Noth Sea Migration - Part III

 Returning to the North Sea Area known as the South Halibut Basin, but more particularly the

FLOATING OIL PRODUCTION PLATFORM
BUCHAN ALPHA

we come to the final Post featuring the Birds of that area, but maybe later we will also introduce some of the other wildlife recorded at that location.

KITTIWAKE

just a few of an overnight crowd of

REED BUNTING

PEREGRINE FALCON
sat atop of a

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL

caught later in the day by the Deck Foreman (Ricky the Hammer) who quickly knocked up this

Wooden Cage
made out a manifest and transported it to the beach via Bristow Helicopters!

RINGED PLOVER

GARDEN WARBLER

SKYLARK

DUNLIN

YELLOWHAMMER
(you'll need to squint)

COMMON TERN

Just after 00:01 on the date ??-??-?? of my birth into the Control Room stroad the Duty Night Engineer anouncing he had a present for me and from the bag he produce this

LITTLE STINT
best such gift ever recieved!

MERLIN
(dining on Redwing)

MEADOW PIPIT

KNOT

(MEALY) REDPOLL

JACKSNIPE
(prone, for whatever reason, to flying 'kamakazi' style into windows?)

BLACKCAP
(head to tail)

GREY PLOVER
and finally, breakfast in the Control Room, mad dash to the upper-deck at the turn of the watch and

a Skylark waiting for me at the far end of the Heli-Deck. Most birds landing onboard are 'cream crackered' as was this individual taken below to be dried, warmed, 'snapped' and further inspected to find that it was a Lark but in fact

not that as first thought, in fact a far more 'rare' species

SHORT-TOED LARK
What a way to end a series!!

Little by Little - Dusty Springfield

 The Gardener does not love to talk, he makes me keep the Gravel Walk! 

Robert Louis Stevensen

 But on the other hand local gardener Rich likes a chat nearly as much as he likes that strimmer,

The Bund Alongside my Stately Home
gets its annual cropping in the name of stimulating growth of Wild Flowers while the local

PIED WAGTAILs

were not slow to react to the new wealth of disturbed Insects!
A most welcome start as heading for the Solar Panel Traps and passing the area which has recently been dubbed the

PUDDLE of MUD
simply a 'hard standing' for machinary, turning space for numerous numbers of lorries and more recently

a temporary parking space for Double-Decked buses while their own home was being refurbished

and today a welcome landing area for c2 returning

GREEN SANDPIPER

vocal, flighty and hungry by the look of things.
From the traps, given the continuing dwindling figuers, a welcome quartet of both

RED-LINE QUAKER 

and

YELLOW-LINE QUAKER

DOR BEETLE
along with a

GREAT SILVER

WATER BEETLE
Additionally on the Gravel Pit a male

TEAL
seemingly in moult,

along with a female
and to end our wander a

settled

and flighty

LITTLE EGRET

Mallow Yellow - Donavan (well nearly)

 After the Strange Rover nearly sank into the rain soaked mire we decied sticking to the gravel tracks might be favourite when monitoring the Moth Traps where all that was found were:-

likely the last of the
LUNAR UNDERWING

a couple of
MALLOW

a single
SLUG

and a lone

SILVER Y

while

CARRION CROWs

tried to keep the local
COMMON BUZZARDs
at bay.

Also found under the Solar Panels was a 3rd generation

PUFF-BALL
(looking posatively human, it doesn't get much more exciting than that)

along with what might just be the same

RED ADMIRAL
as seen in recent days?

On exiting an alighting

SKYLARK
was a welcome sight as thin on the groud here across the year,

while the pair of

SHOVELER
and the juvenile

MUTE SWAN
continue to favour the Gravel Pit
while we await the Winter Movement!