King Eider

Having dipped the White-billed Divers at Portsoy and no further sightings being posted we decided that a day out at the Ythan Estuary was in order. So, after the morning rush hour, which amounted to the school bus and a handful of cars, we made our way to the Aberdeenshire coast via Keith, Huntly, Oldmeldrum and Ellon. The previous day I had met Peter Lewis and his directions to the King Eider were spot on. As we parked at the bottom of Inch Road in Newburgh both Liz and I spotted it, almost immediately, amidst a flock of Common Eiders. Thanks Peter. The light wasn't bad but the wind was howling up the estuary and on the way was picking up large amounts of the "Sands of Forvie". Boots on and a short wade across a large bed of cockles and mussels and I was fairly close to the bird. This bird is not spooked, an angler made his way back to shore and the flock just parted to let him through and then continued to feed voraciously on the plentiful shellfish. There are only so many poses a duck swimming up and down can take but I managed to capture a large amount of pixels of a stunning bird. The locals expect it to stay for the summer as it has been making overtures to a female Common Eider - with, sadly, no response.

 

 

Not difficult to spot

 

A "common" one

The mud and water of the estuary had now filled my boots to overflowing and it was time to move on. After a brew in the layby north of the bridge, where surprisingly few birds were to be seen, we made our way north to a new venue - The Bullers of Buchan. More spectacular Old Red Sandstone cliffs inhabited by the usual seabirds, Guillemots, Razorbills, Shags, Fulmars and Kittiwakes but unfortunately none of the close up views of Puffins that we were seeking.

We made our way home along the north coast, visiting Portsoy and Cullen on the off chance of a WBD. Plenty of summer plumaged Great Northern and Black-throated Divers to be seen along with the usual rafts of Auks.