You may have also noted in this video there was what I call a 'farmland goose' which is basically a white derivative of the Greylag. This one however has decided that it was "Born to be Wild" and if you look at the video again you will see variants of white and grey geese, proving that it has definitely integrated.
Moving into February it was still quite mild and I managed to capture these Roe Deer hinds relaxing in a field near Pepper Wood, Kirkliston:
The bird at the end of the previous video was of course a Red-legged Partridge (in case you were wondering!).
In February I also had a trip out with Fife Bird Club to Scone Palace and Glen Quaich, the relatively benign weather (cool and clear without rain) made for a successful day out.
Firstly at Scone Palace we were treated to clear skies and (with the lack of leaves) a clear view to the top of the mature trees in the palace grounds:
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| Avenue of Trees at Scone Palace |
What were we hoping to see at the top of these mature trees?........... well, a small flock of Hawfinch that are regularly seen in winter in this area.
Were we lucky enough to see these birds which are quite rare in Scotland?............. of course we were:
Sorry if the video is slightly poor, the birds were quite far away and silhouetted against the sky, hope you still managed to identify them as Hawfinch.
Next we moved on to Glen Quaich; we parked just outside the village hall at Amulree and had a spot of lunch whilst we enjoyed the views down the Sma' Glen:
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| Towards the Sma' Glen |
We also enjoyed the view of a Red Grouse posing on a grassy knoll above the heather:
We then headed on down into Glen Quaich on foot:
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| Heading in to Glen Quaich |
We saw some good birds on our trip to Glen Quaich but the highlight was probably the two Golden Eagles we saw soaring above the Glen Almond Hills.
I did get a video of them but they were quite far away, so I won't bore you with a video clip showing two dots on the horizon, instead here is a photo of several happy birders:
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| Eagle-spotting in Glen Quaich |
Back at home the birds continued to visit our garden to feed on any food we had put out and it was all starting to feel a bit Spring-like; male Chaffinches even looked like they were getting in to their full breeding plumage:
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| Male Chaffinch in Garden |
We were just getting used to this relatively benign weather when the 'Beast from the East' rolled in, bringing a large dollop of Siberian weather:
We got off fairly lightly, in some areas the transport links ground to halt and people had to spend hours trapped on snow-covered motorways. Farmers could not get to their livestock and many hill farmers lost sheep in the snow drifts.
I was glad we didn't have to go anywhere and could watch the winter weather from our window (with the heating turned up to max):
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| The start of the snow |
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| Icicles forming |
'Beast from the East' wasn't a total disaster as far as I was concerned as it forced some less common birds to look for food in towns and gardens and I could view them all from my window. This included a few birds swept over from Scandinavia, such as this Fieldfare in a neighbour's garden:
I enjoyed watching this Song Thrush plucking berries from the hedge outside our front garden:
In our back garden this poor Pied Wagtail struggled to find something other than old bread to eat in the snow (and it struggled to keep its feet warm!):
The snow only lasted for a few days, but even after it had almost gone some less common birds still hung around for a while, including these Yellowhammers and Redwing:
And a bird not often seen around these parts, a Tree Sparrow in our back garden:
In case you don't know, male Tree Sparrows wear brown caps whilst their more common cousins the House Sparrows wear grey caps.
The Winter Migrants have since left and the weather is improving............. Summer migrants are on their way (some are already here) and the Blue Tits are nesting in our bird box.................. can't wait to see what Springtime will bring!
Take Care
Teddy Edward
