The week that was...

It's been a great week for birding - both locally and further afield. The roller-coaster that birding can be sometimes...

2 county ticks for me - an overdue purple heron and county first: 1s male collared flycatcher

County bird of the year?

A selection of smashing year-ticks: surf scoter, king eider, white-billed diver, black throated diver, ptarmigan, capercaillie, crested tit, golden eagle, great white egret.

Some great birds at West Hartford too! ~ black-tailed godwit, little ringed plover, ringed plover, wood sandpiper... whatever next?

Great encounter with Ptarmigan on Cairngorm

Eight Osprey seen during Highlands visit

Obliging king eider - a stunning sea duck

Pristine great-white egret

Touring the east...

Day 1 of the Scottish trip commenced with a team pickup at Newcastle (collecting a hire car for the trip) and Edinburgh (collecting the remaining members of the party).

Edinburgh was convenient in that a drake surf scoter was available for relatively easy observation off the River Esk, Musselburgh. Although quite distant and in murky conditions it only took a matter of minutes to pick the drake up - loafing about with velvet scoter. Not a particularly great view of what is typically a very bonny duck, but none the matter, a quality start. White and pied wagtail were on the river banks, while our drive into the area had also provided the only swift of the trip. One member of the team thought that a particularly distant and drab long-tailed duck was the highlight of the visit...

Next up a drive north and east, past the granite city and onwards to the delights of the Ythan Estuary. I had dipped drake king eider here in the 1980s on a family holiday - todays visit was better. Parked up at the golf course and headed over the dunes to find a very low tide and a concentrated flock of eider on the estuary.

Armed only with the 100mm-400mm lens, some ok record shots were achieved - how I wished I'd brought the 500mm! My first "proper" drake king eider, a contender for bird of the trip... Wonderful to here the eiders calling away, arctic terns overhead seals in the background noisy too!

Next stop was a short drive north to Meikle Loch - a drake ring-necked duck had been reported earlier in the week (and a blue-headed wagtail), but none were on show on this visit.

Further north, Portsoy was to be the final birding destination of the day, and a little while later were were enjoying tricky viewing of a summer plumaged white-billed diver! An incredible finale to the day, made all the better that it was a life tick for one member of the team, albeit a little distant in choppy conditions. Better still, we were treated to great views of gannet and fulmar riding the blustery conditions.

Bleak conditions at Portsoy - but a tick on view through Ian's scope

So a good start to the trip - three quality birds. Next port of call was inland, to our lodgings in Grantown-on-Spey...

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I spent a pleasant day with STH, ADMc and Phil south of the region today. First stop was Wykeham, North Yorkshire where we had very prompt views of honey buzzard - albeit distant, but prolonged and some amazing butterfly-clapping display. A good start! A further hour produced no more hb sightings, but tree pipit, bullfinch etc added to the day tally.

Further east we took the long walk to Filey Brigg, where reasonable views were had of the 1st summer king eider. Loafing with a female norther eider, the bird had been closer prior to our arrival, but given that it was a sunny day, there was a lot of disturbance from beach-trippers. Not to worry, its a rather grotty bird anyway!

Our journey home was paused with a brief look at the beach at Crimdon Dene -no sign of the colourful female dotterel that two of the party had seen the day previously, but there were plenty of little terns...

Right... time for the world cup final!