THE ART OF BIRDING. (22/04/15)

I have moved to a place called The Clink in Glassharts Glen; it lies a mile or so northish of Auchtermuchty. I have been meaning to visit for ages and after leaving Kinross and the supermarket decided that it was as good a time as any. It was a quick run and only cost me about a pounds worth of diesel.

I have a set routine on arrival.

(1). Introduce myself and the dogs to the owners and enquire about a pitch and the cost of it.     

(2). Level up the van and connect it to power.

(3). Mount the weather station up on the roof.

(4). Set up the bird feeders.

(5). Take the dogs out as they have been plaguing my life away whilst I did the above.

           Here we are, feeders are up and to make sure they remain so you will notice they are lashed to a big steel spike. The weather is calm and scorchio at the moment but this being Scotland things could change in minutes. There isn’t much cover for the feeder visitors so I wasn’t expecting many and didn’t rig a perch for the natural look. I’d just settled down with a mug of tea after my labour when the first visitors flew over.

    A Buzzard escorted by a Woodpigeon. Thank heaven I remembered that Buzzards don’t like seeds and peanuts, the damage a thing that size would do to my seed stock doesn’t bare thinking about. I was hoping it would come closer but it flew away. It’s not a bad shot, it is face on.

   This is a Blue Tit. They are usually amongst the first to arrive and in this case the only arrival.

     The little yellow dot is a Yellowhammer sitting in barley shoots. It wouldn’t come any nearer but I wasn’t worried as I was prepared to wait for hours for it to come closer. We went a walk twelve hours later.

         Here it is singing in a tree.

       I cropped this. It flew away before I could get closer. I hope it is a Yellowhammer and not a Siskin. Common as muck are Siskins.

       Something else singing in a Gorse bush. What a day I had birding……Much more productive than usual……..I must be learning the art.

We were almost back to the van when I spotted this buck Roe Deer wandering along……..

      He looked a real picture in the early evening light.

     Then he saw us and at the same time I remembered that the dogs were off the lead. Shit…. Sit….. Stay…. Come Here You Little Sods. I was lucky it hopped a fence and then a wall, the little poppets managed to negotiate the fence somehow but were defeated by the wall so with ten minutes I’d got them back.

    It made for a quiet evening. Alf sleeping off and no doubt dreaming of the deer hunt.

I don’t know when this will get posted as I have no internet here. I will probably end up posting several at once. The next one is all about flowers. I bet you can hardly wait as my knowledge of flora is on a par with that of my expertise on ornithology.