a pair of Zeiss Terra 8x25s, they are fabulously sharp. A bit bulkier than pocket bins, but easily stowable for traveling.
The last few days have been spent looking back at photos from our 2021 Arran trip and trying to sort all the identifications. I've been motivated to do this by the Bubo Pan-species Lists being put online, what a great project! This has generated guilt at never entering much of my Arran data into iRecord. However, to tackle that omission has proven easier said than done as there are a lot of identifications that I need to review. So far I've found five new species for my PSL and corrected one significant ID blunder. Earlier trips to Arran also require review.
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| Athalia cordata (Bugle Sawfly) from Arran, July 2021 (thanks to AR for help and confirmation of the ID). |
I'm sure there will be a few more (not exactly armchair) ticks. Each requires a fair bit of messing with photos and then research to get to a species identification. In one case I'd kept a moth specimen, it had been in the freezer for two years, and I've finally got to the correct identification. However, there are some others that require some help and consultation.
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| Tinea semifulvella, I'd previously thought this was a Batia species. |
Our trip to the tip involved a stop at Warbeth for a walk, where there were a lot of Ringed Plovers, about 140 and a single Grey Plover.
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| Some of the 140 or so Ringed Plovers with one Grey Plover. |
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| Rain Over Hoy. |
2 comments:
Good to hear GWE have arrived in Orkney. I remember the thrill of seeing my first one on the Somerset Levels, maybe 2008 or 2009, now as you mention here it's impossible almost not to see one down here. Big fan of Nikon too. My main binoculars are nearly 25 years old, nitrogen gas filled they've never let me down and still pin sharp. I'd contemplated replacing them recently but I'd need to spend a lot of money only to replace like with like in a way. One day, maybe.
I moved to Kowa (8x33 Prominar Genesis) some years back, I reckon they are slightly better than my Nikons and 100g lighter. When I got the Kowas they were £500, nearer to £900 these days. I would recommend them, but Kowa's after-sales is not as good as Nikon's (still not bad) (but better than Leica in my opinion, and from what I've heard Swarovski by all accounts). The Zeiss Terra 8x25s are impressively sharp but the light gathering lets them down a tad as you would expect, they are very light to carry tho, about half the weight of the Nikons at 324g. If I could justify it I wouldn't mind a pair of Monarch 7 HG 8x42s (665g) LCE have them at a good price currently, but having recently had the Kowas serviced I'll stick with them for the foreseeable I expect. GWE seems to have moved on, not seen for the last two days, previously in view from the kitchen for two days.
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