(Northern?) treecreeper at Creachan Woods, Barra

A grim day on Barra, with 45mph south easterly winds and at times heavy, soaking drizzle. You only had to be outside for 30 seconds and you were soaked. 

However there were drier spells and on one such occasion we found ourselves at Creachan woods where  we were reasonably well sheltered from the wind, allowing us to have quite a pleasant walk for 90 minutes or so before the rain set in again.

Treecreepers are just about annual on Barra so it was pleasing to be able to add one to our trip list today. Apparently this bird turned up in September but where it originates from is uncertain, it could be a migrant from Europe or perhaps it's a dispersing bird from the Scottish mainland.

Treecreepers Certhia familiaris are mainly resident throughout Europe, but the race C. f. familiaris from northern Europe does apparently migrate and a few do occur annually in the extremities of the UK, mainly in Shetland. 

Northern treecreeper is said to appear frosty on it's upperparts contrasting strongly with it's rufous rump. The underparts including the flanks are said to be bright silky white and the supercilium is bold, broad and white, including in front of the eye. There are other differences such as bill and hind claw length which I think tend to be longer in the northern bird, but neither of these are useful in this instance.

I think this bird does look quite frosty on it's back and the underparts look very white and I could easily imagine that it is a northern bird, but I didn't see the rump and although treecreepers do occasionally get caught and ringed at Creachan, I don't recall ever hearing of a northern treecreeper here. So it just gets added to the list of possibles, but no less interesting for that.

Two yellow-browed warblers have been in the wood for a few days and showed well today. They were quite vocal which always helps to locate them, in fact it's pretty much essential. 

Spot the yellow-browed.....now try photographing it.

These tiny birds are barely the size of a goldcrest and they flit through the trees losing themselves behind branches and leaves. Incredible to think where this bird has travelled from. Yellow-browed warbler breeds no closer than Siberia and it's range extends east into China. It's travelled thousands of miles to be here

With a wingspan of 2.4m, white-tailed eagle is at completely the opposite end of the spectrum to yellow-browed warbler, both in terms of size and distance travelled. Although immature eagles may roam around Scotland before settling on a territory, these birds will travel nothing like the distances of the warblers. 

It appears that the secret to seeing eagles is to wait for the rainiest, stormiest day. Today we saw four different individuals, two immatures at Creachan, an adult at Loch an Duin and a subadult at Eoligarry. When the weather was glorious last week, we struggled to see any.