Phone-binning Crows at Bull Island, Dublin

No DSLR camera or scope today, just me, my bins, my phone and some crows. I was at North Bull, Dublin, and was taking the opportunity to look at some birds that we don't see so commonly around Edinburgh - namely black-tailed godwit, pale-bellied Brent geese and hooded crows. I also managed my first summer migrant landbird of the year - a nice male wheatear.

So here are some phone-binned pics of interesting crows. Well, interesting to me that is !

Hooded Crow
First winter Rook (x2)
Hybrid crow closely resembling Carrion Crow
Hooded Crow (x2)

Glaucous Gull at Seafield Sewage Works

I was not intending to check the gulls at Seafield today but found myself driving there as if on auto-pilot. Ah well, may as well go with the flow... The tide was in so there were few gulls along the shore so I headed up onto the banking to scan the area behind the pipes but there was no sign of a roost there. Checking the factory roofs revealed why with a large number of gulls clustering on the big blue one. Almost immediately a massive juv white-winger lifted off - a Glaucous Gull on size alone. It then flew lazily eastwards with the whole of the Edinburgh skyline as a backdrop. The shot below shows it in front of the Salisbury Crags and Pentlands - looks like an image from the Arctic!

Assuming that the Glauc had headed for the sewage works I hurried round to scan the filter beds and loafing areas there. On the last bed there it was - and it had messed up its immaculate plumage already.

In direct comparison with these Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls the large size of the Glaucous Gull was striking. Probably a male - its dark tipped bill and dark eye combined with its juvenile plumage allowing it to be aged as 2CY (first winter). Quite probably the same bird as was seen at Port Seton and Aberlady Bay, although its bill pattern seems slightly different to the Port Seton bird photographed well by Keith G.

It did not hang around long despite the fact that was on hands and knees on the banking at this point taking shots through the base of the perimeter fence. Instead it took off and sailed right over my head onto the sea.

 The bird then took some time to wash to get the sewage stain off its plumage.

Hmm... is that it all cleaned off yet?

Sollas Snowy Owl shots

Although we were only a few miles along the coast when news of the Snowy Owl at Sollas broke it wasn't possible to head in that direction until mid-afternoon. There were no details about viewing so we were unaware that all you had to do was view from the Co-op carpark. Instead we had parked at the beach carpark and then spent a couple of hours slowly working the dunes and scanning the fields.
After quite a number of plastic-bag-related false alarms, Colin realised that a white blob on the opposite side of the field we were checking was the owl - such a relief for me and such a beautiful bird. We were concerned that we were stuck out in the open so we just sat down and watched. The owl showed no concern at our presence or of the farmer checking his stock in the adjacent field. It was sitting near to a fence line and we watched it in that spot for about an hour and thirty minutes. In that time it sat rotating its head around to scan from time to time. It shuffled regularly and seemed to want to keep in the sun. As the shadow of a fence post passed across it, its brilliant white plumes were plunged into a vibrant shaded-snow blue and it would then stand and shuffle into a sunnier position.

With the cold wind at our backs we knew how it felt. On a couple of occasions it stood, stretched its wings and indulged in some light preening but other than that it appeared to have little interest in moving. We were pretty cold so we started debating when to head back to the car. Also appearing to sense the heat disappearing from the sun, the Snowy Owl's behaviour changed and it seemed to become more alert. It took to the wing and with a few powerful strokes it was away to perch on some boulders two field widths away. Cold, we decided to start our walk back but were surprised when after a few minutes the owl flew closer to us and landed at a marshy pool to drink.

After drinking it headed to a large fencepost where it looked like a Barn Owl on steroids. It now appeared to be in full hunting mode which was exciting, though I had confidently told Colin that it would shun the fence posts in favour of the boulders only a few minutes earlier!

On our route back to the car the owl continued to pose on its post and then treated us to a fly-past into the sunset.

An unbelievably exciting two and a quarter hours of observation.

Harlequin at Balranald, North Uist

Some of the pictures on the Internet of this rarity have clearly been taken at close quarters. No such close views for me but at least I have successfully connected on two out of three trips to Balranald over the last few days. Today's views were particularly enjoyable as the bird fed for an hour or so and then went to roost on hosta island.

Snowy Owl on North Uist

It's April fool's day but this is for real! Seen today at Sollas.

Lesser Black-backed Gull aggression

These two Lesser Black-backed Gulls were fighting this morning on St Margaret's Loch in Edinburgh. Preceded by some very noisy calling and bowing movements this aggression is not uncommon for this species.

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.

Little Gull off Seafield

I have seen Little Gulls off Seafield a couple of times before at this time of year, but they have always been out at the sewage outfall a mile offshore. This morning, with the strong onshore winds whipping the spray over the seawall, there was one close in feeding with the Black-headed Gulls in the surf. Sadly it did not stay long but headed East along the coast battling against the wind.

A real beauty in my opinion... with a nice rosy tint coming through on the breast.

The initial view - the Little Gull being smaller, and flickering in flight with pale upperparts and dark underwings.

Yellowish-legged Herring Gull

Gull highlights at Seafield today were at least a dozen Kittiwakes feeding off the outfall, a lovely rosy pink Black-headed Gull, and a yellowish-legged Herring Gull. The latter was close by as I sheltered in my car from a downpour so I took the opportunity to get a few shots.

The yellowish legs seemed considerably more vivid in real life than in some of these shots. The comparative shots show that the yellow tint is nothing like the colour of the legs of a Lesser Black-backed Gull but look really quite yellow when alongside a more typical pink-legged Herring Gull.

 
Whether this bird is from the yellow-legged population of Herring Gulls in the Baltic is unknown.

The flight shot shows that this bird has a complete black band on P6, but an unmarked P5.