Monday 2 March 2015

The bunting are out

Up to four snow buntings have been on Oronsay the last few weeks. I managed to get these close ups the other week of two picking through old silage.



There are signs that spring could be just around the corner on the island. Skylarks have started building in number the last week. I even saw some singing and displaying earlier in the week when the sun was out. A couple of gales have up an end to it for now.


Sunrise on a rare calm weather day. This is the view from my kitchen window. Looking towards Jura and Islay. The paps of Jura have still got loads of snow/hail over them.


Peregrine falcon over territory.


The exciting visitor this past week has been this juvenile Iceland gull. Really surprised that this is the first of the year considering the Northerlies and Westerlies we've been having. A real treat to see one of these white winged Arctic breeders on the island.


Great Northern divers have also been pushed closed to shore with the winds. Will start coming into breeding plumage soon. I've noticed a few black guillemots close in as well, already in summer plumage.


Meanwhile, I quite like the winter nights......



Sunday 1 March 2015

Lutra lutra

Last weekend we took part in the beached bird survey. This meant walking at coastline of Oronsay searching for any seabirds that had washed ashore. The survey is coordinated across the UK on the same dates to help build up a picture of seabird casualties and any underlying causes such as oil spills etc.

Our search of Oronsay turned up no beached seabirds, which is fantastic and a wonderful contrast to last year when we found several birds ashore.

While surveying the East coast of Oronsay I was fortunate enough to have a female otter and her young cub emerge from the sand dunes not 10 meters away from me.
 




The mother went into the shallows and called the pup out. After it went into the water they then foraged around the rocks for 20 minutes or so. I watched from the dunes before leaving them to it.




Really quite the privilege. I spent a lot of time last winter on Oronsay trying to get good views of otters. I've been having better success this year, sheer determination and spending more time out and about is the key. And with sights like this, absolutely worth it.