Recent Announcements

Announcements

Sunday 01 December 2024

Today's blog post is not about a birding trip report, but rather about a few updates I would like to share with you.

Firstly, I will be doing a presentation at the Aberdeen & District local RSPB group's AGM, about my birding in 2024. If you are able to come along, please do. 

Secondly, I am planning a Scotland big year in 2025. I will publish lots of posts in my big year. Unfortunately, we may be leaving Aberdeen and Scotland in 2026, so I decided that a big year was a good way to:

•  a) Visit more of Scotland
•  b) Increase my Scotland and UK lists
•  c) Produce less Co2 since we will (probably) not fly

Surf Scoter - Girdleness - 2/11/2024

Girdleness

Saturday 02 November 2024

Today, I was testing out my possible new scope since, I had forgotten my tripod at home when we were on holiday in France in mid-October. We therefore decided to properly test it while birding at my local patch, Girdleness. After our karate session on Saturday morning, we left to test out my scope. I saw a couple of Purple Sandpipers on the south pier and my first for the autumn: a Fieldfare in Greyhope bay. My mother and I walked towards the fog horn, hoping to test the scope’s seawatching capabilities. I set up the scope behind the “old coo” fog horn, sheltered from the wind. I noticed two dark brown/black ducks on the water. I ignored them at first, thinking “probably eiders… no point checking”. After doing some seawatching for about 0.000001 seconds, I got bored and thought, “for goodness’s sake, I’ll look at the eiders,” and there it was: my lifer Surf Scoter. After thinking I was dreaming, which is when I find loads of rare birds, I realised I was still awake. I jumped up and down like a mad man, screaming and shouting I asked my mum to call my dad, who had access to the ABZ rare birds WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Within a few minutes, the message was out: “Surf Scoter Girdleness in front of old coo fog horn. Adult male with female eider. Found by Edgar” followed by a photo and the caption “Here now”, a few minutes later. Andrew Whitehouse arrived a few minutes after, from the battery, followed by several other people. Keith Yates also got the bird after we had left.

eBird Checklist

Record Shots of the Surf Scoter

Hyde Park - August 2024

Hyde Park

Monday 12 August 2024

Today, my family and I took the coach to London to ask for a passport at the French embassy. I heard this as an opportunity for some birding, so I brought our camera to photograph some species, too. We arrived at Marble Arch and walked through Hyde Park, seeing many Egyptian Geese, Greylag Geese and Canada Geese. As we walked along the Serpentine, we saw some Black-headed gulls and a few Moorhens. Near the boat hire on the North side of the lake, there were a few Coots and, a female Tufted Duck that let us take some amazing photographs. As well as many Mute Swans. Sheltered in the bay of a small island on the lake, I saw my lifer Red-crested Pochard! Although they were females and not as beautiful as the males of the species. We had to hurry a bit after that, since the meeting was in only about half an hour later. While hurrying, we passed a Black Swan, a bird which is native to Australia and New Zealand, but many birds have escaped from captivity and found London parks, a great place to live. All this time we were impressed by how loud all the Ring-necked parakeets were, as they flew through the trees of the park. Once we had finish at the embassy, we had a French pancake (crêpe) at a local crêperie. On the way back, we saw a few Great Crested Grebes and some more of the species that we had seen before.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S191175317

Egyptian Geese