A Small Victory

A couple of Roe Deer were out grazing just opposite St Ann's as I trotted out this morning. there's been an explosion of fledged birds, notably juvvy Blackbirds everywhere. But looky here, a fresh juvenile White-throated Dipper, feeding itself inefficiently.

Juvvy European Robin (alive this time - yesterday's bird must have got better), juvvy European Goldfinches in Mill Garden. Also a very grey acredula type Willow Warbler feeding in the sycamores here.

Mystery photograph (no peeping below)

Yes, I found a juvvy Song Thrush. It appeared to have twatted itself against the wall and hurt its wing. I was picking it up to bump it off for my lunch (joke - but I was going to see if it had broken anything. Don't have much truck with wildlife rehabilitation), but it fluttered off into the Mill Garden, so it wasn't completely crippled, maybe just stunned. So I left it to a prolonged death.

Female Mallard with 2 small ducklings on the burn, with 2 Common Swifts over the village. There's been an enormous hatch of those annoying nasty black flies with the dangly legs (St Mark's Flies?), and the Swifts, Barn Swallows, House Martins and even Vulgar Starlings were making merry among them.

A feeding flock of 200 Black-legged Kittiwakes offshore had several 1st summer birds, checking out the territory (it's wet).

I took an alternative route down to Muchalls, over a few walls and along the coastal fields. Some good setaside (or maybe just useless) fields, awash with weeds and occasionally purple with pansies, which are also weeds(!). Also a Northern Wheatear, looking very like a leucorhoa, was a patch year tick - embarrassing, but I've found Northern Wheatears to be surprisingly scarce along this bit of coast, and am more likely to pick up these Greenland or Iceland birds later in the spring than I am to get an early spring local breeder. I made a rat's arse of trying to photograph it. See orange and grey blur behind nicely in focus flowers.


This is what this field looks like. Spectaclier. In here was a pair or Northern Lapwings, and I found a Skylark nest, which was a pretty good effort.

This way took me to the back of Water Valley, and I had an unpleasant time trying to hack my way through the undergrowth on the north side of that burn. Saw Chaffinches, Yellowhammers, Great Tits, jaggy gorse.

A rare photograph of me in the field. One at a time please, ladies. :-O

It's a bit lame, but I'm frequently asked if I have a photo (at least I was while IBWOs were still a live issue), and in all my photos of me I'm desk-bound or pissed*. Sometimes both. This one is neither.

*Or naked in a bath of rose petals. That's a speciality market. Not very popular, tbh.