The St. John's Pool website has been revised and updated with the generous support of 'The Birds of Scotland Fund awarded by The Scottish Ornithologists Club' (SOC).
For more information please visit their website at: www.the-soc.org.uk
10 May 2012 10 May – spring surprises
Author:  |  Category: Caithness birds, Garden birds, New species at St. John's Loch/Pool, Passerine migration, Wildfowl migration  | Comments off
L. SCAUP– SJP- 9:5:12

Lesser scaup SJP - 9/5/12

L. SCAUP– SJP- 9:5:12

Lesser scaup SJP - 9/5/12

A notable influx of tufted ducks onto the pond at lunchtime on the 9th prompted further investigation.  Incredibly, as on a number of previous occasions – there was another Lesser scaup.  I say ‘another’ because with the 6 week gap since the last one left, and a mass exodus of the main tufted duck population, I think there is every chance that this is record number 10 for Caithness – and the 9th for the ‘Garden list’.

Also on pool on 10 May:

RED GROUSE 1 male – a quite simply baffling record.  A male red grouse flew into the pool and was immediately rebuffed by a pair of lapwings – and promptly returned to the poolside vegetation out of sight. I never saw it again.
Garganey 1m
Little gull 1 – 1st summer
Osprey 1 – over loch but seen from Ham and then watched fishing at Ham Pool – where it was attacked by one of the nesting mute swans.  A winning shot if only someone had been on the other side with a decent camera  …and some skill.  AN osprey was later seen heading north over North Ronaldsay on Orkney – their first for the year.  QUite possibly the very same bird as Caithness has a long standing track recod of interchange of birds.
Lapwing 5 pairs – with 3rd clutch hatching today

On 9 May:
Pied flycatcher 1f – in next door’s garden
Gadwall 1m

Gadwall - SJP 9:5:12

Gadwall SJP 9/5/12

04 May 2012 3 May – The mysteries of migration …continue
Author:  |  Category: Breeding species, Non-passerine migration, Wildfowl migration  | Comments off

Yet another year and the Arctic terns didn’t disappoint.  Despite a couple of flyovers on previous days the first birds to actually touchdown from Antarctica after a 50000 mile round trip – somehow managed to hit the appointed time – which for whatever reason still seems to be 3 May.  6 birds dropped in at dusk yesterday and picked their specially customised breeding area – which was nice.

Latest on pool:
Garganey 1m  2/5 – 3/5

Little gull SJP 3:5:12

Little gull 2/5 - 3/5/12

Little gull – 1st summer  2/5 – 3/5
Black-headed gull – 270 pairs nesting on 2/3
Mallard 1f+b9
Coot  – 2 pairs
Little grebe 1 or 2 pairs?
Lapwing – 6 pairs inc. first brood to hatch on 28/4 probably.  All may have been predated OR there’s now a 7th pair nesting
Oystercatcher – 2 pairs nesting
Tufted duck 20 – still around
Teal – 2 pairs probably

02 May 2012 2 May – Breeding season looking good
Author:  |  Category: Breeding species, Wader migration  | Comments off
IMG_1954

1 May - 270 BH gull nests... so far

After some poor weather recently it was good to look out the window and count a record number of BH gulls already on eggs.  270 brooding represents a >200% increase over last year’s final nesting total. Some will abandon for various reasons and others will arrive I’m sure but the colony looks very healthy from up here.  Lapwings are also up with 6 pairs nesting and the first hatched chicks now off their island and onto the relative safety of the outside of the pool.

 

Recently:
Red-throated diver 5 – thro. April on St. John’s Loch. This is a record count for the site
Arctic tern 1 – over pool south on 29/4
Gadwall 1m – 29/4
Shelduck 2 – 1/5
Common sandpiper 1 – 1/5
Whimbrel 25 – over pool 2/5

 

 

03 Apr 2012 27 March – Max. temp. records put in the shade
Author:  |  Category: Breeding species, New species at St. John's Loch/Pool, The Works, Wildfowl migration  | Comments off
Small tortoishells : March 12

Invasion of small tortoishells

Today it hit 19 degrees C. after a couple of days that had already been way above normal – and the effect was extraordinary: pond full of displaying birds; people walking about in shorts; small tortoishells everywhere and an ICE CREAM VAN IN DUNNET!;

In the past week we’ve managed to sort several things that desperately needed sorting:  niggling problems with hide window fixings;  some hedge trimming; bird boxes installed and the major challenge – removing the killer wire from the floating raft.  A bit of an epic was made even more epic- er when I lost the wire cutters in the deep end; then got ‘holed below the water line’ and filled up.  Not very pleasant.  Anyhoo fixed the damage and after a few hours slogging away, ripped the last of the Black headed gull chick trap off.

BH & CA on raft

Clear view - of BH prancing around a sleeping cormorant

I think it looks far better and without the defence screen, attracted its first customer the next morning.  A cormorant spent an hour or so preening and sleeping while the resident gulls screamed around it.

Latest stuff :

LESSER SCAUP 1 – seen on the loch thro. month and still roosting on pool on 28/3
Slavonian grebe 1 – apparently on the pool on 24/3  A first record for the pool;
Red throated diver 1 – regularly thro. March
Coot - 21 on loch 4 on pool on 27/3
Scaup 1 – male regularly on loch
Lapwing 12 – displaying from 25/3 on pool
Redshank 2-4 seen from 20/3
Snipe 1 – drumming on 27-28/3
Oystercatcher 2-4 seen from 20/3

 

16 Mar 2012 15 March – Hacked off!
Author:  |  Category: Archives - Caithness Highlights, Breeding species, BTO Atlas  | Comments off
IMG_0583_2

Welcome a board

Thanks to a friend who I’ve yet to meet, this blog comes to you a couple of days late. Tuesday morning arrived with a - ’You’ve been hacked’ banner plus Algerian flag, sprawled across the front page.  Fortunately Team Status managed to retrieve all my posts and rebuild the site.  Not only that but they were also fairly crucial in the provision of another, more expected sign, splashed across the car park.  So, a big ‘Thank you’ to Mark et al.  The above installation, I don’t mind admitting (for someone who can strip a thread on a hot water bottle) has to be my finest DIY hour.  Despite almost insurmountable problems I managed to bore through the Earth’s crust and nail the thing to the planet.  It’s not going anywhere.  And am I quietly pleased.

IMG_0578_2

Sign up for St. John's Pool

The new entrance interpretation – just a wee story about how the pond came to be.

Meanwhile… on the bird front, it really has been quite an interesting month. Apart from the Lesser scaup roosting on the pool from at least 5 – 11 March (which is the first record), we had the highest ever count of (Tundra) Bean geese (33) on the lochside on 24 February, with (3) still present on 25 February; 2 or 3 Greylags roosting on pool after an absence of 8 years for the species; and on 14 March the highest ever count of Pinkfeet (1200) and an increase of 50% over the previous record.

PART OF 1200 PGS

Just a small part of the flock of 1200 pinkfeet next door

 

08 Mar 2012 8 March – The early birder
Author:  |  Category: Garden birds, The Works, Wildfowl migration  | Comments off

Three days of frantic frustration trying to convince myself I wasn’t delusional – finally paid off on 7 March when I clinched a couple of terrible shots of the Lesser scaup on the pool.  5 March: ‘Lesser’ confusingly turns into ‘Greater’ by the time I get the camera unfogged, find the bird from studio window, shoot and check the image?! NO-o-o-o!  Surely ‘Two bird theory’ in operation?
6 March: Spot a definite ‘Lesser’ and this time make it to the old hide ‘commando style’ but shooting directly into the rising sun I discover …the bird has gone
7 March: Get down 45 mins before sunrise – same routine – bird spends most of its time behind some reeds; other ducks are clearly being spooked by the flash of the auto focus and I’m getting seriously pissed off – then so does the bird – but not before I scrabble a couple of 20th of a second shots.  And here they are.

L. scaup - SJP 7:3:12

Lesser scaup - SJP 7/3/12

L. scaup - SJP 7:3:12_2

Lesser scaup - SJP 7/3/12

I have every confidence the bird is roosting on the pool as it was again in position today at first light but took flight ten minutes earlier than yesterday and well before sunrise.  This is only the second Lesser scaup to use the pool out of the 8 birds on the ‘garden’ list.

Meanwhile it appears as though the tide has just gone out.  A scattering of shells amongst the new rockery/sand pit will hopefully entice the sandwich terns to give it another go in 2012 after a 5 year break.  It’s a long shot but if you don’t try…

IMG_0440

Beach sunrise with beach hut

24 Feb 2012 23 February – Come in number 9 – you’re overdue
Author:  |  Category: Archives - Caithness Highlights, Garden birds, Non-passerine migration, Wildfowl migration, Winter records  | Comments off
L. SCAUP - SJ LOCH 21:2:12

Lesser scaup (center top) - SJ Loch 21/2/12

An adult male Lesser scaup appeared on St. John’s Loch on 21 February with a fresh influx of ‘tufties’.  It will be the 9th record for Caithness if accepted.  The last occurence was a ‘multiple’ arrival of 2 males together also on SJL in October 2007.  This latest bird forms a neat Lesser scaup sandwich – with the BTO Atlas as the four year filling – conveniently avoiding being represented by a modest ‘dot’ in the mighty publication.  How about that.  Anyway it was still present on 23 Feb and giving pretty decent views from the harbour.

L. SCAUP - SJ LOCH 22:2:12

Lesser Scaup - SJ LOCH 22/2/12

18 Feb 2012 18 February – Sand, stone and snow
Author:  |  Category: Breeding species, Garden birds, New species at St. John's Loch/Pool, The Works  | Comments off
IMG_0125

Tern paradise - just before the snow hit

17 Feb is usually a notable date in my diary …every year – and today was no exception: first lapwings displaying (3 pairs); 2 pairs of oyks made a tentative flypast show; and the winter works are virtually complete.  The latest attempt to stall the inevitable rampant grasses and rushes smothering everything involved a serious dump of hardcore and sand above the ‘beach line’ – to also bring nesting birds even closer to the grandstand – and a couple of extra elevated features on the closest islands.  Got a feeling it’s going to be good.  It’d be just the icing on the er… tern cake(?) if sandwich terns were attracted to use the large sand piles – see below.

IMG_0123

Waiting for the star terns

Think I should really have mentioned that the ‘Great wind’ of last December (insert date when I can remember) – which ripped rooves off and smashed trees down in their hundreds across the county (including our garden) – didn’t affect the hide at all.  I was more than slightly worried until first light next day, but hats off to Mr Mackay the joiner – the job’s a good ‘un.

Not much happening birdwise but geese numbers building here. Also managed to sneak ‘tundra’ Bean goose onto the ‘garden’ list when 13 from the flock of 31 at Rattar flew across the south end of St. John’s Loch on 11 Jan:

Greylag – 150 on 17/2/12
Pinkfeet – 10 on 17/2/12
Crossbill – 1 on 17/2/12 was first this winter
Coot - 2 pairs since mid-Jan
Moorhen – 1 or 2 since Jan
Teal - 12 on 17/2/12
Wigeon – 10 on 17/2/12

20 Dec 2011 20 December – Remains of the day
Author:  |  Category: Uncategorized  | Comments off

The odds on getting through to your first spring for a bird aren’t great. Apparently only 33% of all fledged young make it.  Two that didn’t, feature in this ‘last post’ of the year… probably.

First up – a quick check out the studio window on 16th revealed a juv kittiwake flying across the pool towards the loch – an extremely rare event in itself and as far as I can remember – unique in winter.  A full three seconds into it’s flight the rarity became an ex-rarity, as it was plucked spectacularly and deftly out of the air then pinned to the bank by a buzzard.

KITTIWAKE : SJP : 16-12:11

Kittiwake juv. / SJP 16/12/11

Next up in the gloomy news – ‘Joe’ the radio tagged osprey from Caithness which became a bit of a local star as he raced to Spain from his natal area in just a week this August.  We watched in awe as he made his way to The Gambia and then back in early November things went worryingly quiet.  Various theories were proffered by Roy Dennis and his correspondents in Africa but no conclusive proof was found… until now.  Here’s what was published on Highland Foundation website:

Remains found

13 December 2011

Since 4th December I started to receive GPS locations from Joe’s transmitter and was able to send GPS locations and magnified GoogleEarth map to Frederic Bacuez. It looks as though the transmiiter was between two big bushes and in sunshine. Frederic offered to go again to Rao and have a search. This evening I received the following email and then two photos from Frederic.

“Dear friends, Sadly we can tell you that Joe has died: today, we found near the last position given by Roy the feathers of Joe with all the transmitter two meters far; also one claw and around a few bones of the neck. A report tomorrow with pictures. I got back all the materials covered by dried mud, the two rings (blue one 90 or 06, broken by the sun and BTO 1410565) and some remains… Rozenn Le Roux, Cheikh Aïdara and me are so sorry for you and all the british ospreys friends. Frederic Bacuez, Ornithondar”

It’s sad that Joe died on his first migration and the evidence suggests he was taken by a mammal predator, killed and eaten, may be when diving into small pools of very shallow water after catfish. The first winter in Africa is difficult for young ospreys which cannot compete with the adults for the best habitat. It’s almost certainly more dangerous in a drier than normal autumn/winter when the interior wetlands are drying up.

We are very grateful to Frederic and his friends, Rozenn Le Roux, Cheikh Aïdara, for checking the Rao area again and retrieving the transmitter, which I can use again next summer on another osprey. May be we call him Frederic.

To follow Joe’s journey please visit:

http://www.roydennis.org/osprey/index.asp?id=247&sid=244

Merry Christmas
01 Dec 2011 1 December – Euro crisis
Author:  |  Category: Caithness birds, Garden birds, New species at St. John's Loch/Pool, Non-passerine migration, Wildfowl migration  | Comments off

Bit late I know, but not much news from poolside until yesterday.

Autumn 2011 will be remembered for the most significant influx of scarcer geese, which usually winter on southern North Sea coasts.  Check the bigger numbers out on ‘Caithness highlights’.  Highest ever counts of Bean geese and Beans often means European white-fronts too – so when a goose flew over the studio window calling like a Greenland white-front and landed on the pool on 30 November  – I assumed I’d be ‘scoping a Greenland white-front from the window (surprisingly this would be a ‘first’ for the pool) – but when I clocked a pink-as-you-like bill, I thought “oops” what’s going on here?  Thin white terminal tail band however more than infers ‘Greenland’ so I was totally confused.  Fortunately the Goose Man himself Mr. Laybourne was able to supply the ‘Anser’ (hoho) and pronounced it definitely Greenland white-fronted goose.  Excellent, and either way, wouldn’t have mattered, because both would have been a first for actually landing on the pool.

GREENLAND WHITE-FRONT : SJP 30:11:11

Greenland white-front / SJP 30/11/11

Other stuff:

Gadwall – up to 3 pairs throughout October / November;
Teal – up to 45 throughout November;
Little grebe - still 2 throughout November;
Moorhen – still 2 throughout November;
Coot – still 3 throughout November;

« Previous Entries