Birding Ecosse Blogspot

Welcome to the Birding Ecosse blog, if it is your first visit then thank you very much for dropping in!

This blog will follow all my trips and tours, so if you have been out with me recently the chances are very high you will make an appearance! Most of the pictures on the blog are my own, however if I do use third party pictures I will have obtained their permission and will give them full credit.

It is designed to be a light hearted read to show how and where Birding Ecosse operates, so if you are thinking of booking a tour check out this Blog and my Blog Archives and then read through the Testimonials and you should get a flavour of what to expect! Great Birds, Great Scenery with Coffee and biscuits thrown in!  Please note: All  birds will have been viewed in a safe and environmentally accepted way, that is to say by using public access at all times or by the use of hides specifically erected for the observation of this species and by keeping at a safe distance and viewing through telescopes. Remember you can keep in touch via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/dslaterbirdingecosse 

So sit back and enjoy the read, any feedback is appreciated.

Keep safe and keep Birding

Dave

It’s all in the beak!

Spending time photographing waders on my local coastline always throws up something interesting, on this occasion it was Oystercatchers roosting and feeding on the rocks.

One bird caught my eye, or more accurately, the bill of one bird caught my eye.  It was “just a normal” Oystercatcher but the bright orange beak had a distinctly flat end, see picture below.

The “Hammer Billed” Oystercatcher

The bird above is classed as a “Hammer billed Oystercatcher” it uses this adapted bill to chisel limpets and other Mollusc off the rocks.

The second type of bill shape is the “Stabber billed Oystercatcher” shown on the bird below

The “Stabber Billed Oystercatcher”

The bill shape of the “Stabber Billed Oystercatcher” allows the bird to probe in sand and soft mud looking for prey.

Now when Oystercatchers hatch they do not have a predetermined bill shape, this is influenced by their parents, birds that feed on rocks will develop Hammer bills and mud/sand feeders will develop Stabbing bills.  But this is where it gets interesting, young and immature birds may change feeding techniques and as such they may change their bill shape.  However once they become adults they very rarely change feeding/bill styles.

So next time you spy some Oystercatchers have a look at their bills and see which style you have!

October 2025 -Update

What a month it has been, so many great birds, great people and fantastic locations.  Overall it has been a very slow start to Autumn though, with just a trickle of winter thrushes and a lot of the sea ducks still to arrive it has been a non typical year.  However we still had some fantastic encounters.

Crested Tit

Red Grouse

Dunlin

Purple Sandpiper

Oystercatcher

10 October 2025

A fantastic start to our 4 day Autumn Special based at the fabulous Grant Arms Hotel. A bright but breezy day across at Loch of Strathbeg and the Aberdeenshire coast. Strathbeg was a brilliant stop with great views of Great and Little Egrets (both still a novelty this far North) Female Shoveler, 1000’s of Pink Footed Geese, 2 Barnacle Gees and 100+ Lapwing, Buzzard and Female Marsh Harrier. During the day we observed 100’s of first year Gannets feeding close to shore, a great sign for the species recovering after Bird Flu. But Highlight for the whole group was a Merlin (year bird 190) that flew along the coast and landed briefly giving us all exceptional views. a fantastic Day 1, three more to go! Interested in joining us on a tour?

Merlin (year bird 190)

Kinnaird Head Lighthouse and fishing net drying posts from the past.

A Breezy sea watch at Kinnaird Head

Curlew

Whooper Swans

01 October 2025

We had an absolutely fantastic experience today, after connecting with Crested Tit and Crossbill before 09:00 and a pair of Minke Whales feeding close to shore at Burghead we were treated to 5 Bearded Tits flying through the reed at a local nature reserve.  What I noticed is how low the birds kept, even though it was not windy, just above the water level, the other thing I noted (from my pictures) was they have a yellow eye!  Absolutely fantastic day.

Crossbill

Minke Whale

September 2025

Well it has been a while for this update to come along but I have finally got a day off to catch up with some admin!

It has been a great season so far, most of our local birds were successful with the local  Slavonian Grebes getting at least one chick to fledging.

Slavonian Grebes

And even better news with the Black Throated Divers getting two chicks away, the first successfully raised chicks for two years.

Black Throated Diver (adult)

I treated myself and Sandra and Val two victims with me at the time to a “twitch” for a rare North American Bonaparte’s Gull, we even picked up a Mediterranean Gull at the same location (no pictures of the Med Gull though!)  on the same trip we also had Grey Phalarope and a family party of Common Cranes, not a bad day out!

As you may have noticed I have a soft spot for Gannets, and this year has been an outstanding season for them, I have about 15,000 images to sort through, but that will be a job for a cold winters day when I’m not on tour.  I love this following picture just for the look on the young bird face….. it does not look impressed 🙂

At present my 200 year has stalled at 188, owing mainly to the fact I missed a good number of “sure fire” species on both my Norfolk trip, March Tit, Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker to name a few, I think I will top out at around 192, but it has been good fun trying again, and 2026 will be a much better year!

August 2025

See our latest update here:  August Update if you enjoy then please subscribe 🙂  Thank you.

May 2025

Woooooooooosh! What was that????  That my friend was May 2025!  A total of 21 days in the field, 23 Victims on tours and lots and lots of fantastic Birds.

Once again Gannets featured highly, this time at RSPB Troup Head, and the trips were both carried out by walking out to the Cliff tops and by sea using Guided Charters that sale from MacDuff with Harold on board the seacat, probably my favourite trips of the year.

Below are a sample of pictures taken on these trips, hope you enjoy.

April 2025 (so far!)

The fantastic birds just keep coming, below are some of the birds we have encountered so far this month:

The month started off at the beautiful RSPB Bempton Cliffs in the company of thousands of Gannets, an absolutely fantastic reserve.

March 2025 (so far!)

It has been a blistering month so far with some absolutely stunning birds, observed if beautiful Scottish Spring weather (with Snow storms as you would expect 🙂 ) and exceptionally nice victims!  What could be better!

Below is a small snapshot of some of the things we have connected with in recent weeks:

March is well into the Dipper breeding season, we have been really fortunate to have had multiple sightings at multiple locations this year, even hearing them give the mixture of chirpy and bubbly call. On the lower picture above you can see the bird preparing a snack, shaking the caddis fly larvae out of its protective shell.

Our local Eider Duck males are looking resplendent in their breeding garb, one of my favourites to photograph not only do the look stunning their call always raises a smile.

It is always nice when an unexpected bird turns up and this female Long Tailed Duck was one of those. Its face is just darkening up as it moves into breeding plumage, I wonder if a male will turn up and give such a fantastic show!

Turnstones are sometime overlooked by birders, a bit of a “bread and butter” bird, but next time just take a minute to appreciate their plumage, especially at this time of year when they start showing for breeding plumage, the lower picture shows some of the “ruddy” brown feathers showing, which lead to the birds full name of “Ruddy Turnstone”

Coming towards the end of their season it is always nice to catch up with a Snow Bunting or two, this year they have performed well giving some great shows, the numbers were beginning to fade away but a late spell of heavy snow on the mountains brought them all back to their usual winter grounds where they feed on seeds left out by the photographers!

Whilst not being a rare duck the early spring sunshine just illuminated this Eurasian Teal, one of my favourite ducks (second only to Mr Eider)

Roosting Sanderling

Redshank, Knot and Turnstone sharing a roost

Redshank

Purple Sandpipers braving the waves

Oyks in display mode “Piping”

Waders were one of the many highlights up here on the Moray Coastline, many getting ready to head north to their breeding grounds, whilst other made their way up into the Scottish Glens and lochs to breed, I real sight and sound of Spring.

Another bird that birders skim past is the common, always around somewhere, Mallard, this was a roosting male and once again the iridescence on the head feathers is just beautiful.

Whenever you are near a sizeable chunk of water you will hear a loud trilling “whinnying” call, another sound of summer, and the culprit?  This little Grebe looking dapper now in its full breeding regalia.

And finally, just sitting outside the March roundup (actually seen at the very end of February) one of the “big ones” the Golden Eagle, this picture is pretty well cropped to death, but through the binos it was an breath taking encounter.

So that’s us caught up, if any of this has whetted your appetite then go to our tour pages here Birding Ecosse – Birdwatching tours throughout the highlands have a peruse, if anything takes your fancy then just get in touch, I look forward to speaking with you.

February 2025

Your new tour vehicle a spacious and comfortable Peugeot 5008, air conditioned, three full seats in the rear a top notch tour vehicle!