Stonechats and tree pipits
Enjoyable few days birding in Aberdeenshire- brushing up on my warbler ID as well as a WeBS, woodland bird survey and some nest detecting. A few firsts for me too plus a couple of seals- as someone who doesn’t get to the sea very often I find seals quite exciting. You’ll notice a distinct lack of both bird and indeed, seal photos. Sorry.
After the woodland bird survey we set out to see if we could find some nesting stonechats. It seemed as though the nest thought to be there was no longer, and the birds had moved on so we spent a while watching a female yellowhammer collect nesting materials for her den inside a gorse thicket. Further along we did find a pair of stonechats (my first) but they were not showing any nest-building behaviour. Possibly the pair from the original territory.
The lovely scrubby habitat transformed into old, open woodland with some lovely oak and birch trees. Here we spotted a pair of tree pipits, displaying the same parachuting behaviour as their meadow counterparts that we had observed all morning. Another first for me!
