Venus Pool - Black-tailed Godwits

John Martin's perseverance with VP paid off with a nice find of 7 Black-tailed Godwits this morning. I called in both morning and evening when they were still there. Never far from the middle island, a heck of a lot of distance to deal with!

Here's all 7 reasonably close together

And using three together, a sensible way to use the highly cropped frame!

Those legs allow feeding birds to cope nicely with the current high water conditions!

Waders... we need more passage waders!

Venus Pool - Blackwits - Flashback to 2006!

The seven Blackwits at VP herald the start of some good wader movement and I thought I'd take a hunt through the archives to 11th June 2006 when an unparalleled number dropped into Venus Pool. I can still remember it clearly - in the those days, the blog hadn't been created and the pool was a whole lot tidier!

I can't guarantee the three pics don't overlap and probably incomplete coverage but there were 68 Black-tailed Godwits (I remember counting multiple times with Geoff Holmes) on and adjacent to the middle island,!

Those were the days eh? Despite no long lens!!

North Shropshire - Quail

I've been spending quite a bit of time at one or two locations in the North of the County hoping for Quail. The best I've managed 'on call' was four birds at one site. Brief glimpses eventually followed  from the parked car but then.... The icing on the cake came today and it lasted literally 2 or three seconds!

Job done I reckon?

Dava Moor - Cuckoo

With local rain forecast for most of the day, I set off for the north coast and thought I'd check out the lay-by on Dava Moor for Cuckoo, where three had been seen earlier in the week? A inspired hunch but I didn't dare get out of the car! After a bit of shunting which failed to flush him, I had a reasonably clear view in the twiggy shrub he was perched up in.

There were still annoying crossing branches...

Just about the closest I've ever had one and it gives me another goal for the future! An unobstructed view that is!

I even tried a little hand-held video (medium resolution here) ...

A good start to the day!

Lossie Estuary - Waders

There weren't quite as many waders present as on Wednesday but the low tide was just rising and they were grabbing what food they could before it disappeared!

First bird in view as I parked the car was a single Whimbrel...

But by far the most plentiful were (c115) Ringed Plover. This one being the 'alpha male'?

And of course the ever present Dunlin!

There were c30 Sanderling and I'll post some pics of these separately...

Lossie Estuary - Sanderling

The useful diversion of feeding waders kept me busy whilst waiting for Ospreys to arrive on the rising tide. By far the most showy were Sanderling and I'm always drawn to their energy and charm as they dash around in search of food...

The plumage is always variable at this time of year with some developing summer plumage more slowly.

Picking up tiny tasty morsels!

This distinctive one with a white patch at the base of the bill always stood out from the crowd...

They wiled away an hour or so of my Osprey 'downtime' but as the water depth increased, time to be looking up!

Cairngorm - Ring Ouzel male

The walk up Cairngorm had been scuppered by rain / low cloud all week but there were a few Ring Ouzel on the lower slopes near the ski station car park. I caught up with this smart male going about his business....

In thick grass so despite being at my eye level, always in amongst the blades...

The bird... the habitat...

And the business? There's worms and larvae of all shapes and sizes!

Gotcha!

Seemed almost proud to show off his prize!

A female was working the slope lower down too but it was 'one at a time' please!