When I received an e-mail from Martin asking if I was interested in going to see a possible three birds, Shorelark, Desert Wheatear and Snow Bunting at Reculver, my answer was an unequivocal Yes!!
Unfortunately as we reached the site of the Roman fort at Reculver the news was half good. The Desert Wheatear hadn't been located but the other birds were present, just further down the sea wall. It never fails, as we arrived we were greeted as usual, "Woz 'ere until 10 minutes ago". Fortunately we didn't have to wait long before the Shorelark put in an obliging appearance.
Duly recorded we went in search of the absent Snow Buntings. After some time our enthusiasm wavered and we set off on our return to the car park, just as I was putting the camera away we were treated to a fly by of two Snowies. These delightful little birds posed for several minutes, had we been on our own we would have ventured closer but having been joined by other birders we held off.
Just as the Snow Buntings departed the Shorelark returned for a drink from a small puddle in the rocks, a couple of quick shots and it was away again.
Quite happy with our two ticks we decided to return home via Oare Marsh. As I have said before, this is a brilliant location to finish off any birding day as the last hour of sunlight is perfect for capturing the thousands of waders that are present. Unfortunately the camera fails to capture the scale of activity, especially as today, the tide was high and the birds were forced into small amounts of real estate. One day we will have to spend the whole day here.
What follows are the best shots of the "usual suspects", most snapped whilst waiting for a Crestie to turn up. The Coal Tits are particularly friendly, happy to sit on various parts of the car and sometimes in it! I even put sunflower kernels on the end of my lens and they perched on that.
Car wing mirrors make good bird tables...
....so do bonnets!
Quite a few showing distinct yellow cheeks of the form hibernica
The Treecreepers were most obliging, searching the bark of the most photographed tree in Scotland with real diligence, occasionally partaking of a soupcon of peanut butter.
The Robin was just too close and I struggled to focus on him. He had found a worm which was difficult to extract from the gravel, once he had it free he dropped it and ignored it, preferring the suet nibbles that I had mixed in with the general feed.
The woodpeckers were great fun, doing what they always do, hiding round the back of the tree.
I spotted this "Nordic"Jackdaw amongst the Grantown on Spey residents whilst waiting for Liz to complete some shopping. It clearly displays the white/silver neck markings of one of the European forms, probably monedula - the Scandinavian race. I am happy to be further informed. Probably more at home here than the one I photographed on Steyning Round Hill.
Well he had to turn up with all those peanuts on offer.
The obligatory tour of Lochindorb resulted in...
Well that's it, lots of pixels captured in pretty horrendous conditions - still, better weather next time (I hope).
I don't think any birder with a camera who visits Scotland can ignore the Crested Tits, along with Capercaillie and Black Grouse these are the true icons of Scottish ornithology. They are not easy to capture well, they move like greased lightning and are never in surroundings that allow any sort of shutter speed. All these shots were taken in the car park at Loch Garten, under conditions that ranged from near darkness to near sunlight.
I think they must have had a good year as we found them in numbers elsewhere in the Abernethy Forest and Anagach Woods, their buzzing call giving them away amongst hordes of Coal Tits.
