29/03/2024 Woolston Eyes Nature Reserve, Warrington

Ruddy Duck: This North American species were imported into wildfowl collections in Britain  due the 50s. Some birds escaped from these collections and formed a free-flying population which expanded to cover most suitable habitat in the UK and by 2001 the ruddy duck population was around 6,000.  

Eventually ruddy ducks were recorded in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Numbers of Ruddy Ducks also began arriving in Spain from the late 1980s and in the early 1990s these started to hybridise with the globally threatened 

This hybridisation posed a serious risk to the white-headed duck as as species. So in the 90s the  UK Government made the decision to eradicate the UK population of ruddy's. It was determined that shooting was the most effective method.

These days the ruddy duck is a rare sight and its been over 5 years since I last saw one of theses smart blue billed, stiff tailed dapper ducks. 

26/03/2024 Undisclosed Location

Black-necked Grebe: Locally they are listed to breeding at Woolston Eyes NR in Warrington. But with with an abundant wintering numbers after a successful couple of breeding seasons there might be new birds prospecting for new breeding territories, hence the undisclosed location. 

There has been records of adults with young at Moore Nature Reserve. Typically BNG colonies are associated with nesting black-headed gulls, which must give some measure of protection from aerial predators.

There are just 55 breeding pairs in Britain, with around 120  individuals here in the winter months. Whilst numbers here in Britain are limited, the black-necked grebe is the most abundant grebe in the world, with many of these residing in North America. 

BNG favoured habitat is shallow, eutrophic waters, usually with extensive vegetation along the fringes and often floating aquatic plants, and a site preferably sheltered from strong winds. This flash appears suitable albeit without any nesting gulls. 

 

25/03/2024 Aviemore, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Capercaillie: The always excellent Damien Young is due to tie the knot in April, so we organised a stag weekend in Aviemore with the hopes of seeing some of the Scottish specialties. With a few notable absences the stag party consisted of Toby Young, Kristian Wade, Patrick Earth and of course the stag.

We got lucky with this bird as walking through some undisclosed Caledonian forest hoping to see our first crested tit and walked right up to this resting bird off the public footpath. Astonishing crazy scenes! 

Crested Tit: Although other types of crested tit occur in Europe, Scotland has a special subspecies of crested tit called Lophophanes cristatus scoticus. 

They are mainly found in large areas of ancient pine forest and newer Scots pine forestry plantations across central and eastern Highlands, from the River Spey catchment to the Dornoch Firth.

The white cheeks and lack of wing barring identify it at this range. More closely it has a very distinctive black and white crest, which it can fan and raise upwards. 

We checked the feeders at RSPB Loch Garten in the rain while standing under the small shelter beside the visitor centre with was closed. We gave it enough time before the rain settled down but only got a skip full of coal tit and a few chaffinches before moving on. Our next stop was Nether Bridge, a Caledonian pine forest just north of Loch Garten. here we had two cresties attending the bird feeders. 

Snow Bunting: Our next target bird was the ptarmigan a bird most of the lads needed so I took them to Cairngorm Mountain where I saw them back in 2016. Apart from a large herd of reindeer all we couldn't find any ptarmigan, so we had to entertain ourselves with a large flock of 36 beautiful white snow buntings that are resident around the ski centre. 

Ptarmigan: We had to travel over to Glen Shee and scale the munro mountain's Cairnwell Pass at the head of Glen Shee. This was a tough, hard hike to the top and not for the weaker legged. We scanned them scree and searched all over before stumbling across a couple of birders viewing the northern slopes where two birds hundred down.

Their unusual name comes from the Scottish Gaelic meaning ‘croak’, in reference to their grumbling, croaking-like call.

Ptarmigan usually live above the treeline, in the hills and mountains. In Scotland, they usually occur above about 800m, moving up and down the mountain in response to weather and food availability. 

The pair had seemed to have lost their pure white plumage that they had only thee weeks ago or so and were now perfectly camauglaged against the patches of snow amounts the loose boulders and rocks.  The walk down is always good for the soul. 

Golden Eagle: On the way over to Glen Shee we kept out eyes open for any large reports, we had dozens of buzzard and a few red kite  until we got to the upland moors near the A93 Military Old Road, here we spotted two golden eagle. A juvenile and an adult, of which had. statute tracker on its back. 

There are no particular ‘hotspots’ for seeing eagles and their eyries are a closely guarded secret, but if you spend time in the uplands and keep looking up you may be lucky enough to see this great bird soaring around ridgelines, catching the thermals and looking for prey.

Ptarmigan: Saturday evening I booked us all in to the Speyside wildlife pine marten hide on the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore. Their hide regularly gets badger and pine marten can also be seen. 

Badger: Each evening wildlife watching experience lasts approximately two and a half to three hours. Our guide for the evening was chap called Harris, an extremely pleasant fellow with a. wealth of knowledge.

Pine Marten: Harris even took his time to show us a resident Scottish wildcat that they have currently in the grounds close to the hide, unfortunately it evaded us on this night, but Harris did get us two plant ticks, including holly fern and twinflower.  The pine marten were the highlight of the evening but the new hide is poor for photography and not great for phones either, both these images where taken with my iPhone. 

Red Kite: This was a top weekend spent with some of the best humans I know. Here's to Damian and Helen and to their big day in April. 

For the pine Martin hide check this link below out. www.speysidewildlife.co.uk

22/03/2024 Garnock View in Kilwinning in Ayrshire

Myrtle Warbler: Known to be the first and only American warbler species to be recorded in Ayrshire the bird was first seen on the 20th of February. Its taken me 32 days to get off my backside and travel up to see it, but with a stag weekend in Aviemore planned in it came at a good time, besides this is my 4th Myrtle in the UK. 

The bird has set up camp in a garden in Garnock View in Kilwinning in Ayrshire, a row of small gardens close to a block of flats, its goes to show that anything can turn up on the garden feeders.    

The bird was protective over the fat balls at the feeders and was actively chasing away any small bird that took its chances on them. We didn't stay long as we needed to catch up with the rest of the stag party and head off further North towards the Cairngorms.