Friday, May 25, 2018
Today was mostly concerned with brown birds, starting with two whimbrels on Badentarbat beach. The whimbrels were finding small crabs among the rocks, and at one point a juvenile gull tried to mug one of them which took off with the crab and led its pursuer a merry chase until the gull gave up. I snapped the picture through the windscreen.
Across the headland, great skuas provided the main attraction. One hovered over the beach with its wings in a V-shape, until a second bird went up and they flew off together. I assume they were a pair and that this was some sort of pair-bonding.
Courtship rituals or not, it soon became clear when one bird landed by a tangle of bones and feathers that what they were there for was food (a dead shag).
The skua picked at the carcass for a while until the approach of two people made it lift off. The second skua then landed and continued to pick at the bones.
I retreated and left the skua in peace. One bird's death is another bird's life.
My worst miss of the day came when a flock of geese, mainly greylag, took off from the machair and flew around above the beach. I watched them closely, hoping to confirm that I'd noticed a pink-foot among them - and belatedly realised that a sea eagle (probably the cause of their unrest) was flying to the east in the distance.
The fourth brown bird was spotted on the drive out, when, scanning the distant skyline, I got onto a golden eagle (and when I say "distant", I mean about 3 kilometres away).
And then I drove home.
// posted by Christine @ 12:49 PM 
