Miracle at Cullaloe

This morning I headed to Inverkeithing where the open skies and light air contributed not at all to my vismig well-being. There was some movement but much of it was high up and hard to spot, never mind identify. Instead of labouring on I decided to reoll the dice and head for Cullaloe, where I managed, against all expectations, to add a new species to my site list - Whimbrel!

I know at least one has been recorded here before, but not by me, so I was delighted. Even one new species in a year here after watching the site doggedly for 17 years is a result. Add to that a smattering of vismig, a couple of waders and a nice Raven and it made for a pretty good session.

southbound Curlew

Icelandic Godwit

Picturesque Heron

Raven

Tuesday roundup

Before Wednesday morning's story let's roundup yesterday:
100th species for the year at Inverkeithing (Wigeon)
24 Grey Wags at Inverkeithing, > 600 Mipits and 5 Tree Pipit
Comma at Cullaloe - my first anywhere
Vapourer Moth on the ground outside my office - another first for me
Caterpillar at Cullaloe which turns out to be an Ermine Moth caterpillar
Green Sand, Black-T Godwit, Snipe and Oyc at Cullaloe - none outstanding but all nice

Not a bad day at all.

Vapourer moth

Ermine moth caterpillar

Cullaloe waders

Cullaloe Comma

Great lunchtime at Cullaloe. In addition to this lovely creature below there were dragonflies, a Green Sand, a Black-tailed Godwit, a Snipe, an Oystercatcher, a "wheen" of duck and an as yet unidentified caterpillar which I suspect may be a Peacock.

Why I don't like holidays in September

August slight lag because of holidaying in August! This total for September only includes three days from 2013 of course.

Divit magic

After the westerly blow of the last couple of days it should have been predictable that the Divit would have a good day today, and so it was. Luckily I dragged myself out of bed earlier, but still not early enough.A cracking 24 Grey Wagtails went past and a good run of Mipits for so early too. In amongst the rest a couple of Wigeon pairs clocked up the 100 species for my yearly Divit list.

Moody morning

Visibiilty good under low cloud though

Mipits not the easiest to photograph!

Sparrowhawk SW

Grey Wag

and another ...

and some more ...

sketches of spain

Short-toed (Snake) Eagle, Bolonia, Andalusia

A rather blustery day

A windy and slow start to September this morning with not much by way of vismig at Inverkeithing. A few LBBs drifted past west and not much else - no pipits, no hirundines. At Cullaloe, which actually managed a handful of mipits, there was a new year tick though. A quick look yesterday showed c.150 ducks which was about half made up of Teal. A closer look this morning revealed that in amongst them, and the Mallard (2nd place with c50) and Wigeon there was also a drake Gadwall, bringin up species 84 for the year.