Daniel Branch: Birding

Saturday, 1 August 2009

dumfries and galloway, holiday day 8, part 1

a juvenile jackdaw

a mussel cracker

above:look carfully at the hole in the wall, what do you see?

right: a classic picture postcard scene

left: who me, never!

a bitter wet start to the day so we stayed at the caravan site. when it cleared up we went on a woodland walk but saw little. at the end of the walk was a cliff-top walk into portpatrik. for the whole walk we saw:

2 red squirrels

treecreeper

2 common hawkers

1 thrush

2 blackbirds

4 coal tit

5 blue tit

2 oystercatcher

1 stonechat

1 whitethroat

1 grayling

2 grey wagtail

4 white wagtail

7 ripit

fluffy fulmar chicks

also in port patrick the black guillemot was there in their nest hole

over the campsite as we left there was a peregrine. at first i thoguht it was a jackdaw, then a sparrowhawk, then i saw the markings on the face.

dumfreis and galloway, holiday day 7, part 2

snorkling and a new location; ardwell bay, with mixed results:
3 rock cook
2 corkwing wrasse
2 dabs-fair size too and very good views in their natural habitat
20 sand goby
1 two spot goby
5 massive green shore crabs
1 big mullet

also a curlew and an oystercatcher.

dumfreis and galloway, holiday day 7, part 1

a majestic gannet flock

a juvenile stonechat hiding in the bush

a cmmon blue

a smile of kittywakes

a mipit

went back to the mull off galloway, what a difference a few days can make. the calm still sea was perfect and all the butterflys and songbirds were out. :

kittywakes-lots

black guillemots

common guillemots

1 kestrel

stonechats

wheatear

linnets

mipits

shags

house martin

feral pigeons

rock pipits

dumfreis and galloway, holiday day 6, part 2

left the camera at thecaravan for this cliff top walk-wish i haddent but such is life
house martins killing each other in a ball off house martin fury-a spectatcle in its own right
pigeons
herring gulls
7 stonechat
3 mipit
rabbits
kestrel-doing a funny circle thing in a cliff crevice
4 buzzards
6 eiders, on the sea
flock of common guillemots and black guillemots, mixture
6 bats
3 whitethroat

dumfreis and galloway, holiday day 6, part 1

went to the legendary logan fish pond today but saw little wildlife in the morning. in the afternoon we stayed on theport logan beach- a great place

birds:

sanderling-kept moving up the beach when flushed so thought you saw loads when actually it was only 1

gannet

2 linnets

buzzards

sandwhich tern

black headed gulls

and the fish werent only in the pond. when i went snorkling in the freezing jellyfish overun sea:

too many moon jellyfish- at one point the whole surface was just one mass off moon jellyfish

10 lions mane jellyfish

3 unknown jellyfish-but my dad calls them, the stingers

1 monster supersize shanny-he was amazing sat on his perch (rock)

150 shoaling greater sandeels

loads of smallshoaling mullet

30 corkwing wrasse

little dab flatfish shot away from you as you walked along the beach to the snorkle point

10 small whiting juvs

dumfreis and galloway, holiday day 5, part 1

a swallows nest inside one of the huts. look at all those gaping mouths.

an adorable baby spotted flycatcher

awaits recognition but an icredible bug. about the size and a common darter.

guess the bird, well i,ll tell you-it's a redpoll my first ever (my new bird)

a nice family portrait of spotted flycatchers

some adorable fledgling swallows which were sat on the car parked next to us. they were quite bold so you could get really close
a scorching day today at port logan gardens:
the birds were out in force as were the insects-
4 swallows and nest (2 fledglings on car and 2 parents)
5 coal tit, 3 blue tit, 2 goldfinch, 4 greenfinch,
insects: common darter, bee's, butterflys, that wasp thing
1 spotted fly+ juv
a redpoll (spec)
2 toads, buzzards and a ketrel