Sights, sounds and struggles
July was a busy and interesting month, full
of highs but with some lows.
The weather continued on its
colder-than-usual trend, and this reflected as always in the happenings of our
wildlife. Just “oot’n’aboot” generally,
it was noticeable that there was a distinct lack of bees and wasps…though flies
tended to appear (especially around my head whilst out walking!). Every now and then I’d get fed up looking
like Pig Pen from ‘Charlie Brown’, raise a hand above my head and let them
circle that for a while, which is fine until my darling wife points out how
stupid I look.
‘Our’ Ospreys
Anyway, back to the birds. Our two closest Osprey pairs, which breed
exactly a mile apart, are unfortunately poles apart in fortune. At our closest nest, the established pair has
two well fed chicks who have been flying a good couple of weeks now. From the distance we view the family, when
sat up on the nest all four birds are quite indistinguishable now in terms of
size – only the golden edges of the otherwise brown upper feathers of the birds
show which are juveniles.
At the other nest, it’s a sad sight. I checked it yesterday to find no birds at
all. Around mid-June the female was
sitting on eggs – they had bred late but she seemed fairly settled and the male
was sat in a nearby dead tree (which still contains the remnants of a collapsed
nest – the original one at this location).
The birds are young, and hopes were high that their non-breeding last
year wouldn’t be repeated this year. By
early July, the signs weren’t good – both adults were off the nest and no sign
of bobbing heads of young in the nest.
Our friend Roy Dennis - arguably
the world’s foremost Osprey expert – studies this nest (and a lot, lot closer than us
under official licence) and recently confirmed that the nest had failed, and the young
had died. Roy also observed that of the
recent clutches of birds he’d assembled for translocation to Spain and
Switzerland, the chicks – all gathered from different nests across Scotland –
were small and this was directly linked to the cold summer. The birds appear to have had regular food
intake, indicated by the lack of fault bars in the feathers, but used the food
to keep warm rather than grow. For more details of Roy’s recent work, as well as his eloquent observations, see here: http://www.roydennis.org/category/roys-blog/
In recent weeks, we’ve also caught up with
a couple of old Osprey friends. My wife
Karen and I were extremely lucky to be present at the ringing of an Osprey brood
in Strathspey in July 2010 – my 40th birthday to be exact. One of the birds was a male, ringed as Blue
DF. He returned as a two year old in
2012 on schedule, as young Ospreys spend their second summer in their wintering
grounds before undertaking their first migration north in their second year, and
was seen fishing not far from his birthplace.
It was particularly great to finally catch up with him in the feather,
as it were, when I saw him one morning at the lochan that I use for teaching on fishing Osprey photography. It’s highly likely that
he’s supporting a family, and somewhere in his natal Strathspey. See the photos below, taken almost exactly
five years apart...
Osprey Blue DF - five years apart
The other Osprey catch-up this month was
male Green 2E, an interesting bird who ‘disappeared’ (well, he simply wasn’t
recorded) for five days short of twelve years until we saw him in 2012. See the story and photos on my Facebook page here: Osprey Green 2E
Osprey Green 2E looking for trout (he did get one!)
And lastly for Ospreys this month, for the
last few weeks I’ve been keeping an eye on a loch-side wood for signs of a new
nest location – all important information for Roy who I mentioned earlier as
part of his studies. The location is
ideal, though the woodland is quite well-used by humans but - as many a Florida garden proves – Ospreys
can quite happily live in proximity to the strange apes that try to be dominant
on this planet. The loch itself was
always a good Osprey fishing location, and Karen and I have seen six birds
fishing there at once a few years ago.
This year, not many Ospreys have been seen…a good indicator of a
territory nearby? Seeing one bird take a
fish from the loch and into the wood was another, and a very brief glimpse of
two Ospreys flying in the wood started to get exciting.
Having spread a look out request amongst
fellow birders for more information, I’ve now seen two birds perched up in the
woods….content behaviour which hopefully indicates a male and female pair. Any young should be on the wing now, but no
signs as yet…indeed maybe not forthcoming this year, but it will be interesting
to keep on monitoring. I can’t stress
enough to fellow birders that although Ospreys are ‘fun’ and ‘exotic’ to many,
having a birdwatching patch and knowing the comings and goings of all
species - and the environmental changes
around them - can yield great finds, and
knowledge not just for yourself but for others too.
Black-throated Killer
Our previous blogs have described the
successful breeding local to us of a pair of Black-throated Divers. On one of several occasions of watching these
beautiful birds (and from inside my car so as not to disturb them when they’re
close to the loch edge), I witnessed some remarkable behaviour. As the chick has grown, the male Diver has
tended to range away from the female and chick as was the case on this
particular morning. The birds were
drifting on the water, the mother feeding her youngster with small fish she
took from just under the water.
She dived – not unusual – but I was aware
she’d gone under for a long time.
Suddenly water erupted off to the right – I hadn’t noticed the female
Mallard and her three ducklings but the female Diver had. She’d gone sub-surface to rear up amidst the
ducklings, one of which was caught in her bill.
The Diver thrashed around, eventually holding the duckling under water
before resuming her glide across the loch surface. Soon she disappeared again, and repeated her
frenzied attack on the second and third ducklings, discarding one with serious
injuries on the water and dispatching the third youngster as she did the first. All the while, the female Mallard was
shouting having fled to the bank of the loch, and eventually had the courage to
fly back over the Diver and her chick (who was seemingly unperturbed by all
this taking place a few feet away) calling all the time – seemingly in
admonishment but more likely a fruitless call to her now-deceased young.
The attack underway
Although Divers of various species are
known to attack other birds that stray near to them, as a territorial action
especially when they have attendant young, these attacks are almost all
recorded as being against other adult birds.
The Black-throated Diver in this case picked off the ducklings, ignoring
the adult bird. Anyway, looks like my
wee story may make the next edition of ‘Scottish Birds’ – a first for me!
Inland Bonxie
Lochindorb is a favourite place, and very few
trips south from home fail to find an excuse just to do a quick drive by – the
foreboding ruined castle, once the lair of the 14th Century’s
infamous Wolf of Badenoch (Google it!), adding intrigue to the ‘beautifully
bleak’ landscape. It also features on a
number of birdwatching trips with my A9Birds customers, as you never know what
you’ll find (the Rough-legged Buzzard which stayed through early Spring was
always much appreciated though!). Last
week I was there with Bruce, A9Birds’ most-repeat customer on his third trip
out with us, and was scanning the far side of the loch when a large brown bird
with white wing flashes buzzed through the binoculars as it hugged the water.
Great Skua, or 'Bonxie', with Lochindorb castle wall in the foreground to prove location!
The bird settled just beyond the castle,
and I called Bruce’s attention to what was now a distant brown blob of a bird,
but what I’d initially seen was enough to call it – a Great Skua, or ‘Bonxie’
if you use the nickname awarded to the species somewhere in the mists of time
(and on Orkney, it seems). Eventually
the bird took flight, heading west and not seen again. Now overland movement of skuas of the various
species isn’t unheard of, and July is the month when they leave their breeding
grounds though such places are well north and west of our part of
Scotland. It was great to see an inland
Bonxie, the Highland county recorder confirming that this was the first Lochindorb record
since 4 June 1990. It has to be said
that Bruce is not only a great customer but also a lucky talisman, as on his last visit in May we found the
Velvet Scoter near Aviemore, and that was the first in Strathspey since
1971. Luckily I was able to treat him to
the sight of a Sea Eagle later that day as a tiny thank you!
Cathedral of the Seabirds
Sorry, this is turning out to be a long
blog, so thanks for getting this far if you’re still reading. One other lasting impression during July was
the visit, by boat, to Troup Head. The
weather was glorious – light winds, azure clear skies and silky blue calm
waters. Now Troup is known for being the
only Scottish mainland Gannet colony, the birds having arrived there by the mid
1980s and nowadays some 1,700 pairs arrive to have their young. The tower of noise – cathedral-like in size - created by these magnificent birds as they
go about their business of rearing young, echoing around the craggy face of the
cliffs, has to be savoured as much as the sight of what – at a distance –
appears to be ‘just’ a white-coloured headland.
Gannets - adult and chick
Added to the Gannet spectacle is the hustle
and bustle of Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills and even a small number of
Puffins, though the latter being burrow nesters seem to suffer from predation
by mink along the cliff tops (come on RSPB it’s your reserve, what are you
doing about it?).
Guillemot (top) and Puffin enjoying the beautiful calm sea
Summer though is now moving to autumn, and
the Gannet’s neighbours are returning to the sea. They’ll hang around a wee while yet, and the
Gannets still had plenty of downy young should you be considering a trip to
Troup Head yourself – either come guided with us (an extra pair of eyes to help
you spot all the species will help, I promise!), or we can recommend the boat
trip company we use – just drop us an e-mail at mike@a9birds.com
I mentioned autumn, didn’t I? Already I’ve seen Eiders and Goldeneyes in
eclipse plumage, and Mistle Thrushes are flocking up as they look for blaeberries…just
two signs that the year is moving on apace. I'm also beginning to think that the two Swifts I saw on 27 July may be the last for this year (though Karen has just told me she saw one today, 1 August - I'll shut up now).
Irrespective of Mother Earth's axis tilting, in just over a month’s time it will have been a year since our move to
Scotland to live in the cradle of her landscape and the nature within it, and each day remains as
exciting as the first.
Happy birding as always
Mike
A9Birds is a birdwatching and wildlife photography company based in Moray, covering the local area including Strathspey, the Moray Firth and Inverness-shire. Please see our website for details of what we can offer you, and why not keep up to date with our sightings and photos on our Facebook page. All photos on this page are copyright Mike Crutch/A9Birds.
Comments
Post a Comment