Oystercatchers

One of the pair of the Oystercatchers at work is ringed.

It would be good to be able to read the ring, but attempts at photographing it were a bit of a failure, wrong angle. Here is their frequent early morning perch.

Migrants

A walk on the moor on Thursday showed the impact of the previous few days of fine weather with plenty of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits on territory, Lapwing and Curlew displaying and on territory and plenty of pairs of Greylags carving out seasonal homes. A Redwing and a small flock of Fieldfare were also present, on their way north presumably. The evening finally produced the rather overdue Black-tailed Godwit on The Shunan as well as a roost of 31 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Jackdaw tracking in the evening, whilst not conclusive, pretty much demonstrated that the population breeding on the Mar Wick cliffs roost in our rookery. Jackdaws being surprisingly difficult to track as they fly low and fast in the dusk heading for the roost.

On Friday the feeders were visited very briefly by two male Siskins (there have been a few elsewhere in recent days). The Black-tailed Godwit continued to be present on The Shunan. The highlight though was AL's excellent talk at the joint RSPB/OFC meeting in the evening, all about the Orkney geese. AL's neck collar scheme (orange, three capital letters in black) have shown that the "feral" Orkney population, whilst generally staying within a few klicks of home, have within their number a few travellers. A few seem to be migrating to Norfolk annually, one of which overshot last year and ended up staying on Faroe for the breeding season (it's a young, non-breeder), currently back in Norfolk. Greylag Goose is a controversial bird on Orkney as the winter and "feral" populations have both exploded over the last 30 years. As 6 Greylags = one sheep in pasture consumption.. They also damage barley and neeps crops.

An early start yesterday found me on The Brough of Birsay, on a rising tide to make it more interesting. A rather rapid tour of the island found the usual suspects and it was only when I was approaching the causeway to leave that first a Bonxie cruised by and then a Wheatear appeared on the beach. In Palace more migrants were to be found in the shape of a Robin and a Chaffinch. Seawatching from Pt of Buckquoy produced several hundred Greylags heading north, three more Bonxies and 2 Puffins. A Carrion Crow came south with  Hoodies from the Brough and the same or another came south at Buckquoy. Subsequently there were two on The Links, all of these were given reasonable scrutiny and none showed grey feathers.

An unusual visitor just outside the front view from the kitchen window.

South-easterly gale overnight with rain, now calm and damp, should really find me in the field...

Mooching about

We've woken up to snow most mornings and today it snowed for a good bit during the morning, nothing sticking mind. Mostly over the last fortnight its been generally sunny but very cold. A Wheatear was seen at Mar Wick today.When I was there on Monday, looking for Jackdaws it was still and sunny and wheatearless.

Amongst the 61 Jackdaws at Mar Wick I found one likely monedula (Nordic Jackdaw), it was a tad distant though. I'm pretty sure that these are the Jackdaws that make up the majority of our roost, all I need to do is track them over the eight miles or so as they fly in...

I managed to relocate the Loch of Banks black crow and get some photos. When I saw it previously I was pretty sure it showed some grey feathers but these, rather distant, photos don't show any.

 Crow hunting

 Mmmm, looks like a Carrion Crow

...but I'm unconvinced, I think that the breast seems to have a brownish hue..., I need to get closer

This was just down the road, it might be the most subtle grey hybrid yet? (Looks like a black feather in the mantle.)

This is getting a bit obsessive. Neither of these birds is currently identified. Both would appear to be paired and on territory, with the near black/carrion probably nesting with a grey hybrid. More observations required.

This was rather nice at The Links on Sunday

Bosquoy held two summer plumage Red-th Divers on Tuesday

Plenty of Song Thrush about and the occasional Fieldfare moving through. A feature of Monday and Tuesday were the numbers of Skylarks that appeared to be moving through, 10 or 11 each day. Yesterday evening there were at least 800 Pink-feet in the field behind the house and on Monday evening at Mar Wick there had been 200 Pinks in the fields and an additional 110 flew north.

Botanical signs of spring

However, at the moment it's just as likely to be like this...

... and the rooks have to put up with this...

Ouch!

Getting the shopping out of the car on Saturday afternoon I did something horrible to my back, birding currently reduced to mooching about at home. A Robin on Saturday morning indicated a bit of movement. On Monday there were two Chaffinch, and Woodpigeon and Song Thrush were singing. On Tuesday Bramblings were up to 14 and the tilling and drilling in the surrounding fields produced Lesser Black-backed Gull 3, a pretty lowly total compared to last year if my memory serves me.

The doctor had worked miracles yesterday morning and by the afternoon I was more like my usual self, still a bit short on sleep, thus this night time post, having woken up frozen up.

Rook at the feeders, very few of the colony dare to do this but a good few are in the Rosa behind the feeders tearing off sticks.

More rook stuff on the Parliament blog.

Crow hybrids

Please look at the new crow page if you would be interested in helping with my observer survey about identification of crow hybrids. The basic survey can be found at the bottom of the right hand panel of this blog, please scroll down. The more complete survey, which you might like to complete if you regularly contribute data to BirdTrack, or took part in collecting data for the three breeding birds of Britain atlas projects, is here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FP8J78J

Thanks.

Orkney observers - please don't complete this survey if you contributed to the Orkney specific survey previously, thanks.

Cold...

Cold? Cold? It's totally freeeeeeeeezzzzzzing. Well it was yesterday. Nasty easterly with snow and cloud and cold. Stayed indoors and wrote about crows mostly. Well, we did take the hound on the moor and in one hour saw no birds, not one.

Today was a tad better, wind was easier. Down at Birsay there were even some signs of spring, in amongst the wintery ones. Like a pair of summer plumage Red-throated Divers in the bay and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls at the burn mouth. Even some signs of wader movement with reduced numbers of Purple SandPipers and 6 Dunlin and a Grey Plover. The wintery sign though was a neat little flock of Snow Buntings with at least one immaculate male.

Back home the Bramblings were still around with 16 today. Two Goldfinches still present but no sign of Thursday morning's Robin. Biggest surprise was a Twite on the Niger feeder, that's never happened before. Most of the interest was on the crow front with a likely Nordic Jackdaw, well either that or one of the more eastern jobs, in amongst the 65 strong Jackdaw flock that was hanging about late p.m. Nice pale grey nape, head looked bigger and thin whitish neck collar. Couldn't see the belly well enough unfortunately. Looks like the Rooks are on eggs as one that I could see on the nest appeared to be sitting. 40 nests now, no increase really on last week's 39.

Twite on the feeder

And now for some crow stuff...

The id piece for the bird report on hybrid crows is finished. it's far from perfect and if I want to do more with it I'll have to work it up a bit more. Soonish I'll post some crow stuff on the Parliament of Rooks blog but for now....

 Nice pair of Hoodies

 Rubbish pic of a hybrid. Looks obvious in the photo but to drive by, or see fly by, easily mistaken for a Hoodie. Look at those lovely black under-tail coverts. Seems like all the pale hybrids, even the very Hoodie looking ones, give themselves away by always having at least a few black under-tail coverts.

Same beast in flight, look at the back, mantle and you can just see the nape has black feathers invading the grey.

Hen Harrier petition

Please have a look at this petition and sign it if you agree (how can you not?).

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46473

This one, just beyond our garden, Orkney is the UK Hen Harrier stronghold, but even here just 100 breeding females (not pairs as the males have several mates) or fewer.

Bird race

The day of the walrus, if I hadn't been committed to bird racing, and I'd borrowed Louises car and was driving I might have just jumped on a plane.

We made an early start in order to track a few things down, largely successfully, although the Red-necked Grebe played hookie and the Blue Tit at the Hope was too elusive. JB managed to see the Blue Tit but by the time I'd run the 200m it had disappeared.

However, great views were obtained of the White-billed Diver once we'd tracked it down to Cara and once the official start time of 9 was past we nipped back from Barrier 4 to put it on the list.

Bananabill - nice

JB tried to keep the team to a tight time schedule but I was always keen to stop for a crow or two, we saw one apparently genuine Carrion Crow and a handful of hybrids. Holding the car keys was a definite advantage.

Glaucous Gull on the PDC

Anyway we eventually made it just in time to our garden where the Tree Sparrow duly obliged, along with Brambling, Reed Bunting and Wren. Even better the first Lesser Black-backed Gull of the year was on The Shunan, although we did subsequently find one at Stromness too. En route we'd seen at least 40 Great Northerns, and probably the same number of Slav Grebes.

Confiding Shag at Scapa pier

The final act was dipping on Shoveler, grabbing a late SEO and then getting to Finstown with four minutes to spare where we relocated the American Wigeon, found early in the morn but absent since.

So a total of 94 was our best yet and again secured the victory against some strong competition. Thanks to Dick for organising the event and the team for a great day out.

Beautiful weather, few birds

Lovely weather this weekend, calm and sunny. Today the clarity was brilliant, I've never seen Westray so clear and a whole range of snowy covered hills could be seen across the Pentland Firth into mainland Scotland.

The main interest is in and around the garden where there are signs of spring. Last weekend Goldfinch was singing when the "flock" had grown to three. A real charm of four this weekend and possible, if distant and brief singing heard again. Song Thrush was singing last weekend and was doing its cheery stuff again early a.m. and late p.m. As expected Woodpigeon made a brief appearance but still waiting for Lesser Black-backed Gull, although saw one last Saturday in Kirkwall. After the absence last weekend there were Bramblings here again with 18 today. Also two Reed bunting were in the bottom Rosa. 

Distant Skylarks were seen from the garden, the first for me this year, also heard singing at MarWick.

Not so much at Birsay but Long-tailed Duck is uncommon at Palace so one there was a bonus, a flock of Twite and Fulmars going west at 2,500 an hour.

A trip to Stromness to take the girls swimming enabled a bit of a walk at Warbeth.

Rockit

Aurora unseen and bird stuff

On Friday there was an amber aurora warning (http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/) trouble was it was during the day, that's not much good. The same thing happened yesterday afternoon as well, not quite a strongly (a yellow warning). When I went out in the first dark yesterday it was cloudy and raining as well, and although it did clear later and there was a bit of a glow and a single flash of light from the north nothing was going on. Disappointing.

On the bird front the first signs of spring are indeed here, although the weather would not be leading you to that conclusion, ice and light snow showers today, freezing easterly breeze. However, a pair of Shelduck turned up on The Shunan on Friday and took up territory. On Thursday night the first Oystercatcher of the year had flown over and yeserday there were five in the fields by The Shunan and two at Bosquoy.  Noisy time has arrived, although maybe the new double glazing will reduce the night-time piping, I hope it doesn't entirely eliminate the sounds of the night though.

If I were still doing Foot It, which I am still keeping a list for, I'd have been dead chuffed with today's Fulmar and Kittiwake. Fulmar would have turned up eventually in the summer I expect but I've recorded Kittiwake only once before from the patch, in thick fog in April (and then in the new section which is outside of the tetrad), so a good record. Also on the Patchwork list this weekend Slavonian Grebe, but I drove down to Hyval, a pony feeding and sorting out excursion, so not a Foot It species.

Mute Swans from Hyval

We went to Yesnaby yesterday afternoon, the light was stunning and the sea still had a mighty swell. Despite a good search around the Gyr could not be relocated though.

Yesnaby

In the morning I'd walked Bosquoy with the hound. Taking my time and counting and searching, a WeBS count. The odd Aythya could not be seen amongst the 86 Tufties. Little Grebe was obvious (bet it won't be next month for the bird race) but otherwise an unexceptional outing.

This morning it was Birsay, and Palace produced a nice adult Glaucous Gull and a Fieldfare. There were at least 120 Purps and a nice flock of 46 Twite. It was the flock of crows that took pride of place though, 47 Hoodies, a pale hybrid and the best looking Carrion Crow phenotype I've seen here. No telling if the CC has any Hoodie genes but it had no grey feathers and the plumage had a smart sheen in the morning light. This blows my theories away possibly as I would have generally reckoned that Carrion Crow is a passage bird only, this individual my dispell that idea.

Glaucous Gul

At home the Brambling flock is still under the feeders, two Goldfinch are continuing to visit the Niger, the Tree Sparrow showed well and the male Hen Harrier that has taken to hunting through the garden was seen closely a couple of times. The Linnet flock is down to 14 though and still no Skylark or Meadow Pipit in the ajoining fields. Rooks roosted on Thursday night when 110 came in at 17:40, they probably roosted last night as well but I didn't check.

Here's the latest aurora news...
The CME, which was captured in flight by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, billowed away from the sun at 800 km/s. The bulk of the cloud looks like it will sail north of Earth. Nevertheless, a glancing blow is possible as shown in this 3D model of the CME prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Flight Center. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Feb. 12th when the CME passes by.

Quiet day

Only one of yesterday's Bramblings remained and I didn't get out much as medium westerly with strong gusts when the rain squalls came through made it unpleasant a.m. By the afternoon things had quietend down a bit and I was outside for much of the afternoon but doing garden jobs. Bird of the day was the male Hen Harrier which repeated yesterday's trick of hunting the feeders and appearing just outside the kitchen window.

The weather is winding itself up for another blast with gusts of 60mph forecast for tomorrow, 30ft + seas early Tuesday a.m. Last Wednesday's gale blew four of the scaffolding planks off the scaffolding currently on the east end of our house, as chimney and roof repairs are in progress. Glad I wasn't underneath, also glad the wind wasn't blowing the other way - bye, bye conservatory...

Rookery, the 80 nests are now rather reduced

The familiar green garage doors are no more, they nearly blew away Christmas Day 2011 but survived the storm. They didn't survive the attentions of Window Craft however, kitchen now considerably warmer.

Doors and scaffolding

Space weather info... SUNSPOT OF INTEREST: A break in the quiet could be in the offing. Sunspot AR1667 is crackling with C-class solar flares and appears capable of producing an even stronger M-class eruption. The sunspot is turning toward Earth, so future blasts would likely be geoeffective. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

LOUD SOLAR RADIO BURST: Yesterday, Feb. 2nd, the solar activity forecast called for "quiet." In fact, says amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft, "it was really loud. There were several strong solar radio emissions including one super-strong Type III burst at 1954 UT. I captured it at 28 MHz and 21.1 MHz as it totally drowned out a short wave voice transmission."

Bye bye Foot It, hello Gyr

Louise has gripped me off with Buzzard, Brambling and Merlin of late, none of which made my January Foot It list. The Buzzard was seen in January too. On Friday she reported Brambling under the feeders so it was not surprising to find a colourful host, 28, in the garden this morning.

I stepped out briefly with the dog and blow me a Song Thrush was about the first bird I saw. That would have been two more and brought me to well over 107%. As it is I will be satisfied with my 105% with three over the 58 target.

It took me a while to look at the phone which quickly reminded me that a Gyr had been seen yesterday just 15 minutes away by car. It had been relocated and was showing well. Bundled complaining youngest offspring into the car (had already fallen out with oldest one who had gone to the ponies with Louise) and set off. Unusually for me I arrived at the appointed spot and immediately located the bird. Huge numbers of birders then arrived until, including offspring there were ten of us twitching the Gyr. I was very surprised at the colour of this bird which was a white morph but had a lovely gingery tone to the breast and under parts and to the face and crown. Great views enabled me to see a grey cere, eyering and feet so it certainly isn't an adult.

Not the best photo...

Had really good views of it in flight too. At one point it bombed off towards a spaniel which was quartering some rough ground nearby. Initially it appeared to be hunting the dog but in fact I suspect it was getting in close in case the dog put some prey up. 

After all this excitement I barely had time to nip down to Bosquoy where there was a drake Goosander and good numbers of duck but nothing to get the pulse racing.