Week 37

10 – 16 September 2025

During my big year, I will update my blog most weeks. This is the thirty-seventh week’s recap. The number next to the day indicates my Scottish year list at the end of that day. Birds written in italics indicate year ticks.

September 11 - Day 254: 195

Today, after several reports of Little Stints up at Cairnbulg over the past few days, dad and I decided to head up there after school on Thursday. When we arrived, it was almost 18:00, but we saw Ruth Howie and another birder looking down at the seaweed on the beach and, as we suspected, they had the birds in view. A maximum of 11 birds were being reported fairly regularly. We watched as the Little Stints foraged between the Turnstones, Knots, and Dunlin. Just as Ruth was telling us about a Spotted Redshank she thought she had seen, I heard a weird wader call and a more smoky-grey coloured Redshank fly past. As it landed, I noticed its distinct white “cigar” (a wedge on its back in the shape of a cigar) and that it had no white trailing edge. Spotted Redshank! Although I had seen them already this year, it was a great bonus for the nearly hour-and-half drive up. We soon had to head back home, but it was a great time out, getting my lifer Little Stint.

September 14 - Day 257: 195

At 6:30, my dad and I woke up to go to Girdleness for a seawatch. It was about 7:15 when we arrived. After an uneventful seawatch, with only a single Arctic Skua flying North, we decided to head back home.

After a little while, we thought of going up to the Ythan, to see what would be around. When we arrived at Inch Point, we were met by Ruth Howie and David White. We saw a large flock of Golden Plovers, Lapwings, Greenshank, Redshank, Knot, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwits and a very distant Osprey, before having to leave them. As we were driving away, we also spotted a Little Egret, further up Foveran Burn.

We then went to the Snub, to see what we could find. We didn't see the Osprey, but another birder pointed out a Spoonbill feeding on the far bank of the river. Meanwhile, below us, a mixed flock of nearly all the regular British waders had come together: Ruff, Knot, Lapwing, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank, Greenshank, and, down river, a Curlew Sandpiper! After lunch in Cruden Bay, we were back at the Snub to scan a flock of waders, consisting of mostly Redshanks as well as the odd Ruff, and the Curlew Sandpiper was still about.