Caithness

 There has been a lack of posts recently as we have been away on holiday for two weeks.

Over the years we have been all over Scotland at various times except for the far North East, Caithness. When we were looking last year for somewhere, a nice looking house popped up so we decided to go for it. Whenever we are away on holiday I scour the internet for info on wildlife potential nearby, so I can work out some 'targets' to look for near where we are staying. This was the first stumbling block. If you try Googling any combination of wildlife phrases with 'Caithness' you get very little indeed. This rang alarm bells. Either, there are so few people up there that info was in short supply ( the preferred option) or there was nothing to see!

In the end, the birding didn't seem too reliable, so I had a few plant options and insects to look for.  Hopefully I hadn't gambled two weeks out of Northumberland in early June for nothing, after all, that can be a good time for vagrants in our own county and I would be 350 miles away! Luckily, June 2022 so far has not given up any Northumberland megas .

The targets I found seemed quite straightforward? Oysterplant, a rare and declining species of rocky shorelines, Scottish Primrose, endemic to the region and Broken beted Bumblebee that is still widespread up there, apparently.

Straight forward? Really? Oysterplant has massively declined and the most up to date info I could find was 5 years old, Scottish Primrose has two flowering seasons spring and later summer, was I inbetween? and the bee, well, how do you identify those with any certainty!

While contacting some locals for info, Karen Munro told us that we were arriving right at the opening of OrcaWatch week at John O Groats. I hadnt even considered Orca as a viable option to look for on the mainland, but I registered with the WhatsApp info services and crossed fingers.

We left on 28th May and had a pleasant but long drive to the far north arriving around 4pm.

About 10 minutes after arrival we were looking around our cottage when a message came through of 2 Orcas moving north past Noss to Duncansby Head. If I had known or familiarised myself with these places I would have gone to look but we were knackered after the drive so just cut our losses. As it turned out we could have had them just 10 miles to the north of us. Bugger.

This could be a very long post so I am breaking it up. I want to include some info just incase other people are searching the internet, as I was, for details so this will do for now. Here is where we were staying...

  

Mory's Cottage, Keiss, Wick. Google it.

11.20pm. Still light. This continued until after midnight when dusk came. it was light again at 2.30am!

The view from the garden and living room window, with Noss Head in the distance, 4 miles away.

 

Talk talk.

I am so pleased that's over.

After spending about half an hour each evening, or more, after work all month processing images and working out slides, searching the net for pics I didnt have etc  I finally did my talk at our village hall on Saturday. It was an event to raise funds to pay for a new water boiler in the hall, so tickets were sold that included food and yours truly speaking. 60 people attended, filling the hall nicely where we were pleased to raise £370, after expenses, to our cause.

My talks usually last for 40 mins or so, but this one was supposed to be for an hour. As it happened, I was a bit over enthusiastic, and talked for an hour and a half! Luckily all the feed back afterwards was positive with everyone saying how much they enjoyed it all. My talks are quite light weight with a bit of humour added. There's nothing worse than sitting through a dry, slow topic in a darkened room. At least on Saturday no one fell asleep.

The talk was about those who watch birds rather than the birds themselves with explanations of exactly what we get up to. My good friend JWR was kind enough to allow me to make a good few jokes at his expense, because I have more 'birder photos' of him than anyone else, so cheers John!

Now, I only have to do an illustration for the cover of Birds in Northumberland 2018, and time should be my own again...

Twelve Photos for 2016...

Amanda at Quiet Walker has set the pace so here are my twelve photos, all of the natural world of some kind, from 2016...

This Arctic Redpoll at Warkorth kept us busy into February from the New Year...

A particularly stroppy Goosander showed very well at DBCP in February...

While feeding the birds, this Toad emerged from the wall in March....

In April this Black Redstart visited Craster Harbour.

My first trip to the USA in May to see this Magnolia Warbler and his mates...

Pleased to see a new Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary colony near home in June....

Hi Summer in July across the Alnwick hills...

August evening moth trapping in the garden...

A pristine Pink barred Sallow in September...

What else, but a Siberian Accentor in October, this the Northumberland bird and my second of the month.

A Waxwing November....

And a festive Robin for December...

I could have had a few for each month really but these are some nice ones to be going on with...

A Waxwing Winter.

If you are a birder living in Northumberland you should count yourself very lucky.

We may be very impoverished on the butterfly, moth and dragonfly front, but we really do quite well for birds.

As a large, east facing county with a wide range of landscapes, an equally good number of species can be found all year round, but what we do excel at is autumn migration.

From late July - late November we get excellent passage of waders, seabirds that are second to none, both breeding and on migration, with things such as flocks of Roseate Terns, decent Skua movements, hundreds of Sooty Shearwaters and even thousands of Little Auks. All four divers are a real possibility if the weather is right. Wildfowl is good with seaduck, geese and wild swans aplenty, then we have drift migrants such as Wrynecks, Barred Warblers and Red backed Shrikes, and later on we do well for Sibes such as Yellow browed, Pallas's, Dusky and Radde's Warblers. Oh yes, the northernmost English county is a good place to be at the 'back end'.

As Autumn draws to a close, another Northumberland speciality appears on a regular basis - the Waxwing. Whilst further south, a lone bird or a small party attracts a good twitching crowd, here we tend to expect larger numbers occasionally. In 2012, in the first week of November ( see these blog posts for a start) we were treated to over 100 of these lovely birds around our garden with out another birder to be seen ( well maybe one or two). Since then, I have had odd singles around the area but just to add to the already superb autumn here in 2016, this year is now turning into a Waxwing winter.

My first were on Monday when 35+ flew N past me whilst driving to work between Amble and Warkworth, then on Tuesday the game upped a little with 30+ at ASDA in Ashington followed half an hour later by 60+ at the south of the town near North Seaton Cemetery.

Today there has been masses of them around the county - maybe 350 in Ashington at three locations, three flocks along the A1 between Alnwick and Morpeth, including one of 200 birds, 200+ at Cramlington, 30+ in Morpeth and many other scattered parties.

Our spring birding may not be so good for overshoots, but would I swap? I dont think so...

USA - 14th and 15th May..

On leaving our hotel in Grayling, MI at 07.30 we had a bit of a shock as the temperature had gone down to 3 degrees and felt like March. This effect was even more exacerbated when almost our first bird of the day was a male Lapland Bunting that flushed from a rough ground area beside the main road.

While waiting for the chaps to gather, John and myself loitered around the hotel looking at the woods at the back. Here we heard an owl call quite loudly that, when Richard played the calls back to us, was certainly a Northern Saw-whet Owl. We tried to look for it, but with so much pine forest it was futile so we headed on to our journey into the Upper Peninsular of Michigan, locally know as the U.P ( Yew-pee).

UP wetlands...

Wide open space....

The lads have no idea that a bear is stalking them...

Now thats a lake. With Canada in the distance.

Beaver work...

Birding was quite good en-route with 2 American Bitterns flushed from a roadside ditch and flying next to the car for a short way, male and female Northern Harriers, Red breasted Merganser and Goosander ( Common Merganser here). A stop near a large wooded lake had 2 Ring necked Ducks, Northern Harrier and Belted Kingfisher while the woods were quiet with only Hermit Thrush ( the first of many) and Blue headed Vireo noted.

What really struck me was how big and empty the place is. Huge good wide roads straight as a die for miles with little traffic on them.

We had a stop at Taquemanon Falls River Mouth and happened upon a nice Northern Mockingbird here at the northern end of their range. Some maps show them as only going up as far as Ohio, but they seems to be expanding range. Also here Richard found a Vesper Sparrow that we all missed, Swamp Sparrow and a Beaver lodge.

Northern Mockingbird

We arrived at Whitefish Point at noon in a bitterly cold northerly wind but at least it was bright and sunny. Most birds were gathered at feeders behind the obs building - 30+ White crowned Sparrows, 1 Lincoln's Sparrow, 3+ White throated Sparrow, 1 Chipping Sparrow, 20+ Blue Jay, 4+ Raven over head, 1 Osprey over, 3 Sharp shinned Hawks in to the feeders, 4+ Black capped Chickadee and 1 Chipmunk.

Whitefish Point, Michigan

A very cold, Whitefish Point

Vast open spaces at Whitefish Point looking over to Canada.

And yes that is fresh water....

Black capped Chickadee

Alvin....

Killdeer, maybe the best bird photo I've ever taken....

We checked a few places around the Paradise / Newberry area but the wintry weather had us beat. Birds remained elusive..

Overnight was spent in Newberry. The temp dropped to -2 and when I got up there was a light grass frost. Later it was fine with odd snow flurries remaining cold.

First stop was an old airport called Raco Airfield. This was an excellent stop for birding until we came to leave and found we had been locked in! I removed a fence post, temporarily, allowing Richard to drive us out, then replaced it. No one was any the wiser.

The entrance to the airfield was quite good with several Vesper Sparrows and 2 Evening Grosbeaks around the gate.

Vesper Sparrow, a bit like an Ortolan Bunting from Europe.

Hermit Thrush, the commonest of the brown thrushes up here.

Further over we stopped the van and raked around a bit seeing - 3 Sharp tailed Grouse ( all flushed), 4+ Vesper Sparrows, a pair of Pine Warblers, 3 Brown Thrasher, 5+ Dark eyed Junco, 1 Savannah Sparrow, 1 Sandhill Crane over, 1 male American Kestrel, 1 Northern Flicker, 2 Upland Sandpipers on the edge of a runway and several Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Raco Airfield

After escaping our temporary confinement we stopped at Eckerman where we found the famous Bear Butt Bar was now closed. Luckily a house next door also had feeders including a huge dustbin winched up a flagpole to keep critters off. On this were 10+ Purple Finches, 6+ Evening Grosbeak, 10+ Blue Jay and a Northern Flicker.

Continuing on a theme, the rest of the day was spent driving remote roads and stopping occasionally to see what turned up. We did alright with some perseverance.
6+ Ruffed Grouse at various spots, 1 Red breasted Nuthatch, 1 Yellow bellied Sapsucker,  2 Pine Warbler, 1 Blue headed Vireo and a Palm Warbler were all seen. A small warbler flock held Cape May, Black throated Green and Yellow rumped but generally passerines were very hard to find.

In the McMillan Forest we came across a nice male Golden crowned Kinglet that gave some reasonable views.

We ended the day exhausted  and decided we needed to regroup and try something different tomorrow....

Houses in the forest.

Red breasted Nuthatch.

Swainson's Thrush

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker drumming on a road sign. It was deafening.

A Blue headed Vireo, 'pished' in....

Click on this and you can see in there is a Ruffed Grouse....

Now thats a feeder!