Iceland

Five nights in Reykjavic with my girlfriend to enjoy the sights and
see in the new year. Naturally, my binoculars and camera found
their way into my hand luggage!
I managed to do a 'days' birding, more like four hours with the
available light, on the 31st Dec. The area we visited was Grunda-
rfjordur on the Snaefellness peninsula.


It was teeming with Birds. At the Fjord before Grundarfjorder, four
White-tailed Eagles were in the air, thousands of white-winged Gulls
of all manner, Seaducks and Waders, along with 800+ Snow Buntings
which lined the roads on the journey up from Reyjkavic.
We came up specifically to look for Orcas, unfortunately, we didn't
see them but i was more than compensated with 15 Harlequin Ducks
and a Gyrfalcon!

Snow Buntings

Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull

Harlequin Ducks

immature White-tailed Eagle

An interestingly marked Bird with well marked primaries

Wite-tailed Eagles

Iceland Gull

Gannets

Gyrfalcon

Iceland Gull

Black Guillemot

Northern Eider with Harlequins

Northern Eider with sails

Glaucous Gull

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

Geyser

Down town Reyjkavic

Gullfoss

the Blue Lagoon

Firth of Forth, Nov' 24th-25th 2012

An overnight stay with Andrew Bates near Aberlady Bay, produced some
some reasonably close views of a range of Seaduck. Velvet and Common
Scoters were seen well and in their hundreds, along with Long-tailed Duck,
Red-throated Divers and up to 40 Slavonian Grebes. Thousands of Geese
and Waders and with the weather just about holding out, we had an enjoyable,
weekends birding.

Goldeneye, around 200 were off Musselburgh

Red-throated Diver

Velvet Scoter

Guillemot

Long-tailed Duck

Red-throated Diver

Slavonian Grebes

Donna Nook Seals, 18th Nov' 2012

A day out with Bob Rawlinson to the Grey Seal colony at Donna Nook
in Lincolnshire. A superb day, with bright, sunny conditions and as always,
lots of obliging Seals.

Waxwings at Barrow, 10th-11th Nov' 2012

After an absence last winter the Waxwings have returned, with up to twenty four
seen at Barrow this week. I saw a max' of fifteen and the birds were as charming
and as popular as ever.

Willow Warbler and Long-tailed Duck

November 3rd, 2012, by far the latest Willow Warbler i've seen in the UK
and present for some time in the car park at Stocks Reservoir. The bird
seemed to have some kind of problem with it's throat and was constantly
gaping, possibly explaining it's prolonged stay.
The Long-tailed Duck showed quite well from the old hide and only my
second record for East Lancs. A small skein of Pink-feet flew over and
and the afternoon was rounded off nicely with a ringtail Hen Harrier on
surrounding moorland.

Willow Warbler

Pink-footed Geese

Long-tailed Duck

Hen Harrier