Waxwings bring sunshine and a smile

Happy waxwings today in Liberton

While we have not had the terrible weather experienced by other parts of the country over the last few weeks it was still a bit of a shock to see some blue sky and sun. And what could be better than a flock of 20 Waxwings from the car on the way to work in the morning, than a flock of nine in the back garden when I got home. Once again I have some shots of them sitting in the top of the neighbour's birch tree at the end of the garden.

Back garden Bramblings

Male Brambling with Goldfinch through the double glazing

A trip down to the coast was cut short due to the cold persistent rain this morning. While I had noted a male Gadwall and single Goosander at Figgate, I was unable to find anything unusual at Seafield so I headed home for coffee and brunch. Birding through the window turned out to be a better option and I was pleased to see that 4 Bramblings were still hanging on in amongst the other finches coming to the feeders. Great birds anywhere, but particularly pleasing just outside my back door!

Female Chaffinch (l) and Brambling (r) on the lawn

Bunch of finches

Thought that it was about time I put some seed out for the birds last Friday. Already the finch numbers have risen from approximately zero to 2 Brambling, 4 Greenfinch, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Bullfinch and about 15 Chaffinch. Not a bad return so far... I was particularly pleased with the Bramblings which only visited fleetingly last winter but were both feeding on the sunflower hearts today.

The photo is of very poor quality but just about shows both Bramblings on the right of this group of Chaffinches.

Spot the difference

Seeing these two Bohemian Waxwings in the back garden this afternoon reminded me that I had yet to post any shots of Mousebirds from Malawi. I always think that beautiful as Waxwings are, once a flock gets actively feeding on a tree they resemble a swarm of rodents. Well, the Mousebirds are even more rodent-like with hairlike plumage and scurrying movements in the branches.

Speckled Mousebird in Lilongwe.

Red-faced Mousebird in Liwonde.

Birding while gardening: Crossbills and hunting Peregrine!

Yesterday's clear skies tempted me out into the garden and I spent the day rejuvenating various raised beds for this year's growing season. I was trimming back leggy herbs when I was startled to hear the explosive 'jip' call of Crossbills. An almost daily experience on my North Wales patch but only the second time I've seen them from the garden here in Edinburgh (single bird 5 July 2010) - another real garden rarity hot on the heels of yesterday's Snow Bunting and Fulmar! As I stood up the flock of 9 Crossbills passed low over the houses and then headed off down the hill giving me a nice view of a selection of red, green and yellowish rumps bobbing away into the distance. The Hermitage of Braid looked like a possible destination, although of course they may not have stopped...

For much of the day my head was down as I worked on the soil, but in general the sky seemed lacking in birdlife. With the wind direction slowly swinging to northerly, the clear blue skies, cold air and warm sun seemed an odd combination for this time of year. It was not until late afternoon that raptor activity hotted up. Several Common Buzzards in the air included some hanging fairly low over the garden and a couple in the distance indulging in aerial display. A single Sparrowhawk sighting over the course of the day must rank as one of the lowest hawk-per-minute sighting ratios from the garden. Best of all was something that I have never seen before from here - a Peregrine at full speed hunting pace directly overhead, and then just failing to hit a feral pigeon. Half an hour later it was overhead lugging prey - clearly persistence pays off (see top photo).

Spring has arrived

A Chiffchaff was singing in the back garden first thing yesterday morning. Maybe the haar was so thick it couldn't really tell where it was but it moved on pretty sharpish!

Today was beautifully sunny and I spent some time in the garden in the afternoon. It has been all work recently but even still I felt a little guilty lying down for a spot of skywatching. Hoping for an early Osprey or a white-winged gull but not really expecting to see anything of note I hadn't even bothered to fetch the camera. Of course I wish I had now as a cracking Merlin motored north at about 5:30pm. The third I've seen from the garden, this one flew North along a route that was an almost perfect repeat of the bird I saw in equally hot and clear weather on 10 April 2011 - I wonder if it was the same bird? A great sighting and really makes up for the absence of Lothian birding for me over the last few weeks.

Only other recent notable sightings were on a work trip up to the Glenshee area last weekend. Some fantastic white Ptarmigan moulting into their summer plumage along with plenty of Mountain Hares, looking similarly out of place.

Blackbird in the garden

For once a photo that is not overly cropped or obviously out of focus. Mind you I did not set out to capture an image of this Blackbird - I was shooting this Common Gull on a nearby rooftop at the time. Those long drooping wings were giving me a bit of a heinei vibe... but sadly the bird was lacking a Russian colour ring! Of course, there are currently no acceptable field criteria for the identification of this form, although I see that Chris Gibbins is presenting a paper on this topic at the forthcoming International Gull Meeting. If only I could get myself to Zagreb in February...

Garden tick no. 74: Lesser Whitethroat

Maybe this is too much information, but I got this tick through the bathroom window - a Lesser Whitethroat in song first thing this morning.  

Lesser Whitethroat had been on my list of possible additions to the garden list rather than probable additions. Possible as they can be heard in song within a mile or so of the house, but not the most likely given the habitat. That said, there is a very small patch of mature scrub just behind the garden and this was obviously enough to briefly attract a passing migrant. I will listen out for it again tomorrow, but do not hold too much hope for any prolonged stay.

It is not the first one that I have heard locally this year, having watched and recorded a singing male at the Hermitage on the 8th May. Here is a very poor record shot (can you see it?) but also a sonogram of the rattle which I recorded using a Remembird that morning.


For better views shots see these photos taken on Fair Isle last October.

Adult and juvenile Common Buzzard comparison

I am quite a fan of Common Buzzards and, like many folk these days, can see them from the garden most days of the week. This shot was taken last week and I have posted it as it shows a nice comparison of adult and juvenile structure.

 

In the picture above, the adult (above left) shows a nicely parallel wing shape, solid dark trailing edge to the flight feathers, evidence of moult in the flight feathers and a broadly based slightly shorter tail. The juvenile (lower right) has a narrower hand so a distinct S-shape to the trailing edge of the wing, no clear dark trailing edge to the wing feathers, no clear evidence of moult (i.e. all flight feathers of a similar age) and a narrower, longer tail. The juvenile has an altogether more harrier-like jizz in this picture. 

Some of these details may be clearer in these cropped images. Once again the adult is shown above the juvenile.

These differences are less distinct when birds are moving away from the observer, as shown in this shot. The more distinct trailing edge of the flight feathers in the adult is still obvious in direct comparison.

Even smaller raptor: Merlin over garden

More of the same again - fantastic hot sunny weather, plenty of time in the garden and raptors overhead. Today's haul, espied between bouts of gardening and barbecuing, included a single Peregrine moving North, a couple of Common Buzzards moving around in circles, a female Sparrowhawk moving rapidly through the garden in search of prey, and this Merlin (sixth species of raptor over the garden this month!) watched powering northwards at 2:30pm. Fairly high up (the pics are big crops) watched through bins, then photographed and then scoped until it disappeared from view over the city still powering North. (Does everyone do the gardening with a scope set up?...).

It is now clear that a Merlin overhead last August was not the one-off that I thought it was at the time. Here is a shot of the August individual harrassing a Common Buzzard in the typical pugnacious fashion of the species.

[See Hawks in Flight: The Flight Identification of North American Migrant Raptors "Merlins are usually solitary... and will frequently go out of their way to harass other birds in migration. A Merlin's aggressive behaviour may be used as a field identification point and as a means of identification. At Cape May, high-flying Merlins are usually detected because they are harassing another raptor."]

Other sightings today included a Brambling, 2 Waxwings and a Redpoll over the garden - a wintry selection for such a summer-like day. Also, at least 3 Goosanders up at Alnwickhill Water Treatment Works.

More smaller raptors

Weather-wise a stunning day, but maybe a little too still and lacking in rain for good numbers of migrants... Though I am not complaining as I managed a couple of barbeques and took the opportunity to sort out some long-overdue gardening. Chiffchaffs singing all day in the neighbourhood - they will move on before long. Also a Willow Warbler singing at 7:00 am just up the road, while another realised that it had miscalculated its destination and upped and was off flying at about 15m off the ground strongly due North. Presumably it wasn't planning on keeping that up for long on a hot sunny day...

Raptors were in evidence today with multiple sightings of at least 4 Common Buzzards and 2–3 Sparrowhawks. Here is a nice male Sparrowhawk. It could be the same bird that I photographed last year, but if it is it has developed a nice red eye in the meantime.

After yesterday's Kestrel, I assumed that another sighting of one passing over the garden today would be the same individual, but the photos show otherwise. Then later on another passed over moving due North at a reasonable altitude - this latter bird at least presumably a migrant.


This is the first of today's Kestrels. A female-type bird perhaps, in comparison to yesterday's male. It would be nice if they found each other and hung around...

Finally, a couple of Common Buzzards with feather characteristics that should make them reasonably easy to identify in the short term. The first has a missing tail feather and the second is missing the tips to primaries 7 and 8 on both wings. If I do not see these birds again in the near future then maybe it would be evidence of passage?

All very well, but there are a few other raptors found in Scotland that could in theory pass overhead - a White-tailed Eagle was seen again in East Lothian today for example. I think it will take some luck to see one of those from here, so maybe I'll have to take a visit to Highlands and Islands instead?...

More raptors

I managed to see a new species for the garden yesterday - Sand Martin (73rd species). Well, to be honest, I have seen several Sand Martins over the garden over the last few summers but never more than fleeting 1 second glimpses. While under most circumstances that is long enough to identify this species' distinctive flickering flight, I have never considered these views to be either sufficiently definitive to be worthy of elevation to Garden List Status. Yesterday that status changed as a line of 4 Sand Martins appeared one after the other dashing westwards just above the rooftops and long enough for me to get my bins on them. Since then I have seen more of this species passing by. The burden of proof required is now lower and I have twigged that since they are low fliers - they will hug the contours even if they are are rooftops...

A couple of nice raptors also passed over today. First a male Kestrel powered low over west and thoughtfully circled once for good measure. With just a handful of sightings each year, usually of distant birds, these are the best shots I have managed from the garden (!). Note that the tail of this bird appears to resemble that of Lesser Kestrel. Other photos show that today's bird had one tail feather longer than the others and its protrusion accounted for this illusion.

The other raptor was this nice Common Buzzard. It is probably the palest bird that I have seen from the garden - quite unlike most other individuals that I have seen in the area. It looks to me like a 2nd calendar year bird with its smart juvenile flight feathers and coverts.

Osprey: Garden/Patch/Year/Lothian/Lothian-self-found Tick!

Just putting the last of the sets into this year's onion bed when I thought I'd have one last look for Osprey overhead. After all, they are moving North in good numbers across the country at the moment and I reckon that any that happen to come in from the direction of the Pentlands could be tempted to head towards Alnwickhill Water Treatment Works before maybe heading towards Duddingston Loch. That flight path would bring them into view from the garden. Of course, many a futile moment has been spent searching the sky for this erratic migrant over the last few years, but today, at last, I struck gold with one almost directly overhead dwarfing the nearby gulls.

Having confirmed the ID with through binoculars, I dashed to the house and bellowed "Osprey!" and grabbed the SLR. The bird was moving North rapidly in a fast glide and while G got onto it with the bins it was already a mere large dot to the naked eye before the kids got into the garden. At this point it was being harassed by a gull (sp?) and with a few powerful strokes headed over in the direction of Blackford Pond before apparently turning to power across Edinburgh city centre. A great bird - not bad to get a self-found county tick from the back garden!

Buzzards over the garden

With spells of settled sunny weather the Common Buzzards have been more obvious soaring over the garden than for the last few weeks. Here are some shots of a darkish first winter bird (2CY) that has passed over a couple of times recently.

I am quite a fan of these juvenile Buzzards - they have a different silhouette to the adult birds, with longer tail and bulging secondaries compared to their narrower inner primaries. Here is a paler juvenile that passed over in September. Like the bird above, the less heavily marked trailing edge to the wing is another distinction from the adults.

This adult shows the contrasting darker trailing edge to the wing and slightly longer inner primaries and shorter tail giving the bird a more compact and less rangy appearance in flight.