Lost At Sea - Rory Gallagher (Part IV)

It is a fact that any migrant that wishes to visit or leave these

Sceptred Isles

be they Bird, Insect or Human have one thing in common;

they must transit one seaway or another. 

For this final part of  what is of great facination to myself we have saved some of the

Scarce and Downright Rare 

until last!

 Lucky shot of this

 BLUETHROAT

 GREAT GREY SHRIKE
with in the first instance was seen to peck a hole through the scull
of a hapless Meadow Pipit before its 'lader' was found amoung some
small bore pipework holding a dozen mixed passerines.

 rather unfortunate to see such a bird in this state

 MEALEY REDPOLL

and who could ever have imagined a 

 HOUSE SPARROW
being out there, up until then it was the only one ever recorded across the
North Sea

 REED BUNTING

 STOCK DOVE
another surprise unlike

 HOODED CROW
which were annual.

 DUNLIN
alongside more

 CASUALTIES
and who'd a thought it particularly on my 18th birthday in 2006????

 as one of the Clankies (Engineers) bust in and announced he had a birthday present for me.

 and even though it to be what is was a

 LITTLE STINT

 ROCK DOVE's
another North Sea first

 COLLARED DOVE

 GARDEN WARBLER

 REDSTART

(a smart male)

 PIED FLYCATCHER

 and the very

 BEST

and

 RAREST

until last

SHORT-TOED LARK
The Buchan Alph Oil Production Platform
was put on station at the sea area known as the
South Halibut Basin - North Sea in early 1974 producing an incredible
148,000,000 barrels of crude oil before being decommissioned on the
12th May 2017 after being towed to

DALES VOE SCRAP YARD, LERWICK, SHETLAND
All the various crews across those years owe the 
Old Girl
a great deal of thanks for providing us all with a very large drink!!

Lost at Sea - Rory Gallagher (Part III)

Continuing the Sea Going series onboard the

Oil Production Platform

BUCHAN ALPHA

and more evidence of a 'fall' of migrants on the

Heli-Deck

 Amid all of this a

 BLACK-HEADED GULL

was seen to pick off an exhausted

BRAMBLING

shake out what life was left in it before swallowing it whole.

Not an every day sort of avian sighting, but there was also a short video clip

to accompany which seems to have been lost over the passage of time.

Also annual were a fair numbers of

 JACK SNIPE

with an extrodinary number of thes crashing into the few windows we had.

 Far more uncommon was the occassional

LAPLAND BUNTING

and what a thrill to have such a creature in one's hand!

Back with the more common land birds and this

 CHIFFCHAFF

was found with a 9 inch length of 'cotton' down its throat which was

gently teased out before sending it on its way.

This image is all that was ever seen of the only

 BLACK REDSTART

ever seen across my 18 years in the industry unlike

 SISKIN
and

SKYLARK

which were easily caught.

While both Humpbacked and Killer Whale were recorded on a couple of occassions,

both distantly and briefly the starnge happenings of Cetacean sighting on the

Stena Hunter

was a joy to behold as c2

 MINKE WHALES

took up station mostly under the rig for 3 days and at night

appeared to be sleeping/resting 'bellies up'.

 BLACKCAP

 EIDER
and

GREYLAG GEESE
were no strangers out there but when you sight a male

 CROSSBILL

 which appears to have a white wing bar
then you are allowed to let your heart skip a beat!

CROSSBILL
female
Unfortuneately the above was not a
White-winged Crossbill
as the 'bar' was found to be just paint!

 COMMON GULL
seen here amid 
KITTIWAKE's
are not as numerous out there as the name suggests but on the other hand

COMMON SCOTER
are.

 BLACK-HEADED GULL
inthe hand for good measure, followed by a number of species that
never did do very well........

 GOLDCREST

 CHAFFINCH

MEADOW PIPIT

GREENFINCH