Fun on the Ythan

Just got back from a very brief visit to Aberdeenshire. We stayed in the village of Newburgh, on the Ythan estuary, a mere 370 miles from St Helens! I only really had one day birding, though we did spend some time at Balmoral on the way up on Saturday, and saw a few bits and pieces there, such as several Common Sandpipers on the River Dee. Really nice birds, but it was the following day which I was really excited about, because the Ythan estuary is famous for it's flocks of Eider.

And it didn't let me down..... by 8am on Sunday, I'd found an adult drake King Eider at the mouth of the Ythan with very little trouble, and following the advice of a local birder, I'd even managed to pick out a potential Northern Eider (borealis) with its sails clear to see as it displayed to a female Eider. There were hundreds of Eiders at this magical place, as well as at least 200 Sandwich Terns, lots of Little Terns and a few each of Common and Arctic, and also about 50 Seals, a mixture of Common and Grey. Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast!

Out again at 9am, and by 10am I'd seen 1st summer Bonaparte's Gull higher up the river and five Dotterel at Collieston! I couldn't quite sustain the pace after that, and dipped on the White-billed Diver, one of five which has been at Portsoy, but I did at least get summer plumage Great Northern Diver and four Long-tailed Ducks there

We finished the day at Forvie Sands NNR and saw a few decent sea birds, including small colonies of Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake, Fulmar and Cormorant. Also on the reserve, a few Meadow Saxifrage, Cowslips, False Oxslips and masses of Crowberry.

The following day, we called in at the very disappointing Loch of the Lowes in Perthshire and had two painfully poor views of two Ospreys....

Photos include record shot of sleeping King Eider, lots of Common Eider (gold star to anybody who picks out a borealis from that lot), angry Cormorants, Meadow Saxifrage, False Oxslips and scenery shots from Forvie.