Ack. And Ick. We are still a house of dysentry and assorted emetic diseases. It was Peter's turn this weekend. I squelched over our vomit-soaked carpet and out for a brief birding session in the rain. Mmmmm south easterlies too - wish it were October. As it happened, unless you count a full-on Common Blackbird shouting session in the Mill Garden , involving 5 birds, there was little passerine action. Out at sea, in very unpleasant viewing conditions, 2 Little Auks flew south (south?), and there was another one on the sea, that was nearly sunk by a surfacing Bottle-nosed Dolphin. Nothing else happening though. Now, back to that carpet...

Once more now, with feeling.

It was Diane's turn, for man-flu with bonus D+V (nice!). I stayed home to take the kids to borstal, then figured that as I was going to be late for work anyway, I might as well be good and late, and had half an hour at the seaside. 09:30 to 10:00, and a grand total of 2 Little Auks. Yes, 2. Count 'em.... there's one, *1* .... .... .... .... .... .... annnnnnnddddddddd.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... there's another. *2*. See, told you so. Ah, has anyone ever captured the magic and excitement of seawatching so eloquently in written form? I very much doubt it. In that time 4 Razorbill went north, and 2 Razormots south (or is it Guillebills) (or Murrebillemots)? 2 Red-throated Divers south, 1 Northern Gannet north (count it.... or is the joke wearing thin?). 4 Long-tailed Ducks flew north, and 2 Eurasian Wigeon for a bit of variety. Also 25 Common Gulls. Whichever way you look at it, and I personally look at it like this


the party was over in Newtonhill today. As the actress said to the bishop, you've put me in a very difficult position.

Errr... witty title... lots of Little Auks?

I hate Manchester United. Can't help it, always have done. I'd rather have a threesome with Margaret Thatcher and John Prescott (US readers, think Ross Perot and, errr... Nancy Reagan?) than watch the team in red. But something that Sir Alex of Fergiescum once said was true. Actually two things, the irrelevant one being 'Football, Bloody Hell!', which I hope he never has occasion to say again. The other one was when ManU PLC had won the championship, maybe at the end of the nineties sometime, and the ever intrusive Sky TV cameras went into the dressing room to see them popping the champagne and whatever other indecent acts occur in there. He told his team to enjoy the occasion, cos days like this don't come round very often. That was true.

Depends where you were how many you saw, but 10000's of Little Auks along the east coast today - fantastic spectacle. These mass movements where you get the weather, predict the birds, get the birds, and then the birds fly away again. Better than any rarity. Nearly. Days like this don't come round that often. Just enjoy it when it happens - it's what you work for.

Another thing someone once said that was true, except it wasn't ()eh?#). A Gambian bird tour guide, on holiday in Britain, enjoying his birding, not very impressed with the weather, but noted that 'If you have the birds, you do not get cold.' Which is true, except he wasn't talking about seawatching from an Aberdeenshire clifftop in November.

Which brings me to an Aberdeenshire clifftop in November. I'd learnt my lesson from yesterday... no more Arthur Dent clobber for me, this time I was fully kitted out in my velvet smoking jacket, cummerband and frilly shirt ( a bit Jon Pertwee as third Doctor Who). I didn't go seawatching straight away this morning - first had a very boring look round the Mill garden and bushes near the beach, scoring nothing apart from the usual residents. A Mistle Thrush on wires above Cow Field was pretty noteworthy - they've been very scarce this year and it was probably one on the move.

So, it had been a brisk NW overnight... predicting Little Auks, unfortunately for me that is an offshore wind, so not expecting 1000s, but I was pleased to get hundreds. They came in dribs and drabs from about 09:00, with 150 in the first hour, then there was 10 minutes when it went mad and about 300 came through ahead of a freezing sleet shower (ref. error of Gambian bird guide). 577 in total in 2 hours. 67 Razorbills and Guillemots (mostly Razorbills when I could tell) and 3 Atlantic Puffins, coming through, all north. 4 Great Northern Divers (Loons) went great north, and 2 Red-throated Divers south. 36 Northern Gannets, 4 Common Scoters, 1 Velvet Scoter, 3 Common Goldeneyes and 4 Mallards, all north.

One of the local Peregrine Falcons was out and about roasting the passing Little Auks. Not 'roasting' as in 'Sunderland footie players on video'-type, but splitting them up and trying to eat them-type. Didn't seem to have any success - the Little Auks were low enough that they could splash down and be out of the way. The local Great Black-backed Gulls on the other hand are so fat they can hardly move.

Dear Santa...

Saturday morning and you have offered 101 varieties of tasty breakfast until the kids have judged which one is of sufficient quality to consider eating. They are on the settee, with Spongebob and other Saturday cartoons nipping away at their brains. You are sat there with a mug of mahogany coloured tea, and all is well in the house. You have precisely ONE hour before the E numbers, sugar and discordant flickering images send the little ones into the sort of hyperdrive that can only be controlled by machine guns. What is to be done? Of course, one goes to the SEA....

...where jeepers, it is pissing down - I should have changed out of my dressing gown and jammies. Still, sat there Arthur Dent-like, I stare at, well, not much to begin with. But I sat it out for an hour (08:00 - 09:00) and got a bit of action in the end, primarily 36 Little Auks flitting north at varying distances. They were in fact the most common auk, with only a few Razorbill/Guillemots (Common Murres) going past. Also an Atlantic Puffin sat on the sea close in (bit of a warning shot for careless Little Auk identifications - in fact I think there was only a couple of Puffins in flight).

Slow, but also 29 Northern Gannets north in the hour, 8 Red-throated Divers (and one fishing just off the rocks with a gang of Common (Mew) Gulls). Nine Long-tailed Ducks north, 7 Common Goldeneyes, and 2 Common Scoters N (1S), with 5 Eurasian Teal S. Two Harbour Porpoises and single Atlantic Grey and Common Seals were in the water, and 15 Ruddy Turnstones with 4 Purple Sandpipers on the rocks.

Comedy moment for the morning was as a Little Auk came past, pretty close in, obviously tired and shagged out after a long squawk, and looking for somewhere to land. It appeared to be about to land right between adult and 1st winter Great Black-backed Gulls on the water, which was probably the WORST place to pick, except for the gulls, who would have approved. Fortunately for the wee auk, it thought better of it and went over and landed somewhere else. Just as it sploshed down and shook itself a bit, the Grey Seal's head popped up next to him and shocked it back into flight. Rock and hard place and all that. OK, I think you had to be there.

When I got back home I chained the kids up and explained to Lizzie about Little Auks, and how they came from near the North Pole, probably next to Santa's house. But Lizzie was adamant that Santa lives not at the North Pole, but somewhere called Reindeerland. And to prove it she asked to be unchained and brought me a pre-printed envelope with Santa's address for her 2007 begging letter (I hope she knows how to spell 'tangerine' and 'coal'), where sure enough the address was 'Reindeerland'. Personally I have my doubts about whether that it the real Santa, but if he's organising the presents then frankly, who cares?

Richard III got the right idea.

I was in a bad enough mood after spending Wednesday afternoon looking after a visitor at work while a Brunnich's Guillemot frolicked off Girdleness. And my mood got even worse after being linked to this abomination from Tom's site. Talk about p*ssing on one's legacy. I had to go outside and slaughter a few Hen Harriers. Then I cheered myself up by reading this. Vive la Republique, as they say in Paris.

So now waiting for the flood of Little Auks. It's so windy here they're crashing against the windows right now. probably. Something is. Haven't done any of these for a while... here goes...

Living Color - Bi

And this one - ha! appropriate!




And this...

More on the demise of the Romanovs

Quoting freely from A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924, by Orlando Figes.

After a few minutes, Yurovsky entered the room with the execution squad - six Hungarians usually described as 'Latvians', and five Russians. Each had been assigned to shoot a particular victim, but when they entered the room it turned out that they were not facing the right person and the room was too small, with murderes and victims practically standing on each others toes. It was this that partly caused the confusion that followed. Yurovsky read out the order to shoot the Romanovs. Nicholas asked him to repeat it: his last words were: 'What? What?' The the firing began. Bullets richocheted around the room, which filled up with smoke. Given all the evidence that has come to light, it is inconceivable that any of the Romanovs survived the ordeal. The only certain survivor was the spaniel, Joy. After the murder the bodies were driven off in a lorry and dumped in a series of neraby mineshafts. Sulphuric acid was poured on their faces to hide the identity of the corpses should they be discovered.

I guess one can debate the rights and wrongs of the premeditated cold murder of an entire family until the cows come home :-$. According to Krusty the Clown, it seems like you in the US have the right to bear arms for family protection, hunting dangerous and delicious animals, and keeping the King of England out your face. To that I would add keeping the King of England's family away from your Northern Harriers. Can't help thinking that a more robust attitude to illegal hunting of harriers on Royal Estates might go some way to sorting the problem.

And btw, what a f****** surprise... here.

My blog is really boring today. You should go see the McKinney. Is this why there are more Hen Harriers in Russia?

I wandered round Newtonhill etc this morning as usual. Lots of Eurasian Siskins flying through today. Flocks of up to 20. Still trying to lure Pallas's Leaf Warblers out of the bushed, but still no luck. Occurred to me that it's been such a mild autumn... the leaves are still pretty much on the trees unlike last year.

A whopping 15 Mallards in the bay (whoop de doo), and spying through my powerful KGB binoculars.... also a single Red-throated Diver and (divers alarums!) an Atlantic Puffin on the water.

Because everyone else appears to be seeing Pomarine Skuas in the North Sea this weekend, I thought I'd go hoover a few up on a mid-morning seawatch. Perfect flat calm - good for seeing skuas going past, even if distant. But I sat there for an hour, 9.30 - 10.30 and saw not one single skua. Is that a record today? they were mostly centred further south, but plenty seen in Fife even. I can only put it down to the Newtonhill force field - a bit like that thing in the Simpsons movie, but there solely to keep Poms out of my scope distance and hence to hack me off. Hell other people were seeing this.... which is taking the piss, frankly.

I saw a very pretty Peregrine Falcon flying back and forth along the cliff tops. Offshore, some Common Goldeneyes have turned up - with a couple on the water and 7 flying north. Also 42 Northern Gannets north, 3 Red-throated Divers N (and 2 S), 1 wonderful Manx Shearwater north, and a couple of Black-legged Kittiwakes N. I was so bored I was counting auks (55 north). No definite Guillemots (Common Murres) - most of the things id'd for definite were Razorbills, but there was another, or perhaps the same, I careth not, Atlantic Puffin, and 2 Little Auks heading north.

Bored with lack of skua action, I walked back into Newtonhill (Eurasian Sparrowhawk being mobbed higher and higher by Carrion and Hooded Crows, Roe Deer being chased across the burn by a particularly aggressive dead Hedgehog) and up Cran Hill (wind). Sieved through the Yellowhammers looking for Chestnut Buntings and Rufous-collared Sparrows (if you're going to aim high, aim tame I always say) (eh?), and came across a Stock Dove (Stock Pigeon if you prefer) in the stubble, which is a good patch bird (my third?). Rock Pipits feeding in the stubble round Cran Hill too, which never fails to confuse me.

The Doctor is SICK

with what Diane and Lizzie are unsympathetically calling man-flu. Spent the morning in bed and catching up with the recent flurry of Ivory-billed Woodpecker opinions, viz.

David Luneau

David Sibley

Geoffrey Hill

Remote cameras

Some very interesting stuff in there. Especially the things in the 'Gambling on a Ghost Bird' that, according to David Luneau, must have been true!

See the quote in the last one from Laurie Fenwood

"We don't have the 8x10 glossy photo that everyone wants, but we've accumulated enough evidence that we cannot ignore," Fenwood says.'

Bearing in mind the USFWS IBWO recovery plan ignored my paper, apparently they can only not ignore the evidence they agree with. grrrrr.... Good job I'm not bitter.

I did drag myself out for an hour's birding after my meagre lunch of cold gruel, but only got a single Goldcrest as a reward for attempted luring of Pallas's Warbler.

Lots of Common Blackbirds. Has anyone else fallen for/know of this habit, which I have followed for many years, of calling 1st winter male Blackbirds with dark brown bills 'Arnheim Jobs'? I'm not sure when it started or why, but I can't stop, and I want to know how it happened...

And... Pull!! Bang! Bogey bird down!

Aha. Bogey bird White-winged Tern still showing on-and-off Monday and yesterday at Loch of Skene. I had the car again today, but it didn't seem to want to take me straight to work. I *tried*. I really tried, honest, but it kept pulling off to the left towards Loch of Skene, so once I was there it seemed almost churlish not to have a wee look for the tern. This is what it looks like on a chilly dawn.

The haunted Loch of Skene. Note platform favoured by scarce Chlidonius terns, and the line of Pink-footed Geese preparing to fly off (in a line just below the top of the water level, top left).

I stood there for nearly an hour, admiring the cold. (eh?). Plenty of birds around - ~3000 Pink-footed Geese doing their dawn flight in dribs and drabs, Eurasian Wigeons, Tufted Ducks, Common Pochards, marauding gangs of up to 20 Goosanders (Common Mergansers) practicing their synchronised swimming for the 2008 Olympics, a few Mute Swans, Grey Heron, Great Cormorants and a Moorhen. But noticeably no terns, and I was starting to jump up and down and shake my puny fists at the vast empty sky (nearly empty, save for a flock of 150 Northern Lapwings), but there was a bit of encouragement... as the night shift headed noisily off to the fields, the day shift of a flock of Common (Mew) Gulls and a few Black-headed Gulls were coming in from the north, whence the WWTern was meant to be. Work was calling, when out of nowhere I saw the White-winged Tern in flight, east of me heading north away over the trees. Total length of observation, about 0.5 s!! This was most unsatisfactory... a) where the hell had it been? and b) had I seen enough to tick it?? :-O and probably not... white rump looked OK, but the angle was a bit acute and bugger, where the hell was it going? I jumped around on the spot like Rumpelstiltskin for 10 min, and then put it out to BirdGuides that it was seen heading off at 09:20. No sooner had I done that than I was back to the scope for another scan of the loch, when there it was sat on its favourite platform, about 400 m away. NOW it was just messing with my head, but at least properly under the belt. Below are crap but real field sketches (really must buy a pencil, and a rubber!)Even then it only sat there for 5 minutes when it was flushed by a big flock of geese coming back in. Lost it to the north, and had to go to work. But guessed it was feeding in the fields to the north, where indeed it was found later in the day.

This is what the flight of Pink-footed Geese sounds like... here. Turn it up LOUD, and then run for your life.

Eeek! Thanks to Remembird for this aural assault.

'Nemesis' Bird

Ah, what a day. Begun in joy and with feelings of expectation, ending in sadness and with feelings of crushing hopelessness. Just like all the other days then!

First, a trip round the patch. In a fit of misplaced optimism I had loaded calls of Pallas's Leaf Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher and, ahem, Red-flanked Bluetail, onto my phone. Just in case, y'know. As it turned out, loading calls of European Robins and Blackbirds would have been more useful, cos that's what was actually here. Very small numbers of Goldcrests, and Coal Tits, and a couple of Eurasian Siskins flying past. A (the?) pair of Common Stonechats were up the cliff steps, and another at the far corner of the Cran Hill track. A party of 7 Common (?) Crossbills flying over Newtonhill were a bizarre interlude. NO idea what is going on there.

I had a quick look offshore (15 min, 10:15 - 10:30). Amazing how quickly things go quiet - no Gannets, no Kittiwakes, but a single Atlantic Puffin feeding close inshore, with a Guillemot (Common Murre) and Razorbill - looks like I'm getting my auks in 1s today.

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone here that there are hundreds of thousands of people, all over the World.

Took a wee adventure outside the arbitrarily defined boundaries of my patch, up to a tempting patch of trees at Downies. I hadn't realised how much good habitat there is at Downies (from Cran Hill it looks like one house, a tree and a fuschia bush), but actually it's rather garden-city, quite isolated and on a hill. mmmmmmm.... No birds today, but I should keep a better look out.

Wtf? THIS sign has appeared along the Cran Hill track.

I'm confused... should I go that way or not? Are they a tourist attraction? Surely it's not the cliffs that are dangerous, but the wave-washed rocks at the bottom?

I avoided the footpath to dangerous cliffs, and walked home through the stubble from Cran Hill, seeing a Eurasian Tree Sparrow, in company with 8 Yellowhammers. I tried to string a juv Yellowhammer into a Pine Bunting. Sorry.

Back home a playing with my loverly children. There has been some recent bullshit hyperbole on BirdChat recently about people's 'Nemesis bird'. Now, to my mind that is going a bit strong. Wiki says:

Nemesis (in Greek, Νέμεσις), also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia ("the goddess of Rhamnous"), at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, in Greek mythology was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris, vengeful fate personified as a remorseless goddess.

Which seems a little unfair as a way of describing a bird you're having a little difficulty seeing. 'Bogey' birds I can relate to. Mine was always Hawfinch - not uncommonly. Took me 25 attempts before I saw them in North Wales. Since they went safely UTB, I have to admit that my bogey bird is... White-winged Tern (White-winged Black Tern)... a bird that not only have I managed to avoid seeing on several occasions in Britain (they always go the day, on in some cases, the hour, before I get there), but in fact I have managed to avoid seeing ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! So when I got news of one at Loch of Skene, about 12 miles from my house, this afternoon, Diane could tell by my twitchy feet it was kinder just to let me go. I got there at 15:40 and scanned round the Loch - impressive roost of Pink-footed Geese (2000+) in the middle, with smaller numbers of Greylags. Eurasian Wigeons, Tufted Ducks, Common Pochards, European Coots, Common (Mew) Gulls but no 'boy'. I hung around for a bit, but couldn't see any floaty terns, and went off home. The area was crawling with Common Buzzards and I picked up one of the reintroduced Red Kites (a juvvy) over the road to the south of the Loch.
Was inordinately displeased to read on BirdGuides that it had flown off at 15:30. Clucking Bell! TEN minutes late. Ouch!

Day off work...

Today, I was mostly on Stonehaven beach eating Pistachio Ice Cream from Aunty Betty's Ice Cream Parlour and 24 Hour Mobile Disco, with the family. Out for the last hour birding, picking up a grand (not so grand) total of 5 Goldcrests in bushes down the Elsick Burn, 3 Song Thrushes and about 20 Blackbirds, some of which are probably migrants. A Rock Pipit on the beach, and a Guillemot (Common Murre) sat out on the rocks, on its last legs. I've never understood this 'last legs' thing*. Which legs is it meant to be on? I'm on my last legs too. At least I think they're mine. By this time on a Friday I can't feel them. Rabbits, where? Oh Wowww!

There was also a juvenile Red-throated Diver, trying to hide among 100 European Herring Gulls, only about 25 m offshore. That was all today - didn't take long.

*Other things I don't understand. If a British person couldn't care less about something, that's what they say, e.g. 'I couldn't care less what you think about the effect of Ptarmigan crap on vulnerable high arctic ecosystems'. The same person in the US would say 'I could care less', and mean the same thing. That is patently nonsense.

Respectable

Bit pushed for time tonite. Well beyond my deadline for picking over the sad corpse of an unidentifiable bird that was probably total bollocks anyway, even if it was what it was meant to be, which it wasn't. Maybe.

1) I was out birding this morning, walking round Newtonhill and to Muchalls on the same circuit as last 2 weekends.
2) I was merrily singing some old Mel and Kim songs to myself at top volume, in order to lure those self-effacing Tarsigers out of hiding. Or was it Tardigrades?
3) and i got to 'Tay tay tay tay t-t-t-t tay tay take or leave us...'
4) When a Eurasian Jay jay jay jay j-j-j-j-jay jay flew across the track in front of me, into the willows at the back of the gardens of St. Michael's road, called once or twice and headed off over the railway line.
5) which was a patch tick, and until it showed up had been completely off my radar, although there is a reasonable breeding population to the west of Aberdeen, and a larger one across the North Sea, so it should have been very much on my radar.

We're not worthy. And we ain't never gonna be respectable.

Otherwise it was disappointingly quiet. Maybe my Mel and Kim impressions put the birds off. I guess it was the dancing, or the hair, or the dress. Please tell me it wasn't the dress. There had been a smallish arrival of thrushes, noticably Blackbirds, which were everywhere, but a few Song Thrushes passing through as well, and the occasional Redwing. The female Eurasian Sparrowhawk was still around down the Elsick Burn, mobbed by a Western Jackdaw.
A pair of Eurasian Stonechats in the bracken up the cliff steps were probably local breeders, but may have been on the move. Allotments were empty apart from the usual crowd of crack-addled happy-slapping ASBO-waving hoodie-wearinng Winter Wren, Dunnock and European Robin trio. And a couple of Eurasian Siskins going over. It was such a nice day there was a Eurasian Skylark singing over the coastal fields, but little else apart from one of thos annoying dogs that 'won't hurt you' but WILL jump up at you and lick, yes LICK, your optics. Thanks for that. Note to dog owners... we don't all love your dog as much as you do.

Water Valley had Coal Tits (plenty of them around today) but no interesting migrants. A male Roe Deer, and another at the Elsick Burn, now I think about it.

Must run. More entertaining wit during the week, hopefully.

Vikings!

hey hey Vikki, hey Vikki hey...

A walk down the burn, post-work but pre-showing-face-at-home produced a Coal Tit that I lured in with my Y-b Warbler call on the phone. There was a female Eurasian Sparrowhawk hunting, and while I was pishing at some Blackbirds in a Rowan Tree I managed to attract her in to see what the commotion was. A White-throated Dipper on the burn but little else until I got home... sat on the driveway at dusk watching our urchin-faced kids throw stones at passing cars while Diane made our tea of Dairylea sandwiches with Marmite and Rice Crispies... a flock of 35 Fieldfares flew over calling, from the direction of the sea. Kept going inland.

Gull splits... get 'em while they're hot

Happy now? :-)

TSC 4th recommendations

German Cory's Shearwaters - wtf?

We got this today - one of the very valuable updates on WestPal birds -

Rare bird records from Germany 09/2007

Data from Club300 Germany
www.club300.

de
Germany's premier service for rare bird alerts

For each following entry you will find a detailed map at:
www.club300. de/news

Cory's Shearwater, Calonectris diomedea, Gelbschnabel- Sturmtaucher
08.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
10.09.2007 1 ind. (Hamburg)
10.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
11.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
11.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
11.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
15.09.2007 1 ind. (Niedersachsen)
15.09.2007 1 ind. (Hamburg)
22.09.2007 1 ind. (Schleswig-Holstein)
25.09.2007 1 ind. (Schleswig-Holstein)

etc - plenty Sooties and lots of other good birds

Okey dokey...

There were no Great Shearwaters seen, at all. If I look at BirdGuides for September, away from the west/southwest there was 1 Cory's at Flamborough on 5th September, and 2 'reported' from Titchwell on 24th September. And nothing else. So where are German birders getting all these Cory's from? And where are the Greats - bearing in mind we had 100s in the North Sea, even excluding Orkney, which is a long way away. A quick scan of the dba website suggests the Dutch had one Great Shearwater and 3 Cory's Shearwaters reported in September. What did other North Sea countries get?

Peanut brittle

I was a bit late out this morning. For one thing... Diane had been out drinking red wine til 3 am and was not quite ready to be left with the kids at 8:00. Not that I was complaining - bit of a lie in and some brekky never goes amiss. But on a nice day like this it meant that by the time I did get out it was crawling with dog-walkers, and the allotments were crawling with allotees - men with girly ponytails hauling round huge wheelbarrows full of crap and 'clippings', whatever they are. Put me off my birding. Won't bore you with the Blue Tits - basically did the same circuit as last Sunday - St Ann's - beach track - cliffs - allotments - costal fields - Water Valley - Muchalls Track - Secret Garden - hame - seeing very few migrants. There was a Northern Wheatear on the clifftops. At Water Valley, I heard a Yellow-browed Warbler calling from the north end of Muchalls. It flew over into the willows of the valley, and called twice after I gave it a blast of Y-b W song from my phone. However it didn't show again. Maybe it was just flitting through, looking for its pals. Or maybe it was iced by a Sparrowhawk.

Is no one going to feed me my line?

I don't know, we're not going to usurp Cannon and Ball, or the Chuckle Brothers, as the Kings of Comedy Duos are we? (see Sturnus vulgaris var. mortis sub pneumaticus on Thursday last). BB came very close (see comments for that post), but it was meant to go like this...

'Sturnus vulgaris var. mortis sub pneumaticus'

Then in comments...

Someone (Cannon): Errr... Martin, are you sure that's not a Jack Snipe?

Martin (Ball): Well, it has been under a car!! BOOM BOOM!!! Rock on Tommy!

Yes, not a Gallinago, but a Lymnocryptes. A Jack Snipe, worse for wear, on the dirt track to the beach. I assume it flew across the North Sea and relied on its superb camoflage to protect it from the oncoming (at speed, probably) Range Rover. it won't make that mistake again. Only my second patch record, and the first dead one!

A good goose?

I errrr.... 'worked from home'... for the first couple of hours this morning - tales of migrants up the east coast including Britain's first (or maybe 4th) Asian Brown Flycatcher were too much. I didn't get anything in that league. Unless European Robins are in that league (they aren't btw). There was a flock of 25 Redwings at the top of the cliff steps - astonishingly my first of the autumn. Dunno where they've been, but they're here now - slay the fattened calf. A single Common Chiffchaff (actually, it may have been married, or at least in a serious commitment, for all I know) in the clifftop garden was the closest I got to the majiK of passerine migration.

Sturnus vulgaris var. mortis sub pneumaticus

Offshore was quiet (2 Common Scoters and a Northern Gannet in 10 min). Best bird of the day, and probably year, got away though - a small V of 35 Pink-footed Geese went over south, and the second bird was a Canada goose sp. that was smaller than the Pinkies - about 2/3 the length and wingspan. To my mind, that has to make it a Lesser (Cackling) Canada Goose. Predictably it just kept going. I got a Greater Canada Goose in similar circumstances last year, but this one is a different kettle of fish and won't be acceptable as is. Uncensored and slightly pathetic field sketches attached.

We got incoming

I was a bit concerned about Saturday's Birdmap on BirdGuides that seemed to suggest that either 1) there are no good birds in NE Scotland or 2) there are no birders in NE Scotland or 3) all the birders in NE Scotland, including me, are hopelessly incompetent. 1) seemed unlikely, given the almighty haul they were getting north and south of us, 2) I *know* is no true, although we are a bit thin on the ground, which left 3). Ho hum. So I thought maybe a damn good trot round thepatch would throw some light on the situation, and initially I have to admit that I didn't rule out 3). I could bore you with where all the Chaffinches and Blue Tits were, but I won't. 4 hours, down the Elsick Burn, up to the clifftops, 10 minutes looking offshore, then allotments, over the coastal fields to Water Valley and Muchalls, back up the Muchalls track with eyes peeled produced virtually nothing migranty. A very small number of Goldcrests held a vague non-specific hint of eastern promise, and there seemed to be 1 or 2 Coal Tits in unusual places hinting that things were on the move. About 10 Eurasian Siskins came over in 1s and 2s, and there was a trickle of Skylarks. 11 Ruddy Turnstones on the beach - a quick look offshore reassured me that nothing interesting was happening, tho 4 Velvet Scoter went south. A really warm day with lots of butterflies: Small White, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell.

Is it just me, or are the bodies of my victims getting more gory?

Warning: this report contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing. Unsuitable for children and the squeamish. A House Mouse, post car tyre trauma. I made it smaller so you don't have to look.

As I was walking back up the Muchalls track, I got a phone call from home to tell me that, in light of the number of jobs needing done around the place, my family would view the prospect of my imminent return home with unalloyed pleasure. Those were almost exactly the words used. I trotted back through Newtonhill and met a man mowing his lawn - he knows me as being interested in birds. I know him as a local dogwalker who I see when out birding, and as an occasional lawn mower. 'I had a Merlin in my back garden this morning' he tells me. As you know, I'm very sceptical about birds I didn't see myself, and thought it was probably a Sparrowhawk, but to my surprise he went on to describe a Merlin very well, and indeed it sounds like it was one. mmm... potential patch year tick, must keep my eye out.

Got within sight of the house, Diane is waiting for me - she's jammed Peter into the car boot AND he's enjoying it. Suddenly I heard what sounded very like a Yellow-browed Warbler from the garden across the road, and as I turned to look a Phyllosc (the only Phyllosc I've seen today, btw) flew over our heads into our back garden. Errrr.... I think... and then it called again and errr...there's a Yellow-browed Warbler in my back garden! Regular readers of this blog, you saddos, will know that's not even a back garden tick, but it is a valuable patch year tick. (15th October 06 - see here and here).

Then it went all elusive on me, and Diane was getting even more pleasure out of the prospect of me spending the afternoon chasing a fly-by Yellow-browed. Fortunately I have Y-b W song and call loaded onto my phonem so turned the volume up to max and tried to lure it out. The call did no good whatsoever, but when I played the song it flew from wherever and perched in our birch (that rhymes!) within 4 m of me for a good grilling. I repeated that trick a couple of times and got the description. A stunningly bright bird with strapping wingbars. Here are my notes, uncensored. Sorry about the wren-bill thing going on, but remember these are genuine at-the-time unexpurgated notes, with drawing disasters and all.

I was by this time very keen on those back garden jobs. I hung out the washing, to the tune of a yellow-browed. Then I started digging up an overgrown b*****d Buddleia, to the tune of a yellow-browed. I was almost half-hoping that some passing birder at a loose end would come and see the YbW after I put it on BirdGuides. They could come into my back garden if they spent 10 minutes hacking away at the huge monster roots on this thing. Kept seeeing the YbW on and off up to abot 4 pm (occasionally I encouraged it with another blast of song). That belt of trees behind my house is crying out for mist nets.

Close friends get to call me MC...

... pro..vi..ding it's with digniteee, Top T**t... the indescribable Top T**t etc. ha ha. A quick seawatch before the li'l monsters came down from their Sugar-bomb and cartoon high and need to go swimming. O7:40 - 08:30, with only a very mild N 1-2 but a very choppy sea, with a nasty hazy backlight making things difficult to see. Northern Gannets were steaming through north (410 - I worked it out in ma heid that that's about 480 / hour), 47 Black-legged Kittiwakes and 328 Guillemots/Razorbills, 5 Atlantic Puffins and hold up... a Little Auk.

1 Pomarine Skua went north, and 1 Great Skua, 2 Northern Fulmars, 6 Manx Shearwaters and 1 Sooty Shearwater. The Sooty did something I haven't seen before - came up behind a gannet that was sat on the water, and tw*tted it on the back of the head as it went past, I think with its feet (or maybe belly) . Was deliberate, cos it sheared round as if for another go, but the gannet was in a bit of a mood by then and thrashed around to make it back off. Some sort of kleptoparasitism attempt? BWP is naff all use on the matter.

Otherwise, it was more ducks - 17 Eurasian Teal N, and 2 Mallards, 2 Common Scoters N and 4 Velvet Scoters S. Of patch year-tick-note, 3 Brent Geese went south - I'm pretty certain all bernicla, tho not always the easiest thing to judge in that light. A Red-throated Diver went south and a Peregrine Falcon was going back and forth along the cliffs giving the Pigeons something to do. But by that time I was hearing the junkie screams of sugar-craving sickness from our house, and I knew they needed their chocolate fudge milk.

Took Peter for a walk down to the beach in the afternoon, hoping there would be a really vocal Yellow-browed Warbler we couldn't miss. Not to be, but I did get my only patch dragonfly of the year - a girl Highland Darter.