Willow Grouse

Male willow grouse

While in Norway I saw several willow grouse, always close to willow or birch scrub where they were feeding on the opening leaf buds and catkins. The male, above, has a redder colouring to his head and neck, and much more white on his body and wing feathers. Both sexes moult into almost pure white plumage in the winter, then back into a rusty brown feather colour in spring, the female doing so more quickly than the male as she has to be concealed on the nest and white feathers would betray her camouflage.

 Female willow grouse

The females were incubating eggs while we were there in late June, and they only come off to feed perhaps once a day. This bird, above, was feeding on the opening leaf buds of herbs and moss capsules. One nest I saw held twelve eggs, another held nine. These are both quite large clutches, typical of the species when their population is on a rise which these seemed to be as few birds have been seen in recent years. 

 Female on nest

The females incubate for more than three weeks, lying still and quiet under the cover of as in this case, dwarf birch, Betula nana. And they do so in all weather, such as rain when I took the photographs. The rain beading on her head and bill, and her breast feathers were matting with water. But underneath she would have been warm and dry, her plumage shedding the water as long as she was undisturbed -which she was when I left her.

Nordic Waders

Wood sandpiper

I am just returned from northern Norway where I was helping my brother, Skitts, with his long-term study of breeding waders. However, as in Scotland this spring, there have been almost incessant northerly winds there. This has led to a late thaw and emergence of plants and insects, and very few birds were breeding compared with the amount in years of more usual weather. 

Wood sandpiper, which was caught and ringed

In one mire where there would normally have been twenty-forty pairs of wood sandpipers breeding there was only one pair with chicks. In some mires there were none. And it was similar story with spotted redshank and reeve. Red-necked phalaropes were particularly scarce, probably because they are surface feeders and as there were very few mosquitoes emerging they had no food supply.

Ringing a wood sandpiper chick.

Of the two main study species, jack snipe did not seem to be breeding at all, although several birds were seen displaying. And less than a quarter of the expected number of  broad-billed sandpiper were breeding.

Adult, (1st year) broad-billed sandpiper caught and colour-ringed for identification in the field in subsequent years of study.

Unfortunately, a high proportion of clutches from the few that were laid were eaten by predators. This was probably mostly by hooded crows which were walking over the mies, in large flocks of twenty or more birds, feeding on emerging cranefly. They would have welcomed any eggs they came across in the process. We also saw several red foxes roaming the area, and they would have been likely predators too.

Sandwich Terns

I was out ringing sandwich terns last week, as well as reading rings in the field. This was all part of a study organised by Grampian Ringing Group, and focused on the tern colony at the Sands of Forvie nature reserve  at Newburgh in Scotland.

One of the birds we read the colour ring number on, had been sighted in Namibia in February, and several others were birds reared at the colony over the past twelve years.

Many birds were flying in with fish, so I tried to capture as many of these as possible, to identify what prey they were feeding on. This could prove useful in future if the fish stocks change and effect the birds' breeding performance.

And as the evening light was so good I took some illustrative shots of the birds.

The whole experience was wonderful, such a busy, noisy, spectacle.

Ancient rocks 

I was up on Arkle last week, a mountain in the the north-west Highlands. This is a land of complex geology and marvellous landforms. The hill is topped by 500 million year old quartzite, laid down in shallow seas. 

Now it is 250m above sea level and forms a hard stony surface, breaking down into screes and coarse nutrient-poor soils - a desert like place.

Few plants can gain hold and find a niche to live on these wind-scoured tops, but here a single bud of Thrift comes into bloom amongst the sharp rocks.

Water has collected on part of the lower plateau forming a lochan which shines blue in the white landscape, due to the nutrient poor water and few plants or animal life that can live in it.

5000 UP


There have now been over 5000 visitors to this blog. It is actually much more but the counter was down for a while.

Thanks to all who have shared.

Stuart

Dead eagle chick

While checking golden eagle breeding success this week Derek Spencer (above) and I found this dead chick in one eyrie. It had died when about three days old, which would perhaps fit with how long it could live off the nutrients held its yolk sac post hatching. Had it died due to insufficient food being brought to it by its parents, or was it a sickly bird from hatch? The body will be analysed for clues to what happened. The chick's head and feet had been eaten, by an adult bird, or some scavenger? 

Several of the eagle nests we checked were empty. There has been a prolonged period of cold, snowy, northerly winds this spring and perhaps this has caused some birds to abandon their breeding attempts for this year. 

Ptarmigan nest sites

Rock Ptarmigan in Scotland usually nest close to boulders, which probably reduces the risk of detection by predators as their cryptically patterned plumage merges well with the colour and form of the lichen-covered rock. It was wet, in low cloud yesterday and this bird's back was covered with pearls of moisture.   

There are few human artifacts in the ptarmigan habitat of the high ground in the Highlands, but one such is the erection of snow-fences at the ski-resorts. And these decay over the years. I have known several ptarmigan nests to be placed near these, presumably for shelter from predators, but possibly also from wind, rain and snow. There are two such nests in my study area this year.One is at the base of an upright but partially broken fence.

Another nest was placed under a section of fallen fence. Both birds sat still, confiding in their camouflage for protection.

Golden Eagle paper

A scientific paper of which I am a co-author has been accepted for publication by the journal Ornis Fennica.

Adam Watson, Stuart Rae & Sandy Payne: Mirrored sequences of colonisation and abandonment by pairs of Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos.

As the summary states:
'We report colonisation by extra breeding pairs of Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos, and
subsequent abandonments, in part of northeast Scotland during 1895–1985. The number
of pairs rose from three in 1895–1937 to eight by 1948, and then fell to four during 1959–
71 in reverse of the colonisation sequence. This fits the concept of hierarchic quality of
habitat used, or of bird quality. Possible mechanisms to explain this are discussed.'


This is now available for view in the online early page of their website: http://www.ornisfennica.org/ornisfennica.org/early.htm 

Mixed Spring 

This Spring in Scotland has been mostly cold with a long run of northerly winds. There was a warm spell earlier though and this well-grown leveret has escaped the worst weather.

A colony of common gulls nesting on the Aberdeenshire hills have done less l, as this clutch of abandoned eggs shows. The nest was abandoned during a snow storm which has covered the eggs, and since then  one of the eggs has been eaten.

 Meanwhile, these house martins are busy collecting mud for their nests. Taking advantage of the wet  weather.

New book out

http://www.langford-press.co.

uk/Eagle%20Days.htm
My new book on eagles has just arrived from the printers and is now available from Langford Press. http://www.langford-press.co.uk , and also Amazon, Borders etc.

That was the plug. As for content, what do you get. Well, I have tried to portray my experiences and knowledge of golden eagles and their ecology in the Scottish Highlands, using words and photographs all taken by myself. This is not a dry academic text, nor is it a coffee-table book. Rather, using the high quality production of Langford Press, and modern styling, the book gives a feel of what it is like to walk hundreds, thousands of miles over many years, let's say about forty years, studying golden eagles. I have shared the Highlands with these birds; the weather, the scenery and all that is there. And I have collected a long run of scientific data, with the results published in academic journals. Eagles are an integral part of the Highland ecology, and in this book I have tied together various strands of the one and the whole.

          The nictitating membrane flicks across an eaglets eye. Photographed at 1/800th of a second.

On still mornings, eagles will simply sit on a highpiont and watch for prey, only rising in the sky when the wind rises.

Meanwhile, I am currently busy in the Highlands, studying eagles, the story never stops......

Wedge-tailed eagles

Yesterday while I out in the local woods, I heard grunting, muffled, barking calls. So I crept on quietly, expecting to find some mammal lurking in the shrubbery, but no. There were a pair a wedge-tailed eagles sitting in adjacent trees, calling to one another.

Eagles are normally quiet birds, or thought  to be, but I have been close to quite a few and have heard such muffled barking calls before; by golden and wedge-tailed eagles. They are probably thought to be quiet birds because people are seldom close enough to hear them.

These birds had obviously not long finished eating something as both their bills were red with blood. But it must have been a small prey item as their crops were not full. Adult Wedge-tailed eagles have a fine golden nape similar to the golden eagle, of Europe, Asia and North America. Their wedged tail forms a distinctive long pointed shape when the birds are perched.

This bird was probably the male as it was the smaller one, and its feet can be seen to be quite small in this photograph - females are larger and usually have large thick talons. The long central tail feathers droop down when in level flight. I often wonder on their purpose, do they help the birds steer through the canopy? For these are birds of open woodland and landscape with scattered trees.

There was no point in me hiding as both birds had obviously seen me. So I grabbed a few quick images as the male flew off through the trees - the nictitating membrane closing over his eyes as he squeezed through the branches.

Big rain

It has been raining here for a few days now, with more than 100mm down in March so far. It's raining again now and more to come. That should see us with 200mm for the month, by the 4th.

 Scrivener Dam, like all the dams around here is overflowing.

 Better to keep clear

 Well clear

 Power

 Picturesque power

 Lots of flooding

The darters still have big chicks in their nests, not many fish being brought in though...

New website

I have opened a new website at http://sites.stuartrae.com/  or just click on the website link on the right.

I would be grateful for any comments on layout, content, usefulness, favourite image, etc.. I would especially like to know how it appears on various devices, as I know iOS corrupts the layout no matter what I do to set the gadgets, text or inserts.

Please send any comments to the associated email address which is stuart@stuartrae.com .

Thanks for your interest and help.

Stuart

Banding birds

I was helping John Rawsthorne catch and band birds last weekend at the Weddin Mountains. It was the end of the breeding season and many of the birds we caught were young of the year. Or like the rainbow bee-eater above were adults worn out after their efforts - literally as this bird shows with its tatty plumage and broken tail-streamers.

This red-browed firetail was identifiable as a bird of the year because the red in its brow was incomplete

- the adult birds have a thick brush stroke across their brow.

There was a family party of grey butcherbirds in the area, this is one of the adults.

They have a particularly sharp hook on the tip of their bill for picking up prey, mostly invertebrates, but also small skinks and young birds if they can catch them. That is my skin on the tip.

                               Another predator made an appearance - a goanna ( lace monitor lizard). 

 

It was nice and quiet as it walked through the camp, still a youngster itself.