The body does slow down with age, and weekends can often drip by with routine household tasks. When most tasks are accomplished it’s threatening dark and that’s mostly because of your  late start. So on a rain besmirched day, like today, Sunday 24th, I lit the wood burner early and settled into some bird mags and then my newly purchased twin volumes of  Birds of Scotland. It fired me up and lifted the “cabin fever”, it reminded me of the days when I was 18 and keen on fly fishing, my mate (big Gordon) and I would eagerly await the 15th of march, the ides of March, the start of the brown trout season. Flies had been researched and clumsily constructed and casts made, the river had been walked at least twice before the Ides, and large trout imagined in dark whirling eddies.

I don’t fish any more but the anticipation is the same and lifts the cabin fever that can descend in the dark days of winter. I should of course be out in wild weather on the Fife coast looking for ring billed gulls and long billed Dowitchers, but heh I can lift cabin fever in front of my wood burner. I should frequent Loch Leven more often particularly as sea Eagles are around, public viewing of birds is OK but not the best experience. Mind you when you find something exceptional, my instinct is to share, like the time I spotted a Pair of black throated divers in Loch Turret in breeding plumage, not the place for these shy birds. As my telescope is trained on them along comes a walker with a serious pair of binoculars, after a few words I am relaxed enough to confide with him. I don’t announce what he is about to see, I say take a look, he then looks, looks at me and I confirm, yup, black throated divers. If I hadn’t shared that moment the experience would have be less.

wilderness and wildness are important for everyone to experience and to hopefully understand their own connection in the biosphere.

Finally I have added a post to Ian’s site.   

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I do have some good photos but as for great, I am not so sure.  As a beginner to DSLR photography I am still finding my way and experimenting; after a year there are still many functions on my camera that I have no idea what they do, and many of my photos are down to luck.  As a beginner to photography I have probably chosen the most difficult subjects – wildlife and in particular our avian friends.

Two weekends ago myself, my wife and two of our friends spent the weekend in Dumfries and Galloway with the intention of seeing some geese.  At this time of year the Solway Firth provides a wintering ground for tens of thousands of geese, the majority of which are Barnacle Geese along with Canada, Greylag and Pink Footed.

We arrived at our hotel on the Friday night with severe weather warnings in place and the prospect of a miserable day on the Saturday.  True to the forecast, the weather on the Saturday morning was wild with very high river levels on the River Nith and strong winds.  Full waterproofs were donned when we arrived at the WWT Caerlaverock reserve and five or so hours were spent ducking from hide to hide through the foul weather with plenty of geese to view but few other birds were braving the storm.

I had resigned myself to the whole day being a washout, when at 3pm it was as if a switch had been pressed – the wind dropped and the sun came out.  As the sun came out we saw a female Sparrowhawk hovering on the wind – she was promptly mobbed by a crow and landed on a fencepost not far from the hide – unfortunately the light was still poor but I managed a couple of mediocre photos.

On the way back from this hide after the sun had come out, I was dodelling along hoping for a good photo opportunity as the others left me behind.  My dodelling did prove a good opportunity.  As I was wandering down the track I spotted a hare sitting ‘drookit’ on an embankment only a few metres from the track and by far the closest view of a hare that I have had.  I expected him to dart off as soon as he saw me but instead he wandered slowly across the path allowing me to take a few snaps.  When I caught up with the others they had seen a flock of redwings which I had missed, but I was glad of my encounter with the hare.

We  made our way back to the hide nearest to the visitor centre as the sun was setting for good views of many ducks and waders.  A sord of Mallards floated by, lining up for a good photo and a pair of Roe Deer came out to feed.

After a warming cup of coffee at the visitor centre we made our way back to the hotel past a spectacular sunset for a hearty meal and a few pints.

On the Sunday we had planned to visit the RSPB centre at Mereshead, but were scuppered by flooding on the access road.  We decided to drive to the nearby town and walk along the beach to the reserve which turned out to be a round trip of 15km, meaning that we had limited time at the reserve.  The detour did have a silver lining in that we saw a pair of Brent Geese bobbing on the sea – a new bird for me and taking the goose count to five species.  The other highlight on the Sunday was approximately 200 Pintail on one of the ponds at the RSPB reserve.

A good weekend was had with a count of 52 species  even with the poor weather.

Below is an excerpt from the internet, adding to my sparse folklore knowledge of the magpie, this by a chance remark from a colleague who stated his wife saluted a lone magpie and issued a greeting. Well we knew he was / is dithering on a delicate edge of sanity but his wife also?

Seems not, she is following an age old superstition that I and her still borderline husband were not aware of !!

Magpie Superstitions

There is an age old rhyme regarding magpie superstitions, brought to the fore in the 1970’s, by the children’s programme named after the birds, which implies that if you see these birds in numbers you will have varying degrees of fortune. The magpie superstitions rhyme goes: “One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret never to be told. ” Never been quite sure what to expect if I ever saw eight or more!

The majority of magpie superstitions however, revolve around the lone magpie. There are some curious customs associated with this. It is the most common of the magpie superstitions, and throughout the British Isles it is believed that it is unlucky to look upon a lone magpie and there are some interesting regional beliefs about what you should do to ward off any bad luck. For example: In Scotland and Northern Ireland one should salute the lone magpie; whereas in some parts of England one should wave or doff your hat! Magpie superstitions in Yorkshire suggests that the bird is associated with witchcraft and therefore an ill omen – one should make a sign of a cross or take off your hat in respect to ward off any evil. Another from remote parts of the White Rose County, suggests that an individual should imitate the lone magpie’s missing partner – and loudly; although I‘m not sure I can recall what noise one makes! Apparently the magpie has significance overseas as well – in Korea, one of the more popular magpie superstitions, has folk believing that the magpie is a bird of inspirational instinct, which can foretell people that they will have visitors or house guests in the near future.

http://www.superstitious-minds.info/Magpie-Superstitions.html

Poem? I found

Magpie #1

Magpies are the
Park bench drunks
of the bird kingdom;
They hang about all day,
Screech at each other
And everyone else.
Nothing to do,
Nowhere else to go.

They feed from rubbish bins;
The mangled remains of Saturday’s
Discarded donner
Is their idea of a Sunday roast.

They steal
For the sake of it;
A piece of foil,
A priceless diamond,
They’re not really bothered,
So long as it sparkles.
Their nests must be
Boudoirs of bling.

I hear magpies all over the place but not in Perth or the surrounding countryside. See former post on Magpies. Well last night the familiar chuckling call was heard from a a large silver birch in the next doors garden, and it startled me, a magpie ! here. You can’t miss a magpie, a wonderfully exotic crow and it gave my son (whom I called from the house) and I a decent fly by along the roofs, cackling as it went. My son remarked ” bet it has trouble finding a mate” he is not wrong, we have seen two magpies in 34 years, and I mean we as he saw the last one as well. Magpies are not welcomed by everyone and the added pressure on nesting garden birds is a particular issue with them, that and the added pressure from damn cats ever on the prowl. I heard on the news this morning about “super cats” large hybrid cats that have a waiting list and are thousands of pounds each. If a super cat appears in my garden it may be followed by lampost posters seeking a lost moggie. I could handle a magpie though.

Lochaline at the shortest ferry trip to Mull is virtually at a dead end road, if you’re not going to Mull or the dwelling place of a few houses at Drimnin, then you need to turn back. Morven is the peninsula you are on but it feels like an island, I guess it comes from crossing on the Corran ferry and at Lochaline you have the sea meeting you. We are lucky enough to “be invited” to a converted church where in most years the majority of my wife’s family congregate. In some years it’s me the missus and her cousin, Helen. Helen is a great cook and we are welcome guinea pigs for new recipes, no fish mind you!  Fish did feature this year as Mike and Jan the owners are keen on fish, and were resident, so fresh prawns and scallops were bought in Oban and cooked that night, followed by kippers for breakfast. The reduction in ferry fares is welcome as we travelled by car on the ferry to Fishnish on Mull and by ferry passenger from Craignure to Oban, taking the bus was considered, but it has a terrible reputation for leaving on time even if the ferry is only delayed by ten minutes! Bowmans, you lost five return fares due to your reputation. This is surely not a highland way to operate?

Where we stay, on wet years the rainfall will total 1000mm, in Lochaline it can exceed 3000mm, the flora and fauna are naturally different. Chaffinchs dominate at the bird table, with a few great tits and less blue tits. A herring gull can make an appearance, using binos you can spot sea eagles from the windows, and as I emptied the kitchen peelings at the bottom of the garden the odd 11 point stag, 6 on one horn, 5 on the other!! Common lizards I confess, I have never seen in Scotland, but from clues from my brother, who was resident the week before us I took my chance of a rare sunshine break between showers to snap my first common lizards sunning themselves.

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The pics are ; the stag, common lizards, a pipe band in Oban at the start of their highland games, leaving Oban on the ferry, Ardtornish castle from the Fishnish to Lochaline ferry.

One picture I wish I could have got was a greater blacked backed gull nicking one of my  250mm mackerel from the timber pier in Lochaline, I did catch 20 odd and took 7 home, should have been 8!!

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Aren’t hover flies brilliant? inquisitive and so mobile. I have a small patch cut out of my lawn and it is sown with wild flower mixture. It is a buzz with hover flies at the moment. So I stuck the lumix on macro and had a go at some pics, I believe the hover with the white stripes is a marmalade hover fly. Look at the size of the eyes! imagine the reaction times of a hover fly in control of a tornado fighter. How wired up is a hover fly when we need highly skilled pilots with multiple computers to control a clumsy (in comparison to a hover fly) plane. Nature, not only red in tooth and claw, but exhibiting the finest flying design along with mimicry.

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Aren’t Ospreys great value? unlike blooming Harriers you can depend on them being there or thereabouts. These pics are the juvs feeding (well one is) on a rather large fish, had I been on station earlier I might have seen the fish delivered, however I listened to out of doors on the radio and it was well into daylight when i arrived, 8.15. The one not feeding was content till an adult flew over with a fish and they both started begging calls, subsequently the one not feeding kept up the calling, the adult fed in a tree nearby. If you are very observant you can see a glint of a ring on the right leg of the bird feeding. Both have been ringed, and the Marsh harriers have been wing tagged and presumably ringed as well. I found out four females and three males raised 10 young, yes birds are not as faithful as early Christian beliefs would have you believe. I had great views last week of harriers with wing tags, this week nowt.

anyway later in the garden, I spotted these snails having some sort of “gathering”  up one of my Rowan trees, guess it was to do with procreation, later when weeding I came across this orange slug, of course the internet is fantastic so within minutes it was revealed as a variant of the common black slug, never ever seen an orange slug before, did not kill it either.

My wife brought me a book from the library, “say goodbye to the cuckoo” by Michael McCarthy and I finished it yesterday. It is an exploration of the birds that are thought of by us a spring-bringers, the cuckoo, the warblers, the nightingale, the spotted flycatcher, the swallows and martins etc. the author treats each bird in turn and explores it’s migration, it’s migration route and the sense of wonder it brings to us from past literature and present experiences, and the loss we feel when there is a lack of spring migrants, or worse, when they have not returned. He has access to experts and uses them to acquaint himself with the magic of each species and in turn you can’t help but become immersed yourself.

This emotional journey ends abruptly with disturbing facts, where with the ending chapters there is a chilling account of species decline. But a much more complicated set of reasons from Rachel Carson’s DDT. Essentially the major influence is climate change and the human burgeoning population that causes death and decline  of all species by chemicals, greenhouse gas emissions, habitat loss, killing, soil erosion, pollution etc

If you have an iconic bird spring-bringer, start packing in more memories.

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This spot is becoming lucky, this is the gate were I photographed the fox in the sunshine. I had just crossed the gate and was on the ground when this hare runs straight towards the gate, it was in blazing sunshine and I was in the shade. As you can see it was uneasy and I was wishing the photos showed it more relaxed, like my former one of a hare stretching.  It did come to within three metres of the gate after a few sorties back and forth when I snapped it, it sniffed the ground / air and decided better to lop off. Notice the torn left lug, it’s been in the wars.

The Ospreys are still around, the crap picture here (well I am 2Km away) shows the juvenile plumage, the secondaries and primaries are all edged in white,  it looks for all the world spotted with white splashes. This is accentuated as the juvs plumage is darker than the adults.

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I love watching buzzards fly, but when I’m at the Osprey site I generally give them scant attention. However on Sunday 19/07/09 both Buzzard adults were in the air mewing together, from the week before I knew a juv was out and about, that’s why I got a picture of a mewing adult buzzard chastising me. This week I eventually spotted the juv and managed a pic before it was off, not to fly majestically,  just off, disappeared into the herbage.

Talking of disappeared, two weeks now and no signs of the marsh harriers, I was hoping to see the juvs in flight, mainly I was interested in how many juvs there were. It’s a key ingredient to breeding success, nest location success and site fidelity. No sights of any marsh harriers, need to read up on them, perhaps on fledging the whole family moves south, feeding as they go. Birds are such secretive creatures that they may all be hunting miles away or all in dense cover near the nest full of grub.

Time is the factor in being a specific species expert, as well as questioning (from a scientific viewpoint) what you are observing.

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These sand martins have found a sand pile between two piles of crushed concrete, on the site of the M74 extension. Is this a statement of desperation for nesting sites? I believe this is the case, should not parks, national trust ground and other publicly held ground not erect artificial nest sites?

see links

http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/advice/sandmartins/index.asp

http://www.users.freenetname.co.uk/~sandmartin/page2.html

Needless to say the birds have been protected by those cuddly construction chaps.

David Welsh, I know you are a busy man, but the artificial site on concrete legs would be an easy construction project using mostly spare materials. If you could place this  in the land made available near where the martins are now with client permission, how green? how good? how lasting and a precedent for others to follow.

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I did predict to myself that the the Osprey juvs would be flying soon, and both chicks are now on the wing. It really is great to see these birds arrive, produce fledglings and subsequently leave. I got a bit confused as a juvenile was on the branch that later was occupied by an Osprey with a Pike, still alive and I’m afraid being eaten. I thought well that’s cool, hardly on the wing and it  has a fish! Of course it was the male and after he had his bit from the head I watched him land on the nest and release it to a begging  juv. He then went off to the right were you can see him. Eventually both juvs and the female were on the nest and the Juv who got first chance at feeding from the male, kept the fish, subsequently released it to the next Juv, the female by now had stopped her begging calls, and the next juv fed. I went off and returned in half an hour to see the female feeding, presumably on the same fish. What a nice domestic scene, but I wondered if the female Osprey had lost hunting skills being fed by the male for 3 months, or was it just a case of that fish is big enough I’ll wait my turn to get a bit? Well I guess she could hunt well enough but when grub is served why not wait your turn?

You can see the difference in the male to the female Osprey by looking at the chest, the female is much browner across the chest, trust me this took a while to work out.

The neighbouring buzzards obviously have a juv who I could hear mewing, mewing differently from the parents, you can tell its a buzzard but a Juv, kind of a begging call and a mew combined, anyway one of the parents took exception to me being too near, some 200m, so I got some pics of it atop a tree,  perfectly balanced on one leg.  Using the timed release on my ancient Nikon 990 I had to take quite a few shots to actually catch him “mewing”. I often wonder why buzzards mew when hunting, surely the element of surprise is compromised? they are truly a success story since the 1981 law kicked in. Just imagine how many buzzards were trapped, shot or poisoned to keep the population from what it is now to say 20 years ago, then ask yourself, who did all this culling?

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This was taken in daylight as you can see, on a golf course. My pal Neil Davidson took this with a Nikon D60 with a 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor Lens. The benefit of being on a golf course is the owls are perfectly used to people and being long eared do hunt in the daylight. I have been to this site with Neil and you get the most amazing views of these splendid birds, if the midges let you. They do make a noise like a squeaky hinge as advertised.

Neil has a collection of good and great bird pics, but still seems reluctant to share them with us on this site!!

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I have seen a few dead Greenfinches during the last couple of years, near my feeders, but tonight I disturbed this poor Greenfinch while weeding. It almost certainly has trichomoniasis as it was displaying all the symptoms. Make sure all your feeders are keep clean, for more info go to

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/health/sickbirds/greenfinches.asp

When younger I could have killed this bird saying it was a better and quicker end for it, thought about it tonight and could not do it.

old age cometh not alone !