Christine's walking & birds blog

Horrible day - grey, dull, wet. A couple of recent visits south to Longart Forest brought half a dozen crossbills; they were wary, so were possibly another family party.


A large flock of long-tailed tits near the Black Water River contained at least one goldcrest.

Bright eyes....


Just a few of the hundreds of golden plover at Titchwell Marsh in Norfolk, two days ago. We were there house-hunting but came home earlier than intended as Greger wasn't very well.

On the lovely wide beach, he had a rest on the edge of the dunes while I walked down towards the waders. It was just the usual suspects, but then I caught sight of something tiny, black-and-white, whirring eastwards above the waves and felt certain it was a little auk.

When we'd first arrived at Titchwell there was a little group of people in the car park staring intently up into (can't remember - was it a sycamore or maple?) and learnt that a yellow-browed warbler was foraging there. I saw a chiffchaff (apparently there were a couple of those) and then I glimpsed the YBW. It didn't stop moving! But then I got lucky as it came out onto a more open branch and I had a great view. Not my favourite sort of birdwatching, but it's not as though it was my first YBW - that was in our garden here in 2015. But on that occasion it was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of sighting, whereas this time I could see what a pretty, bright little sprite it was.

And back home, just for confirmation, I googled Norfolk bird sightings and found that little auks are being seen off the east coast at the moment. A nice double.

The distant tops were speckled with snow and there was ice on the puddles ahead of me as I walked up through the plantation known as Altan Wood.


It was about 3ºC but the cold was easy to cope with because there was no wind.  A sudden flapping came from the right of the track and a male black grouse flew across in front of me giving great views but no chance of a photo. It had taken off from the ground where I suppose they're feeding now (possibly on heather seeds) as there are no birch catkins yet.

The stream was low and I crossed without any problem, enjoying the uphill walk and the far-ranging views. I ate my sandwiches at the end of the track and started off back. Where a fork runs down to the footbridge, another flapping made me jump - but again, it happened too quickly for a photo and I could only stand and admire the rich red-brown plumage of a woodcock as it sped away down the hill between the pines. Last year on 1st November I flushed a woodcock in roughly the same spot.

I took the fork downhill to see if I could get a further sighting - and from the bank above there were a couple of squeaky calls; a snipe species (probably common) took off and flew behind the plantation and out of sight. I wondered how many other delectable birds were hunkered down in the wet grass. Well, there was no point chasing them, I thought, and turned back up to rejoin the main track; and just after I got there, a slightly quieter wing-flapping turned out to be a fieldfare. This isn't the first time I've seen an apparently solitary fieldfare here.

After this I decided to be prepared, and took my camera out of the case. This became awkward; I have a new camera case which isn't so good for looping on my rucksack belt so I carry it slung across my body, and the empty camera case was now flapping about in the way of my elbow. Eventually I gave up and put the camera away again - and I hadn't walked more than five paces before two black grouse took off from the grass just in front of me and winged off up the hill. Aaarrrgh! (One, I just had time to note, was a female.)

Despite the fading light, the stonechat demanded a picture as I had nothing else to show for the walk!


As I dropped down to the road, a familiar hollow sound heralded four whooper swans flying over the moorland. Here, they are just four dots in line with my car.


I drove on to the lay-by at the end of Loch Glascarnoch (where the water level is very low - the parapets of the bridge were visible) and saw four whoopers feeding on the exposed area just beyond the old road. Fortunately there was no-one else in the lay-by and I remained in the car so as not to disturb them.



Visibility was now a problem and I set off for home, noting with a sinking heart that I had to turn on my lights before I reached Ullapool. But on the plus side I'd had a great walk in bright, dry weather and some interesting birdy encounters.

Seven of eleven waxwings on top of the ash tree in the morning sun just had to be snapped.....



We drove north and then east, and walked across moorland on a track white with frost, looking for crossbills. I got some distant shots of what I thought was a small flock, but it wasn't until I saw the pictures at home that I realised the small flock was a family, with at least three juveniles. There's certainly plenty of food for them, with many mature spruce carrying masses of cones.  


I assumed the bird on the top left was an adult female, but in this picture it seems to have a reddish rump, and a reddish tinge to the chest - so probably a male.

We made our way back to the high lonesome road, having enjoyed a quiet forest-and-moorland walk without meeting anyone.

A hard overnight frost gave way to a largely sunny day - but I don't feel well, so I've stayed at home. Still, it's not too bad when you have views of waxwings like this from the kitchen window. One bird (bottom right) has a whitish berry in its bill, so they're definitely plundering the tree in our neighbour's garden.


These three waxies made me laugh as they look a bit grumpy.


When they flew to the top of the ash tree I watched others arrive from a different direction and then counted twenty-two birds. The berry situation in the village is becoming critical and there seem to be far fewer winter thrushes around; no doubt some have already left and are gradually moving south.

I glanced out of the kitchen window to see at least fifteen waxwings in the silver birch! They flew up to the top of the ash tree out the back so I snapped off a shot to count them - at least 35!



Cue loads of bad pics of waxies, but I can't stop myself. They were swooping down from the ash tree to land in our neighbour's garden, as they did a couple of winters ago. She has an ornamental tree of some kind with pinkish-white berries.

Greger has his Spanish class in Inverness tonight, so he kindly took my car in for part of the service they couldn't do last week. He also pointed out that an additional procedure had been done down south and wasn't again yet due according to either age of car or mileage - so the service wasn't quite as expensive as it might have been.

The winter thrush event continues. With the supply of rowan berries by the medical centre close to being exhausted, the birds have descended on the yellow-berried tree out the back.


There were some redwing among the many fieldfare, but when I walked round the village in irritating showers of drizzle I found fifty-plus redwings on the ground in the camp-site along with starlings and oystercatchers - worming, presumably.

Six waxwings had also found an alternative food source, and were flying up from the tree-tops flycatching.


Two black guillemots were preening and loafing.


And far out there was a common scoter.


A possible golden eagle flew over, heading across the loch for the hills beyond.

In the afternoon I drove over to the medical centre (there are a couple of rowan trees in the car park) and eventually, after much scanning of the thrushes from the car, spotted six waxwings among them.


Just a few of the winter thrushes out the back on this windy, rainy morning.


At one point, it seemed as though the whole sky was full of them as a great straggling flock streamed from the tree-tops and spread out over the gardens, the soft "chacks" of the fieldfare punctuated by the odd thin "seep" of redwings; and probably all trying to feed from rowan trees where human disturbance will be high. Their behaviour this morning though was different from the panicky, swirling flight of yesterday, which suggested the presence of a raptor.

Best of all, in one picture, I picked out two waxwings - just after Greger had reckoned that in such a large flock there could easily be some waxies. It doesn't seem too much of a hardship to stay at home with this avian spectacle practically on our doorstep!

From the kitchen window we saw hundreds of winter thrushes rise from the slopes of Ullapool Hill and swirl around as though something had disturbed them.


There are about 155 birds in the picture - mostly fieldfare, probably, with smaller numbers of redwing. It was late afternoon and the light was poor, with just a hint of drizzle in the air. When the berries up there are exhausted they will no doubt come down into the village - but our small rowan tree has already been stripped by blackbirds, a song thrush, and a couple of redwings.