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.

Foot It 100% + 3

Almost no birding yesterday but today once the rain cleared I was out and about.on foot again. A hunt for Woodcock again and Song Thrush failed so into the fields to look for the Linnet flock, a flock a field or so down the hill, raise the bins, Snow Buntings, brilliant! I've only seen Snow Bunt on the patch once before in three and a half years. This was a flock of about 45 too. Nice.

Then, despite excluding the moor from my original Foot It spec I decided to go for Red Grouse. The hound was delighted at this decision and decided to spend 25 minutes chasing rabbits and hareas and repeatedly disappearing over the horizon. Eventually recaptured we headed for the likely spot, and probably due to my reticence to let her off the lead we failed to find a grouse. But a bonus bird was collected on the way home, a four and then a two Meadow Pipits. Foot It total 61.

Around the feeders today there were 34 Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow and two Goldfinch. Both male and female Hen Harrier were seen in surrounding fields and, awkward to find this time of year, six Snipe were flushed.

Aurora warning

"More lights are possible on Jan. 23th when a negative-polarity solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of polar geomagnetic storms when the stream arrives."
http://spaceweather.com/

Talking about lights, taking the dog down the track in a blizzard this evening, massive lightening flash gave me a bit of a fright. The rumble was a few seconds later though. Bit of a surprise nonetheless.

Lesser Scaup or not...

Another FootIt outing, mostly to try to see the putative Lesser Scaup again and try to nail it. However the hound had other ideas and disappeared at top speed in the direction of Loch of Harray in pursuit of a Brown Hare. In the end this wasn't such a bad move as with a bit of application a nice drake Scaup (Greater) revealed itself amongst the large Coot flock. No sign of a Slav Grebe though.

Nice Whoopers again, there are a few about currently

Back to Bosquoy and the suspect was quickly located. In the end, despite a good number of features that are good for Lesser Scaup a view of the the wing in flight indicated that the bird is something else, as I was pretty sure that the wing bar was white in the hand.

Back at the ranch there were still two Goldfinch. The Linnets seem to have gone with the cold weather and Woodcock and Song Thrush are still missing.

It's a bit chilly here at the moment

Mission accomplished

Scooted down to Loch of Bosquoy with the canine assistant and found conditions to be pretty reasonable, the wind dropped and viewing conditions were excellent. Most of the Whoopers had left earlier, though two of the nine still remained.

A quick scan of the water found the drake Goosander, for a few moments until the Peregrine arrived. Stooping at the Teal I watched it skim the lockh and settle on a wall. Great views were obtained, this was a sub-adult, so a different bird from the one I'd seen last weekend. When I looked back the Goosander had gone.

The hound and I worked our way down the loch, finding Pochard, Shoveler and Goldeneye on the way. The second small flock of Tufted were at the far end and an initial view raised my suspicions. Got a bit closer and the suspicions were confirmed, a smaller, paler Aythya, pale patches at the base of the bill, no tuft and an interesting head shape, best of all a grey bill with the black restricted to the nail. All looked good for Lesser Scaup. Seeing the wing was always going to be tricky though. The birds were feeding and none were wing flapping or preening. However a dog walking accomplice was enlisted (the land owner) and a flush... resulted in the ducks flying to the middle of the loch, the wrong way. A not great view seemed to indicate grey not white in the hand but the view was far from conclusive. Try again tomorrow.

Front bird is the suspect

When I got close to home the Peregrine was terrorising the feral pigs but without success.

A follow up visit in the afternoon had to be postponed to tomorrow as the chimney sweep arrived.

Aurora dip

There's no birding for me here during the week as its too dark. I go to work in the dark and return after the gloaming. Thursday was a bit of a disaster as I had to work late and it was the day the small solar storm (more just a bit of space weather) hit. I'd driven to the shop at sunset and there had been a bit of green in the sky. The plan was to go out when I got home as the urora usually seems to show here around midnight. This time it showed early evening, whilst I was in the meeting, and my tromping around in the dark and cold much later on was to no avail. Here's a link to what other folk saw... The aurora would have been a nice Foot It tick.

Looks like there might be another opportunity tonight anyway...

(CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of polar geomagnetic storms today. The reason is an incoming CME, which could deliver a minor blow to Earth's magnetic field during the next 24 hours. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras.)

Anyway, about to embark on today's FootIt mission which is to try and find Goosander and the putative Lesser Scaup at Bosquoy and on Harray, better go and get some breakfast.

Contrasting days

 A surprise under the feeders on Saturday morning

Woodpigeon has not been present here since the end of October and last year the first returning bird was 17th February with the majority not back until May. So not on the predicted FootIt list and a real bonus. Prior to that, a rather bleary peer out of the kitchen window had produced this...

I don't see too many Goldfinches in the garden each year, but they do tend to turn up in mid winter, another Foot It tick without even venturing outside.

I did walk the dog though and coming back to the garden a Sparrowhawk flew over the house.

Then it was down to Birsay to cover the seaside patch. One of the loose ends that needed tidying up was Grey Plover which I'd missed last weekend. They're not common here but this one had been faithful to the same patch of sand before the New Year and I'd hoped it might still be around. The single and rather elusive Snow Bunting was located on The Links as well, and when I drove away a Merlin flew across the fields.

View of The Brough (miscalculated the tides or I would have gone across) from Mount of Misery

Today dawned wet, it rained pretty much all day, I wasn't feeling very enthusiastic. Had to take the dog out though and in amongst the Linnet flock a familiar call was heard, Twite x4.

Two male Hen Harriers visited the garden or the neighbouring field mid morning, the second one spending a few minutes hunting through the veg patch. I was slightly uncoordinated when a wee beastie shot past the kitchen, just couldn't get enough to nail it as a Merlin. However, sitting down to lunch and a Peregrine made a close pass on a mission..

Late this afternoon Louise and I ventured out in the wet again, at least the wind had dropped, another very early bird for the year, a Shelduck on The Shunan, previous earliest 31st January. Moments later, with the dog on the lead but sniffing along the hawthorn hedge and out popped Short-eared Owl.

Patchwork and Foot It

Yesterday was spent tramping around the home patch. It was a beautiful, sunny calm day, until evening when it rained. Ideal for searching the lochs. Most things gave themselves up in the end except for Slav Grebe and Scaup which proved elusive.

This morning I headed over to The Brough and had an hour before the tide came in. Fulmars were going at about 1400 an hour and I added Kittiwake and Guillemot. Best bird was a Great Northern Diver sitting off the eastern end, not so common in this bit of Orkney.

 Record shot GND

Fulmars and Guillemts were on the cliffs

On the way home I managed to locate the Loch of Banks hybrid crows, very interesting birds, each at the furthest end of the hybrid continuum. This afternoon was track mending time but thinking that a raptor or two would be possible I walked down with the barrow rather than use the trailer. I'd barely got beyond the front gate when an adult Peregrine shot through. Nothing showed down at the heap but strangely on the way home a Kestrel showed at almost precisely the spot the Peregrine had been seen earlier.

New Year's resolutions

This year I will be finding rare birds in Harray, at Palace, on The Brough and on North Ronaldsay and Sanday.

This year's ambition birds are: my own Lesser Scaup, King Eider, White-rumped Sandpiper and...

In the garden I will be looking forward to Red-backed Shrike and on The Shunan a Curlew Sandpiper.

From The Brough Great Shearwater and Sabine's Gull will be very well received.