Winter Mission Accomplished!

On the 27^th January, with an early finish from college, I decided to have another crack at checking the local geese. From past experience, the Pink-Foot flock were occasionally viewable from Hartley Road between Holywell Dene and the Delaval Arms, but with the flock being so mobile, I didn’t have the highest hopes of getting a chance to check them. However, on arrival, I headed to my usual spot, and immediately spotted 14 geese in the field. 11 Greylag Geese, and 3 Smaller Geese on their own away from the distant Pink-Footed Goose flock. After setting up my scope, one thought crossed my mind: ‘3 Geese on their own? Pink or Orange Bill?’ And Bingo! 3 Tundra Bean Geese feeding in the field! At this point I rang Joe Dobinson who came along and confirmed them. 5 minutes later, they wandered out of view. We thought that was the last sighting of them, however soon after, the Pink-Footed Goose flock were all flushed up, and the Bean Geese went up with them, and they became even more obvious when flying with Pink-Footed Geese. A great patch tick!

Dirty Twitching! 11/1/14

Yesterday I gave into temptation and went to twitch the American Coot in the Highlands, in the company of Dave Brown and Tom Middleton. Leaving at half 1(am), and arriving at 7, we were soon getting excellent views of the Yanky Coot. After watching it for about 30 mins, we decided to go and look for the Ring-Billed Gull at Dingwall, which gave absolutely mega views on the grass in front of the Academy! Final stop was Loch Garten for Crested Tit and Capercaillie.. No sign of any Capers but...

 CRESTED TIT!! Fantastic birds!

 American Coot

Great views of Ring-Billed Gull