Up North Kids

https://youtu.be/p6DLhupXvFE?si=4GGr0WQxZLlU2nwd

Recently, I took a weeks trip up to old stomping grounds in the far north of Scotland.  Wonderful coastline and birding.  

I made my way southwards down the east coast checking bays, firths, rivers, burns and lochs.  From Sutherland to Aberdeenshire, Fife, Lothian and down into the wild beaches of Northumbria, sea duck were the main draw with thousands of scoter and eiders rubbing shoulders with many hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks and Mergansers.  There were lesser numbers of Scaup, Velvet Scoter, Slavonian Grebes and Black Guillemots.  A couple of Surf Scoters, a White-winged Scoter, King Eider and 2 different Black Scoter made up the rares.  Great Northern Divers were frequent, Red-throats less so and a single Black-throated Diver showed very well where the town meets the sea amidst the docks and marina at Hartlepool.  

I saw a couple of White-tailed Eagles in Caithness and the wintering bird frequenting my teenage haunts along the Lower Derwent Valley, alongside 9 Tundra Bean Geese.  Back in the Fens I had a look at the Snow Goose, a bird that during my visit ignored the large flock of  feeding Whooper Swans and Pink-feet preferring to hang with a small group of grazing Mute Swans; it did not impress wildly.  At Eldernell I located 3 of the hedgerow parliament of cryptic Long-eared Owls, fantastic birds.

Young Americans

https://youtu.be/ydLcs4VrjZQ?si=AYx4QpogRlRHrCKu

Back, at the tail end of 2025, Isleham Washes had a purple patch.  Suitably muddy, with falling water levels the edges of this pool are dependant upon the water level in the River Lark.  In turn, this level is impacted by the control of water through Denver Sluice and any tweaking by the IDB's more locally.  In short the water levels at Isleham appear unpredictable, so the potential of the site to attract migrant waders is rarely realised.  

This autumn though, the arrival of a double whammy of American waders showed that Isleham could draw in the scarcities, as both Lesser Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpiper appeared.

Both these birds, juveniles, had not been long out if the nest before starting their migration.  Juvenile Pectoral Sandpipers occur with such frequency in autumn that the extension of breeding areas eastwards to Greenland and westwards to the Taimyr peninsular in Russia might be quite considerable.  The UK is certainly on the migration route for some of these birds.  The Yellowlegs is in a spirraling decline in the US, but remains one of the more frequent waders to cross the pond.  This bird was jittery, and very freshly plumaged, it didn't remain long and took a long flight out towards Lakenheath as we left, before re-appearing later in the day.

Autumnal visits to Titchwell gifted fantastic views of a juvenile American Golden Plover and Siberian sprytes along the coast in the form of Pallas's, Hume's and Yellow-browed Warblers and a good fall of Firecrests.

Closer to home both Dartford Warbler and Red-throated Diver graced the Ely10, both new birds for me within the area (thanks to Rachel and David for sharing the news of their finds so quickly).