Let's start the round up of the new bird species added to my BIGBY, Big Green Big Year list over the last ten weeks with the American Black Tern. Not a bird that could be added actually for at the moment it is a sub-species.
A Roseate Tern at Musselborough was a bonus bird. Having slept in the roofless hide and having been soaked by overnight rain, to see a species missed when near Coquet Island was brilliant. Sad to say that the two days I spent at Hauxley NR searching for Roseates was tainted by the large number of dead and dieing birds due to avian flu. Fifty five dead Sandwich Terns were on one island at the reserve!
Pied-billed Grebe at Feorlin Loch, Scotland and what a trek to see that bird! The insect bites I received on my legs are still scabbed and itchy. Must get them looked at!
This Black Guillemot at Connel Bridge saved me having to cycle from there to Oban and back!
Nine hours treking three Munroe mountain tops before finally finding two Ptarmigan at the very last bit of scree!
Nine hours for a Ptarmigan, nine seconds for a Crested Tit! Lieing in my sleeping bag in the evening, I noticed a titmice flock going over my tent. Get up and check, I told myself and on doing so the second bird to come out of an adjacent bush when pishing was this little beauty.
Didn't manage to photograph a distant White-tailed Eagle near the Chruch of Scotland in the Findhorn Valley but did manage to photograph a nearby Golden Eagle at the far end of the valley.
No photograph either of an exploding Capercaillie, well it startled me when it erupted from behind a fallen tree trunk as I was walking around a forest near Carrbridge. This deer was more obliging.
Velvet Scoter were seen at Musselborough but despite another two days spent there, still couldn't find the King Eider.
This Polish-ringed Caspian Gull was seen at Amble.
Three really tough days cycling, due to a strong gale from the south-west, eventually got me to Bempton RSPB reserve and late in the evening, after watching a Short-eared Owl (top) and a very close Barn Owl, the reported Red-tailed Shrike popped up on the hedge just in front of me. The photograph above I took the following morning.
Adding Arctic Skua to the list whilst seatwaching with the Flamborough Head crew, I then cycled towards Hull only to be diverted to Spurn Head as an American White-rumped Sandpiper had been seen.
Didn't see it that day, nor the following but the day after that I saw two!
And there we have it. Today, August the 12th will see me cycle towards Leicester in temperatures approaching 32 Celsius! After those ferocious gales mentioned above, the last three days have been scorching and indeed the landscape as I have cycled through Lincolnshire has been parched and drought-ridden.
My BIGBY bird list now stands at 250. I am still some way behind the leader, Ponc Feliu Latorre, twelve bird species actually but two months at Spurn Head and Flamborough should bring its rewards this autumn.
