Saturday 4 November 2017

Early Iceland Gull - Mains of Usan

Some photos from my wanderings along the Angus coastline this week with a surprise find, and the lonely Whooper Swan at Montrose Basin continues to have no mates!


A very unexpected, and to me an early Iceland Gull. This juvenile unlike all of the other gulls flying along the coast at Mains of Usan actually approached me to have a look instead of veering off like the others. Hopefully this bird will have joined the gulls in the roost at the mouth of the Lunan Water at Lunan Bay. It may look a bit more colourful than it actually is due to the late and low sun


Sometimes the light, the settings and everything comes together and I get a good (lucky) photo of something too far away to expect. I've cropped out the other Oystercatchers, the ones out of focus, overlapping and not posing!


Pied Wagtail on the beach in Shelly Bay near Mains of Usan


Honest, this Redshank does have a second leg, you can just see the foot tucked into its plumage


One of a group of very wary Curlews near Mains of Usan which were prone to fly off when I was hundreds of metres away and no threat


Second attempt at the Greenfinches at Lunan Bay car park but no light again and less birds feeding on the depleted rose hips


Long-tailed Ducks which were around 250 metres out at sea. I might go back today and try again in the sun but the beach will be even busier. Also Red-throated Divers at Lunan, Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter and Shags


Even further away than the LTD, this Velvet Scoter was one of at least 10 flying around


Whooper Swans in the late golden light at the Lurgies. I'd been told there were four birds present but as you can see there were five. The bird on the right is the long staying, never leaving Whooper that sits on Miss Erskine's Bank which had wandered over and joined its own kind, welcome company perhaps. Alas the socialising didn't last as the four birds on the left were spooked by the arrival of a wildfowler and his dog and flew off towards Duns Dish


Wren on the fence post at the Bank of Scotland Hide where the Kingfisher made two appearances, both times staying in the shade, although it did hover over a pond too far out


Carrion Crow, one of a number of Crows, Rooks and Jackdaws raking through the seaweed washed up on the strand line at Craigmill burn mouth



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