UKC

Following on from last week’s trip to the Ythan we headed to the reserve at the Loch of Strathbeg today. So much to see and it was very helpful to share the hides with friendly and knowledgeable people. (I really need to invest in a proper scope and big lens for my camera, I felt very inadequate!)

Hen and marsh harriers, little egret, wigeon, teal, green winged teal, pink foots, lots of whoppers for BC to admire, mute, huge numbers of lapwings, goldeneye, cormorant, coot and otters.

(Plenty of other species have been spotted there this season too.) 

Photos are the usual crops from 300mm eq so go easy on me.

Two.

Two species in the same flock, one easy to identify, the other perhaps less so

Three

Great stuff. I’ve never seen a green winged teal, but I keep trying. 

Looks like a great reserve to visit; good to know about if I’m ever in that area.
 

I'd guess Golden Plover amongst the Lapwings but it really is a semi-informed guess.

The mannies next to us in the hide thought dunlin. They were quite a bit smaller than the lapwing but beyond that I couldn’t say. 

It is superb. I can’t believe I haven’t been in the thirty years I’ve been up here. It seems it is well known for bearded tits so will be heading back in a few months. And the word in the hides is that cranes have been seen these past years too.

For folks interest: bearded tits (reedlings to be precise) eat mainly insects in spring and summer, changing their diet to seeds in autumn(October). Their digestive system can’t suddenly adapt to this rapid change, so they need to ‘eat’ grit to help digest the seeds. So bird reserves ‘feed’ them on grit - just like a bed table but loaded with fine grit. This is the best time to see them. Out of this time window, they have a very distinctive ‘pinging’ call, which you can hear but still rarely see them. Posted these photos before. The hardest thing about taking such photos is dodging the hoards of people doing the same thing!!  

Sounds like i need to be patient!

Super photos btw.