Autumn here

Black-legged Kittiwake

The resident Slaty-backed and Black-tailed Gulls have been joined by some others. Lots of Vega Gulls last weekend as well as these 2.

Glaucous Gull

There were also Whooper and Bewick’s Swans, various ducks, lots of Great Egret and this lone wader.

Spotted Redshank

Upstream there were a few salmon (but not many: hope this just means they’re late) and the first eagle of the season. Crappy pic but always nice to see the first one.

White-tailed Eagle

2019 Over

Black-legged Kittiwake

Another year almost over.

East of town one of the ports was full of Kittiwakes.

Black-legged Kittiwake

000’s of them but no Red-leggeds sadly.

Black-legged Kittiwake

The same influx happened 2 years ago at the same place.

Not much else around: White-tailed Eagle, Harlequin Duck, Glaucous-winged Gull, Black-necked Grebe……….

000’s of Kittiwakes

Black-legged Kittiwake

There were absolutely loads of Kittiwakes east of town today as well as seemingly equally large numbers of Common Gulls.

All the Kittiwakes that came close enough to ID were Black-legged. They were a scruffy bunch.

Black-legged Kittiwake

Hopefully they’ll stick around and I can find a Red-legged one.

Nasty weather but quite a few birds were present on the east coast around to Onuma: Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Peregrine, White-tailed and Steller’s Sea Eagles, Eastern Buzzard, Harlequin Duck, Red-necked Grebe etc. At Onuma it was very quiet in the late afternoon gloom but Smew and Goshawk were both around.

Black-legged Kittiwake

More autumn staples

Black-legged Kittiwake

There were about 100 Black-legged Kittiwake at Yakumo on Monday as well as 7 other species of gull around. The Kittiwakes are regular autumn visitors to the Pacific coast, sadly I couldn’t find any Red-legged ones.

Other stuff around included lots glocks of various ducks, Peregrine, Osprey, Common Kingfisher, Great Egret and Great-crested Grebe.

Black-legged Kittiwake

Upstream there are already plenty of Salmon gathering: the eagles will be here in 3 or so weeks…………..