Home and Away Part 2

16/04/09

Home and Away Part 2
16th April 2009. Hmm. Snow Goose still at Loch of Strathbeg. I've tried umpteen times to pin down Snow Goose but keep missing them. Is it worth the long road? Anything else worth going for? Well, there are two of them, white phase and blue phase, and the weather has stayed foggy and drizzly so they ought to be still there. I went. I arrived, to find the place crawling with kids, the mist thick and hardly a bird in sight. The school holiday club finally went outside, and I settled down with a coffee to look for geese. Very far away, just on the limit of visibility, I could just make out a flock of geese, and among them, a white blob, and a white head side by side. They weren't moving. But they looked like big birds. I went to the toilet and when I came back the fog had closed in even more and there was nothing to be seen where I had been looking. I hung around for an hour, hoping the weather would improve. Eventually, I decided on a walk to the Tower Hide. Might pick up something on the way, and it is marginally closer to the field where the geese were last seen. Arrived there, it was empty. A few Mute Swans, Coots and ducks were all I could see. Then a Water Rail squealed in the reed bed. This was better. Next, a male Sparrowhawk flew past, hugging the ground. The mist was clearing, gradually. And then, it rolled back and I could see the geese again. And it was the two Snow Geese I had been seeing. Result at last.
I went back to the visitor centre briefly, then off to Rattray where I had lunch overlooking the loch. I was hoping for Corn Bunting, but no joy. Back at the Visitor Centre again, I settled down to have a good look around now that the sun was out. A Ruff appeared on one of the pools, probably a non breeding male, judging by its size and lack of breeding finery. A pair of Pintail was nice. Three blokes came in, and I was able to find the geese again for them. Then the shoutie mannie appeared and joined them. He was to be showing them around the place, but first he explained why there were no Black-headed Gulls on the island in front of the Centre. There had been until yesterday, but all the commotion of trying to install a camera had caused them to desert. Only an Oystercatcher on eggs and a nest building Jackdaw remained. The four of them left to be replaced by the school club. But they too were about to leave, although one of them hung about long enough to get excellent views of a Marsh Harrier, the Ruff and a Ringed Plover. A real birder for the future there, I reckoned.
So in spite of all the interuptions, I had a good day there, getting three year ticks, Snow Goose, Ruff and Marsh Harrier. On the way home, I had a quick look at the Ugie estuary (just the usual stuff) and the Ythan. 12 Whooper Swans having a loud conversation, and a flock of about 160 Curlews were the only birds of note at the top car park. Down at the Inches, I watched good numbers of Sandwich Terns fishing, and a very smart Long-tailed drake.
Then today, I went to the hide at Tarland. The farmer was rolling the field next to the wetland, but this was having no effect at all on the birds. It turned out to be one of the best days I've had there for a while. I don't normally risk boring you with lists of birds seen, but just to demonstrate how good this place has become, here are the birds I saw in the 90 minutes I was there: Oystercatcher (14) Lapwing(8) Teal (a pair) Curlew, Black-headed Gull(26) Common Gull (10) Redshank (12) Skylark, Chaffinch. Rook, Great Tit, Moorhen (2) Starling, Willow Warbler, Pheasant, Wood Pigeon, Goldfinch, Mistle Thrush, Jackdaw, Pied Wagtail, Blue Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker. The tits and finches were using the feeders which I put there last autumn, as was the woodpecker, a first for the site. And all this only 15 minutes from home.