Sunday 31 March 2013

Roller coaster.

On the way to pick up the guests for the day I found 6 Lesser Black-backed Gull among the Herring Gull. It's another sign of things on the move as the LBB gulls are still migrants up here.
With the guests on board we went on to have a busy day starting with plenty of Lapwing, 4 Golden Plover, a
single Snipe, a back end view of a Mountain Hare and a couple of Shelduck.                                              
White-tailed Eagle was the top priority for the day and at our next stop we had one fly past - excellent! Rock Pipits are always well received by land locked birders so we had good views of those. Bird of the day for everyone was probably the Water Rail that flew in front of the motor at close quarters, easily the best view I've ever had of one in flight! A male Hen Harrier was a good find and we manged to find an Adder basking in a sheltered spot.
We broke out the lunch and almost immediately a Golden Eagle appeared (I'm sure they are keen to share the spoils) and flew past in nice light.
He gained height and started to display by flying upwards and then closing the wings to screaming down...
...then open the wings at the bottom of the arc to start heading back upwards for another roller coaster ride.
A fly past Great Spotted Woodpecker was too quick for the guests but the 3 Otters we located five minutes later showed very well as they fished just offshore and hauled out onto the rocks. Another two WT Eagles were a welcome sight at the days end and a female Hen Harrier rounded the sightings off nicely.

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