19/20 - JULY/AUG 2011 BIRD SIGHTINGS (ANGUS)

[RAB]

c75 Little Gull, Abroath West LInks (and 2 Med Gull) and a further c85 Little Gull at Elliot.

[Bob McCurley]

Aug. 13th, 9-15am . OSPREY Seen diving successfully at Murton Reserve during Webs count , during which a high count of 252 LAPWINGS and 55 COOT were recorded .

Aug. 13th 11am RUFF 1 REEVES 2 Seen on Lurgies Walk at Montrose VBasin

Aug. 13th. 12noon SURF SCOTER 1- ARCTIC SKUA 1 - KITTIWAKES 250 Recorded during Webs count from Redcastle Hide Lunan Bay

Aug 13th 1430hrs WHIMBREL 1 On foreshore at Barry Buddon - Pics taken .

[Mickey Mellon]

14/08/2011 0800 Elliot mouth 14 Knot with 2 in full breeding plumage

[simonbusuttil]

Sunday 14th AUgust

Adult male Surf Scoter still at Lunan Bay among ca 500 mixed velvet and common scoter estimated at 60% velvet and 40% common.

Spotted Redshank where Sth Esk enters Basin. Also green sandpiper, several greenshank and common sandpipers, ruff, snipe and dunlin present with them. No sign of spoonbills for us !

[Mickey Mellon]

15/08/2011 Easthaven 592362 Lots of Swallows passing through along with some Wheater, 0930 36 Canada geese turned up passing throght south and left 1005. There quite a few juv Pied Wag. No sign of Whimbrel which I set out so see, and just other normal stuff outside of that

[gus guthrie]

Green sandpiper on floodpool below Cookston farm. Turn right at Eassie crossroads on A94 and pool is 2nd field up on the right.Don;t go into the field, good views from vehicle. Present at 4.30pm.

[stevendoig]

Aboot 30 Little Gull at back of Pleasureland in Arbroath 1030 this morning. Two Wheatear as weel.

[joncook]

One Little Egret in flight up the Lurgies at high tide this pm, though Ken Hall saw two earlier. Also 8 Canada Geese, 2 Ruff, 20 Greenshank, 2 Dunlin, 1 Snipe.
Jon

[Mickey Mellon]

16/08/2011 0930 Elliot, 1 Whimbrel, 2 Bar Tailed Godwit, 11 Sanderling, 16 Ring Plover, 5 Little Gulls, Wheatear and Swallows passing through. Arbroath harbour, 2 Mute Swans have moved in, 3 Little Gulls, plus plenty of the normal bird life

[joncook]

Lurgies 3pm: Now 90 Canada Geese plus 9 Pinkfeet

Arbroath harbour wall high tide: 18 Turnstone, some in summer plumage

Jon

[Bob McCurley]

Aug. 18th - 10am -- MARSH HARRIERS JUVS. 2 PLUS 1 MALE -- WATER RAIL 1 Seen at Loch of Kinnordy

Aug. 18th 11-30am -- SPOONBILLS 3 - RUFF 8 GREENSHANK 5 KINGFISHER 1 OSPREY 1 SPARROW HAWK 1 All seen on Lurgies Walk Montrose Basin .

[RAB]

Quail calling this evening in the cereal field by the Cliffburn Gully, Arbroath. Heard from my front door.

[Mickey Mellon]

19 Aug 2011 Arbroath West Links 43 Ringed Plover and 7 Dunlin, by night club large flock of mixed Black Headed and Little Gulls

[Michael Morphy]

Montrose 20 July 2011

Fleeting view of about 30 geese(sp ?) flying over Tayock towards the Basin at 11.45hrs today.

[welchs]

Driving down the A90 this afternoon, one apparent LEO casualty, looked freshly dead on central reservation (south side) at Wardmill by Carse Hill north of Forfar (NO45L); would be nice to confirm if anyone routinely passes that way - I couldn't stop! Also a Barn Owl on central reservation at Keithock turn north of Brechin (NO66B) :(

Stephen Welch

[Bob McCurley]

Aug. 21st 9-15am. GREEN SANDPIPERS 3 RUFF 2 SPOONBILLS 3 ( Still present ! ) OSPREY 2 PEREGRINE FALCON 1 SPARROW HAWK 1 GREENSHANKS 6 - KNOT 30 GOLDENEYE 42

Aug. 21st 12noon. RINGED PLOVER 23 -- SANDERLING 22 - WHIMBREL 5 CURLEW 6 OYSTERCATCHER 12 DUNLIN 4 SURF SCOTER 1 VELVET SCOTER 200 COMMON SCOTER 150 RED THROATED DIVER 4 SANDWICH - ARCTIC AND COMMON TERNS Al seen at Redcastle Hide Lunan Bay by Bob ,Graham ,and Keith

Aug 21st 1430hrs COMMA BUTTERFLY 2 Seen on Barry Buddon

[Clive McKay]

A vismig watch this morning produced a trickle of waders >SW - 7 Ruff (groups of 3,2 and 2), 7 Whimbrel and 2 Greenshank. Also 594 Swallow and 33 Tree Sparrow (the latter in three flocks). Full details on Trektellen at http://trektellen.org/trektelling.asp?t ... 821&taal=2
Two Small Blue butterflies on the natrrow strip of dunes were my first here.

Cheers

Clive McKay

[Matt Slaymaker]

I couldn't see the Barn Owl but the LEO was an unringed long-dead adult male in main moult.
Rgds
Chris

[Grant Balfour]

21-08-2011 3:30pm
East Hide: Juvenile rose out of the long reeds in front of the hide and flew past the window, heading towards the Gullery Hide.
About 20mins later at the Gullery Hide, a male & 2 juveniles seen around the area of the old barn.

[Mickey Mellon]

22/08/2011 East Haven 592362 09.30 No sign of the Ruff but had 40+ Knot, 12 Turn Stone, 11 Red Shank, 5 Ringed Plover, 3 Whimbrel, numerous Sandwich Terns, Eiders, Black Headed Gulls, Cormorants, 1 Little Gull, 1Commom Gull, Lesser Black Backs, 2 Gold finches feeding on Kelp and lots of Swallows passing through

[Mickey Mellon]

23 Aug 2011 Female Blackcap in garden looking for insects

[srgreen]

A Bonxie flew high eastwards over Glen Prosen just before 4pm today, SRG

[joncook]

At least one Whimbrel (very mobile) on foreshore between West Haven and Carnoustie 5pm tonight. Also 40+ Knot.
Jon

[Mark Caunt]

Date & Time: Tuesday 23rd August 2011 - 12:00pm
Species: Ruff, Kingfisher
Details: 3x Ruff on Montrose Basin viewed from old pier. Also a Kingfisher and good number of 50+ Canada Geese on Lurgies.

[Clive McKay]

Dear all

Now is a good time to get your eye in on Pied Wags before the Whites start coming through. Golf courses and playing fields in the evening are great places to see lots at the moment. Adult Pieds are still mostly scruffy, moulting through body feathers. Some young Pieds are cleaner overall, but still have that dinghy “semi-industrial” look. There’s good weather for Icelandic stuff to come through from Sunday onwards, so there might be a few Whites in amongst the Pieds next week. Generally much cleaner and sleeker looking, with not so striking white wing bars. Juv Whites often have a strong olive wash to the upperparts – most unlike the pearly grey birds that we see in spring. But they still look pretty clean overall.

If you’re looking at wagtails please keep an eye out for colour ringed birds (mostly ringed on the S coast of England or E Kilbride) – the evening before last I saw two at Carnoustie Golf course (very well maintained short grass!) – one 6 year old female from Slapton Ley in Devon, the other from Weymouth Harbour in Dorset.

Good luck

Clive McKay

[joncook]

Black-throated Diver from Lunan Bay hide c2pm, well to right. First recorded by Scott O'Hara yesterday and re-found by Bob & Jon.
Also 3 sightings of Arctic Skua terrorising terns.
Jon

[simonbusuttil]

Herring Gull - left leg YELLOW colour ring reading (99% certain) T519. Seen at entry of south Esk with Basin (Lurgies area). Any knowledge of its origins from anyone ? - I'll be having a look myself but have posted this for interest

[Clive McKay]

30th Aug

Great day for vismig with 1500+ Mipits (from Iceland? the Faroes?) accompanied by White Wags - flocks of 9 and 13 overhead thought to be this sub-species, and a turnover of birds on the beach, though no more than 5 Whites with 10 Pieds at any one time. Also looks like Siskin passage has started early this year - with my second highest count of 198 >S. Also on the beach 1 Little Stint.

31st August

Much quieter on the vismig front today - it's amazing how two days can differ so much in very similar conditions. Just a trickle of Mipits. Many of those that I caught for ringing showed a different moult pattern to the birds I'm catching at home in Glenisla at the moment, which suggests to me a northern origin. No White Wags today, and not a single Siskin! Nice flock of 13 juv Curlew Sands on the beach.

Clive