Day of the Eider, But Not The 'King'

There was method in our madness when we chose to stay in Fraserborough last night, it being just a 15 minute run to the Loch of Strathbeg Nature Reserve where I had all but promised Dave Tree Sparrow. The small colony there has always been a 'banker' and as he seemed a little less than convinced there was a pint for him if we 'dipped'!

The Abervale Guest House is a mid-range B&B, comfortable and warm with a hearty breakfast and while there are no frills, the landlady could not have been more welcoming or helpful. The early morning was already warm as we first headed for the fish docks in the hope of a Glaucous Gull, and while luck didn't shine on us there was the sight

of several 'deep sea' trawlers plus

a few of the near pelagic fishers.

Arriving at the village of Crimond it is only a 5 minute drive down the dirt track to the visitors centre where we saw Yellowhammer and this

Great Tit

before recording our first Tree Sparrow.

A 'year tick' for both of us, which is just as well

because these days there are few, if any, in Dorset

and connecting with a migrant could prove difficult. It took quite some time to gain these shots, which are not of the best, but joining Dave in the centre there was a Garganey feeding some distance away with a group of Teal - a second 'year tick' all round. A good job we asked the only other birder there if anything of significance was about as he had just seen the King Eider close to the

Rattray Head Lighthouse (another one for the Lighthouse People). On our way there, we encountered 2 large fields covered in

Pink-footed Geese which we gave a good deal of time to looking for a Snow Goose.

Unfortunately, that also was not to be, but leaving the car for the beach there was this amasing sight of many hundreds of birds flying over the Rattray Hotel. We spent over 2 hours there searching through the Common Eider flocks without result but that may have been due to the sea conditions which were not rough but enough to obscure the Ducks more than we could view them. This place has always been good over the years for

Corn Bunting

and we were not disappointed today as there were at least half a dozen present. Giving up on the King Eider, at least for now, we decided to cut our losses and head for the River Ythan where there had been a 'rare' Gull lingering for the past few days.

Now, any self respecting Birder would easily pick out the Bonaparte's Gull in this photograph, but those not familiar with this 'first winter' bird

here's one I blagged from Wikipedia. A 'lifer' for Dave and and a 'year tick' for me that was our 'hat trick' for the day but I should say that the view of this excellent little Gull was far better than the photo portrays when seen through a 60X telescope!

Crossing the bridge and reaching the golf course, we first took a walk to the mouth of the river with the Seal colony just viewable on the left hand side,

before turning and walking up=river and back towards the road bridge.

This is only about a quarter of the Seal colony and although we 'scoped' them all we could only find Grey Seal.

There were as usual many 'hundreds' of Common Eider and as this is such a scarce bird in our part of the world it was thought worthy of publishing a pictorial.

An adult male

Adult male displaying

adult female

an 'eclipse' bird

More Grey Seals

adult male Common Eider wing stretching.

We've never known a night like it, what a storm!

One of probably 50 or 60 Sandwich Terns.

2 of 6 very distant flying Long-tailed Duck

A flock of Sanderling flew in to feed before the rising tide

and were quite approachable

allowing a few close ups.

A sitting male Common Eider

and a standing bird

with this small group retreating at my presence.

and finally flight shots of both male

and female.

Despite not seeing the King Eider this has been a fantastic days 'birding' as the River Ythan is never still, you never know what will turn up next. In addition to those already mentioned we recorded Red-breasted Merganser, Smew (redhead / female), Teal, Shelduck, Guillemot, Linnet etc, etc and the Trip List now stands at 109.

Laide to Fraserborough via Ullapool Again

Today was always going to be mainly about 'driving' as it was our hope to get from the furthest north west point of our journey, to within striking distance of the east coast. Before any of this though, there was a small matter of trying to sea White-tailed Sea-Eagle before we left.

Our night at The Olde Smiddy in Laide village had been comfort itself, and with breakfast on hold by 06:40 we were stood here watching the sun rise. This lay-by is situated just a mile or two from the village and directly opposite

Gruinard Island, which this morning wasn't being particularly photogenic. At about 2 miles distance any bird would be difficult to see, but in the past I have had them fly directly overhead. Today all we saw was what looked like the silhouette of an Eagle perched on a rock, but not with a lot of conviction on our part. We did however see a distant Black Guillemot, that not only allowed Dave to catch up with me on the 'list' but also add a bird to his life total. This done, it was back for the pre-booked 08:00 breakfast after which with the weather conditions remaining the same (sunny, warm and windless) we made a decision to head back to Ullapool. Last night on the Rare Birds Alert there was a mention of a 1st winter Glaucous Gull on the very estuary we visited yesterday, and for a 24 mile detour this was well worth burning off a bit more petrol.

Once there, we searched the Fish Quay without success and on the way to the river mouth we noted skein after skein of Pink-footed Geese heading to the north.

We tried, again in vane, to sort out a 'white one' (Snow Goose) among the 100's of departing birds, but like the Gull that will will have to wait for another day!

There were of course other birds to look at, and this small group of Wigeon in company with a Lesser Black-backed Gull were worthy of a second look,

as were a 'courting' pair of Ringed Plover that were carrying out some kind of 'pebble carrying' ritual.

This pair of Oystercatchers too were doing a bit of puckering up

with the 'Auld Lad wing stretching and sounding off, but the best sight here was of

at least c4 Black Guillemot a little closer to land.

Not David Bailey stuff, but an identifiable image, but unfortunately all the shots of an immaculate Red-throated Diver in 'full summer plumage' we blurred beyond viewing.

We took a few moments before leaving to admire the flowering Gorse before setting a course south.

Nearing the Kessock Bridge we decided to take another look at the Tollie Red Kites, which were to be fed at 14:30 it wasn't worth the wait. If i mention RSPB, regular readers will get the picture and here today was an example of that. With the indiscipline (dogs off leads, people standing out-with the screens, constant chatter et al) your pet Budgie wouldn't come down to feed. I did convey my concerns to the lady pictured but she seemed to have the answers, so I'll call in again to see how they are getting on maybe next year!

Turning onto the Aberdeen road, which runs the length of the Moray Firth, we called in at Buckie where on a shingle bar just off-shore

a group of c24 Sandwich Terns were resting after a long flight, while there were

c3 Bar-tailed Godwit just a little further along.

Further along the coast, and seeing the sign to Portknockie, I couldn't resist the temptation to pay a brief visit to conjure up a few memories. The following 3 photographs are more for my dear friend Andy Lindsay's than anything else as we enjoyed some fabulous time in this small, quaint little fishing village.

We needed this establishment after we had finished at

this one, but as our Store Keeper on the Stena Hunter Oil Rig wasn't keen to drink there we were all happy to move on to the

pub next door. The reason we rarely drank in the Seafield was because Lorraine Gribben's parents owned it (she was our Store Keeper). Now, I bet you remember ALL of that don't you ANDREW????

The coastline here is dramatic to say the least, with this formation giving me the impression of either a Hawaiian canoe with out-rigger, or an elephant taking a drink? Either way we added a couple more species to the Trip List, with Kittiwake having a small colony on the 'trunk'.

Nesting Fulmar also have a toe-hold here,

there are a colony of Shags on this rock and those with sharp eyes may just be able to see an Eider Duck or two. Of note, these were the first adult male Eiders Dave has ever seen, and I can report he was mighty impressed!

The 'Trip List' stands at 87