Pine Marten, Kindrogan, June 2013

I had never really considered that good daytime views of Pine Marten were a possibility, but I was lucky enough to experience them this week. I was on a work trip to Kindrogan Field Studies Centre in Perthshire, and had already enjoyed some evening views of a Marten coming to peanuts at around 9pm. This was exciting enough and the views in the dusky simmer dim were the best that I assumed I would get.

Not so the following afternoon when I was tipped off that cat-like noises had been coming from the scrub and Pine Marten was considered a possibility. When I followed this up I could hear noises that sounded like aggressive calls coming from one of the spruce plantations. I went in and found two Pine Martens leaping around in the upper branches of the tall trees. Looking like dark oversized squirrels they could move nimbly along surprisingly thin branches and would occasionally make a leap from one branch to that of a neighbouring tree.

They did not seem to be overly concerned about my presence far below at ground level and I enjoyed over 30 minutes of entertainment. After securing a couple of record shots I returned to the centre and after a coffee with colleagues we headed back to the site. Despite the odds the Pine Martens were still there and showed well moving from tree to tree, up and down trunks and even close by on the ground very briefly. Despite this I managed no decent photographs other than those shown here - the habitat, light levels and animals movements all combined to make photography difficult - not that I am bothered!...

Aerial interaction between Red-footed Falcon and Hobby

Red-footed Falcon (bottom left) and Hobby (top right)

Not great shots, but a record of a brief spat between the 2cy Red-footed Falcon and a Hobby at Ouse Fen on Sunday.

Compared with the Red-foot, the Hobby on the right shows longer wings and more rounded tail

Another Hobby overhead later in the morning. Massively long outmost primaries give the wings this classic silhouette.

Red-footed Falcon, Ouse Fen, 9 June 2013

A family wedding in Cambridge gave a great opportunity to stay chez Richard B and family this weekend. Rich had told me that his local patch, Ouse Fen, was good, but I still was not really expecting a female Red-footed Falcon - a species I hadn't seen since the Blacktoft Sands bird of 1987 (on the same day that I first met Richard B...).

I was very pleased that today's bird was much more cooperative than the one 26 years ago and made frequent sallies over our heads. Thanks Rich et al... yes, these are the best shots...

Ne'er cast a clout 'til May is out

Unless you are a Gadwall that is... This male, one of two drakes at Duddingston Loch on 27 May was already beginning its moult out of its smart breeding plumage into its more dowdy eclipse plumage. Certainly the weather since then seems to have been distinctly summer-like, so maybe it had the right idea.

Note the fine comb like structre at the side of the beak - presumably a filter for dabbling.

White-winged gulls in Orkney and Edinburgh, May 2013

Some great gulling last month with three different white-wingers...

Adult summer Glaucous Gull (on right), Egilsay, 16 May 2013 (with 3cy Herring Gull)

Third calendar year Iceland Gull (on right), Westray, 22 May 2013 (with adult Great Black-backed Gull, Hooded Crow and adult Herring Gull)

Adult type feathers in the back of this 3CY Iceland Gull more obvious in this shot

Isabel dilution mutant Herring Gull (centre), Seafield, Edinburgh, 29 May 2013 (with Herring Gulls)

Dark Pomarine Skua (with spoons)

While I was on Westray last week phenomenal numbers of Long-tailed Skuas were passing by in the NW gale. Seawatching in those conditions is not the recommended activity for a party of non-birding teenagers so despite walking the headlands in some outlandish May weather I was unable to watch the long-tailed sea-sprites pass by. Instead I contented myself with a single melanistic (dark morph) Pomarine Skua from the Westray to Kirkwall ferry. Well, I was pretty excited about this at least. No pics of the Basking Shark seen briefly on the same journey unfortunately.

Blue Fulmar in the Pentland Firth

I have been lucky enough to be visiting various of the Orkney islands for the past fortnight. Always a fantastic archipelago - packed with outstanding wildlife, archaeology and scenery - the weather was not the kindest this year and as it was a work visit I was unable to make the most of the birding on offer. For example I missed out on the phenomenal passage of Long-tailed Skuas last week despite being on Westray at the time... not to mention the Garganeys, White-billed Diver, Red-backed Shrikes, etc. Next time?...

Here is my best sighting of the fortnight - a blue Fulmar - an intermediate/dark morph of our Northern Fulmar. Only my fourth sighting of this form, I was pleased to get these record shots as the bird passed the ferry back to mainland Scotland, especially since I failed to get any shots of a probable at Seafield earlier this year.

Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Wood Warbler in Edinburgh

Wood Warbler giving shiver-song in Duddingston yesterday

I have managed to photograph these three species of Phylloscopus (leaf-searching) warbler in Edinburgh over the last few days. Of course, the Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff are common in the wooded and scrubby parts of the city at this time of year. Yesterday's Wood Warbler was a little more unexpected. Singing birds are no problem to identify - as Gilbert White famously noted in describing the three species as Laughing Willow-wren, Chif-chaf and Shivering Wilow-wren.

Yesterday's Wood Warbler showing off its primary projection and yellow throat

A Willow Warbler at Duddingston yesterday had the pale washed out appearance of a more northerly bird. Long primary projection obscured...

Note short primary projection compared to tertial length on this Chiffchaff photographed at Blackford Pond

Pale eye ring, dusky cheek and (in life) tail dipping behaviour all good Chiffchaff features

Wood Warbler at Duddingston

I grew up in North Wales listening to the song of Wood Warblers through my bedroom window. After moving to Edinburgh I am pretty sure that I heard them singing in Blackford Glen and Craiglockhart Hill nearly 20 years ago and I have bumped into one or two on the East coast during migration periods. But when I came to compile my Lothian self-found list a couple of years ago I found that I could not recall the finding any particular individual Wood Warbler. So that species remained unchecked... until today.

The Wood Warbler, of course, has suffered a considerable decline in that time. It no longer sings in many woods that previously held them in Wales, and the situation is no different in Scotland. Today's bird, heard singing for an hour in Duddingston, will be passing through to some forest further North and West for it no longer breeds in Lothian.

A very beautiful species, with a real tropical look or that of a New World wood warbler, perhaps...

Isabel: dilution mutant Herring Gull at Seafield again

I spent a couple of hours checking the gulls at Seafield today. While it was the Lesser Black-backed Gulls that predominated on St Margaret's Loch en route, at Seafield it was almost entirely Herring Gulls at the recycling centre. The isabel dilution mutant was the clear highlight in among the latter. It showed on three occasions and posed well on the ground as well as in flight. Very nice, thank you - I had hoped for better views and was not disappointed.

Interesting that it appears to already have dropped a couple of innermost primaries. Could this early moult may be a result of the fragility of the unpigmented feathers?