Sunday 16 July 2017

Honeyz

No not the awful girlband of the mid-nineties but my first Honey Buzzard in a few years at Wykeham. I took Friday in lieu and decided to come home via the North Yorkshire forests. I arrived at 11am just after the pale male had been on view. It was cool and overcast so not ideal for watching for raptors but just 25 minutes after I arrived a dark headed, dark bird showed. It flew directly over the watchpoint and then dropped to just below in height so it was hard to see the underside but from photos I have seen later it seems it was the female bird. It looped back in after heading a few hundred metres east. A brief but excellent sighting. Another two hours failed to reveal any further views.

Monday 10 July 2017

Blyth's Reed Warbler in Aviemore

Its been quiet on here and with good reason. Birding has taken a back seat to work and this has largely consisted of monitoring breeding Ospreys in the last few weeks. Last week I was working way way up near the Dornoch Firth and en route I got a message suggesting that I take one of my coffee stops in Aviemore, or more precisely in a spot round the back of the Rothiemurcus fish farm in a nettle bed. A singing Blyth's Reed Warbler had been found by an American tourist who wanted confirmation on the ID of his Reed Warbler. Peter Stronach, a local birder, went down and as suspected it wasn't a Reed Warbler at all but the scarcer of the two likely candidates (with Marsh Warbler being the other one). Blyth's Reed Warbler would be a totally new bird for me.

I arrived at 7pm and immediately got tacked at by an unseen acro. This was the boy. An hour later and a few further tacks but no sign as despite the glorious pictures of it singing from perches just before I arrived it was playing hard to get. I was joined by two others who also heard the calls and then it moved from the nettles to the wild raspberry canes. We got into a position and the skulking bugger gave the worst of views as it moved swiftly through the vegetation before moving off . I left with over an hour still to head north, tick in the bag despite the dissatisfying views. On leaving I got a message from Birdguides saying the bird was singing. No time to turn round I moved off somewhat grumpy.

How birds and brains become mutually exclusive

Record, share and compare with BUBO Listing at www.bubo.org