Bring Me Sunshine

26/06/10

I still haven’t managed to see the culprit, but I’m certain it is a Garden Warbler. Nice one! Once again we have four Magpies strutting and squawking around the place, two adults and their boisterous offspring. They built a nest not 50m from the house this year so we could watch developments. I know a lot of people don’t like Magpies, but I find them irresistible.

A couple of days ago I went back to see if I could see the Temminck’s Stint on Rigifa Pool. I must have just missed it. Again. But not to worry, there was a nice selection of birds to watch. House Martins and Swallows swooped over the pool, and round the muddy margins there were lots of Lapwings, with their fluffy chicks, juvenile wagtails, and Ringed Plovers. I went on to Girdleness, intending to do a bit of sea watching, but the rain came on, and I chickened out. It looked brighter to the south, so I sped down to Fowlsheugh where indeed it was nice and warm and sunny. And smelly. No wonder with so many thousands of gulls and auks on the cliffs and on the sea. Some of them had quite well grown young ones, so here’s hoping for a successful breeding outcome this year. As well as the sea birds, there were numerous Yellowhammers, Dunnocks and Meadow Pipits, and the wild flowers were looking their best.

Thereafter, I carried on down the coast to Montrose Basin. The tide was still well in, but I waited a bit and soon the birds began to appear. I counted 135 Mute Swans. I was hoping for a Greenshank, but no luck. Probably still a few weeks too early.

I think I have recovered from my unfortunate experience at Strathbeg earlier in the week, but I suspect it will take something exceptional to drag me back there for quite a while.