As it was a lovely sunny, frosty and still morning on the peninsular, I gave the morning sea watch a miss and joined OL in a walk around The Desert and Trapping area. A few each of Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Greenfinches, Siskins and Redpolls were seen and heard, also a Redwing, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a Woodcock was flushed.
As it was such a beautiful still day I decided to wander out the back of Scotney to the wind farm to hopefully stumble across a Rough-legged Buzzard. Things didn't start to well when I failed to see the usually reliable Little Owl at the farm, but improved when I found a flock of 17 Ruff on the the back lake, not quite so welcome was a flock of 48 Egyptian Geese there. The fields held good numbers of Skylarks, but I failed to find any Tree Sparrows or Corn Buntings, 6 Common Buzzards were in a kettle at the wind farm and 4 different Marsh Harriers were seen, a couple of Great Tits gave away the location of a Barn Owl buried deep in a Sallow which I would probably have walked past had they not alerted me to its presence. Scanning around Walland Marsh a pair of marauding Peregrines put up all the waders, Lapwings and Golden Plover were everywhere I estimated conservatively 2,000+ of each, 9 Curlew and 2 Redshank flew over, all the usual feral Geese were present. As I came back through the farm I heard a familiar call which took me a few seconds to realise was Twite, having heard and seen them practically on a daily basis back in the summer in Mongolia. They were on the roof of the farm house, then on the overhead wires, then on the driveway behind a gate, they flew off and returned on at least 3 occasions so hopefully will be around for a while. A Black Redstart was also around the farm.
A well hidden Barn Owl at Scotney
Twite at Scotney, much rarer than the Rough-legged Buzzard I was hoping for.
Twite at Scotney
Twite at Scotney
Black Redstart at Scotney
Some of the 1,000s of Golden Plovers at Scotney
Distant image of a Short-eared Owl at Galloways late afternoon
Late afternoon a Short-eared Owl was hunting at Galloways and 2 Dartford Warblers were also seen, thanks to a call from BH.
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