After a two-month break from blogging, I'm back. Despite no posts I've had ample opportunity to get out and about and I suppose the best way to bring things up to date is by means of a pictorial, so here we go with a few highlights over the period.
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| Shorelark RSPB Fowlsheugh February 27th 2024 ~ A day out with David Leslie, Mark Sullivan & Rob Leslie. An elusive bird to find in a deep ridged ploughed field but eventually picked up with a thermal imager. Also during the same outing our first Black Guillemot of the year just along the coast at Cove. |
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| Black Guillemot |
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| Bufflehead A short drive over to the Sand Loch at Forvie NNR on March 25th for a Drake Bufflehead which is almost certainly the same bird that spent a brief few hours on the east side of the Irish Sea at Carbeth Loch, Clyde. From here it made its way across to the North Sea coast at Sand Loch, Aberdeenshire, on the 24th becoming the first record for both counties. |
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| Corn Bunting Although not particularly scarce in Aberdeenshire the above Corn Bunting was one highlight during a particularly quiet day out with the RSPB Aberdeen & District Local Group at RSPB Strathbeg on Sunday, March 24th. |
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| Tree Sparrow One garden surprise for me was on the morning of March 20th when two Tree Sparrows visited my feeders for the very first time since I moved north. I've also had subsequent visits from both birds since. |
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| Mandarin Duck These colourful ducks are regular visitors to Fyvie Castle Loch during the winter months and David Leslie and I managed two pairs during a morning stroll around the loch on March 19th. |
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| Dipper Dippers are a regular feature around my local patch, this particular one taken on the River Don near Seaton Park Aberdeen. |
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| Lesser Black-backed Gulls at RSPB Strathbeg Surprisingly LBBG's are only summer visitors to Aberdeenshire, like this pair only arriving back in late March. |
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| Brambling ~ A regular in the garden. |
Back to today and an early afternoon visit to my local Dalmadilly Ponds in the pouring rain! An excellent hour with my first local counts of Swallows and House Martins of the year, the rain obviously bringing the birds down low to feed. Also of note back home was a Brambling, which has been hanging around for the past week, along with what seems like the whole Siskin population of the village, over 50 counted in the surrounding trees during a cold snap last week.
