Moved to Barra on Monday but with the weather worsening I headed back to South Uist today for more wader action. Good views of presumably the same Long-billed Dowitcher from last month on The Range. Had a look at Balgarva this evening and picked up this juv White-rumped Sandpiper! #birdingscotland
Zak Spaull
@zspaull.bsky.social
Birder, naturalist & conservationist from North Wales.
Turning into a pretty good week in South Uist. Found this juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper at Penninerine this afternoon. #birdingscotland #rarebirdsuk
Nice to find this juvenile American Golden Plover on The Range this evening at the Nearctic wader vortex. #birdingscotland
Madness at The Range this afternoon finding Pectoral Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper and this juv Long-billed Dowitcher all in the same Golden Plover flock! #birdingscotland #rarebirdsuk
Have been keen to find an American Wigeon for ages now, so pretty happy to come across a new drake alongside the long stayer at Loch Bee, South Uist today. Good views of Lesser Yellowlegs on The Range too. #birdingscotland
Routine check of Shawbost beach this afternoon, wasn’t expecting the only duck in the bay to be a Surf Scoter. #birdingscotland
Wader passage has been a bit slow over the last 2 weeks on Lewis, so quite happy to find this Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Steinis this evening! #birdingscotland
Icky/melod fresh in along arable field margins near Slains Castle, Cruden Bay this evening. @birdguides.bsky.social #birdingscotland
2 Pom Skua & 18 Long-tailed Skua N past Neist Point, Skye 10:45 - 13:55 #birdingscotland
A relatively slow Winter season for scoters locally so far. Three Surfies over the last month, a 2w drake staying faithful to Porth Eirias and a drake+female pair initially off Llandulas before moving to the Old Colwyn flocks. Very few Velvets, no LTDs and poor numbers of large gulls! #birdingwales
A day looking at ducks down the Lleyn. This 1cy Sabine’s Gull at the Afon Dwyfor mouth wasn’t on my radar for 10th Dec! Yet another ‘why did I leave my camera in the car’ situation… #birdingwales
I had pretty much given up on passerines and switched to Winter birding early, so wasn’t really expecting to bump into this Red-breasted Flycatcher whilst checking the scoters in Lunan Bay. A Red-necked Grebe was offshore and the Tundra Bean Goose remains at St Cyrus. #birdingscotland #rarebirdsuk
Nice start to the day. Just found this Tundra Bean Goose along approach road to St Cyrus NNR. #birdingscotland #rarebirdsuk
Cracking flock of ‘trumpeting’ Northern Bullfinches along Tayock side of Montrose basin just now. At least 3 males and a female. #birdingscotland
Great views of European & Oriental Turtle Dove side by side at Hillwell, Shetland this evening. #birdingscotland #rarebirdsuk
The easterlies looked good so I headed up to Shetland last weekend. So far slightly dissapointing but enjoyable birding nonetheless, with lots of common migrants to keep the interest. Cool to see Northern Bullfinch and always nice bumping into YBWs and Sibe Chiffs. #birdingscotland
Good numbers of migrants over last couple days on Barra after a quiet week. Pleased to find this Red-breasted Flycatcher at Glen this morning (1 of 2 on the island). My first Yellow-browed Warbler of the year was a nice surprise in North Bay plantation yesterday. #birdingscotland #rarebirdsuk
First full day on Barra. Fantastic place and great to be on a new island. Common Rosefinch at Scurravel this afternoon the only find of note - hopefully more to come! #birdingscotland
Great birding in Western Ireland this week. Largely focused on waders but the seawatching was pretty good too. Highlights of Laughing and Sabine’s Gulls, Semipalmated and White-rumped Sandpiper, 2 American Golden Plovers, Glossy Ibis, Wilson’s Petrel, Long-tailed Skua and Great Shears. #irishbirding
Trabeg estuary: 2 ad AGP, 1 Glossy Ibis W end, Laughing Gull still E end. #irishbirding
After a fantastic season at Cemlyn, it was a welcome surprise to come home and see 2 Death’s-head Hawkmoth caterpillars devouring the garden potatoes this afternoon! (VC49) #teammoth
The season is over! Had an amazing time at Cemlyn with @zspaull.bsky.social this summer. This video I made covers some of the highlights along with a blog we wrote which is more in depth. Really excited about the future of the Roseate Terns at Cemlyn after the two pairs attempting this season 🐦
It’s the end of another season at Cemlyn! Thank you to Nick and Zak for their dedication and to everyone who visited and donated to the reserve this year, and to our volunteers for dedicating so much of their time to the terns this summer. 💙 www.northwaleswildlifetrust.org.uk/cemlyn-terns
Nice day out away from Cemlyn yesterday, visiting Joel at Gronant. We did pretty well, picking up 2cy Caspian Gull, juv Little Stint, Yellow Wag plus loads of waders including 220+ Blackwit. Dune Robberflies everywhere and Little Terns of course! #birdingwales
Steve Culley and I had this nice black-billed Arctic Tern at Cemlyn this morning. Cool looking bird! Any comments on origin appreciated. #birdingwales #rarebirdsuk
A surreal evening here at Cemlyn - at least 7 Roseate Terns. Our 2 pairs still present plus an additional 3 birds tonight. Incredible to see so many at once after no breeding records for over 30 years. #birdingwales #rarebirdsuk
Exciting times at Cemlyn currently. Whilst watching our long standing pair of Roseate Terns yesterday, another 2 birds dropped in nearby and lingered for the afternoon, displaying constantly! Two pairs would be pretty amazing… #birdingwales
Good first few days settling in as @northwaleswt.bsky.social Cemlyn Warden 2025. First 2 Common Terns back today plus Tree Pipit over and 3 Groppers yesterday. Looking forward to the next 4 months! #birdingwales
Spring picking up here marks the end of my near daily checks of the Scoters between Colwyn Bay and Llandulas. A great year for Surfies with one female, two 2w drakes and potentially three adult drakes. Also 20+ Velvets, 2 Long-tailed Ducks, 1w Caspian Gull and a January Sandwich Tern. #birdingwales
Anglesey today: 4 Black Redstarts, 8+ Wheatear, 7 Twite, 100+ Mipit, 3 Puffin at South Stack first thing. 4 Swallows + Hooded Crow on The Range. 2 Slavs off Penrhos, 1w drk LTD + 4 Scaup at Inland Sea. Lap Bunt, LRP, 4 Ruff, 2 Bitterns at Cors Ddyga. Kumlien’s Gull on the way back too. #birdingwales