Hard weather birding

The continuing cold spell produced a couple of nice sightings today, the best of which was a beautiful little flock of nine Tundra Bean Geese. These were feeding in the potato field by the crossroads at around 2pm this afternoon, before flying off southwards. Here's hoping that this marks the start of another influx of these handsome geese.

Of local interest was a Kingfisher on the Ythan Estuary; also there were a pair of Pintail among swollen numbers of Mallard, which have presumably been frozen off their usual freshwater haunts. A fine day to be in the field.

Another white-winged encounter

Another all-too-brief sighting of a 'white' gull at Collieston harbour this afternoon, apparently a different individual to the one seen at the end of November.

Photos reproduced below, courtesy of Rosie. Once again, comments are welcome. Enjoy!

 

Waifs and strays

A few oddities around today, with the first being a Greenland White-fronted Goose in the Cotehill Loch area this morning. This bird, an adult, was with a party of five Greylags and was last seen alighting in fields just north of the Collieston crossroads; sadly they landed out of view from where I was watching.

Shortly afterwards, three Crossbills flying south over the Forvie Centre just before midday were somewhat unexpected, and the first ones I've seen on the patch for some time.

Finally, Rosie and I very nearly ran over a Jack Snipe(!) in the road at Little Collieston at dusk - thankfully it took off just in time and flew through the beam of the car headlights, heading over the Smiddy bushes before disappearing into the dark. Would have been a very unfortunate addition to the 'roadkill list'.

Mynah better than yours...

I have no idea how many Blackbirds are using our garden at the moment. However, this individual, with curious white feathering around both eyes, certainly stands out. The white bits almost lend him the appearance of a Mynah. Hmmm... I wonder, if we took him into captivity, whether we could teach him to swear...

White wings ahoy

A rather elusive 'white' gull was in the Collieston area last weekend; I was hoping to nail it down before posting any news, but no such luck. There's a chance it may resurface yet though.

Here's what we saw, in virtual darkness, on Sunday afternoon...

Looked to us like a first-winter Iceland, but a whacking great big one. Head shape and bill colour appeared correct, but views were very poor. Comments welcome!