The Juvenile Birder

Dapper Drakes! After a 4 hour drive, we arrived at RSPB Vane Farm at around 9:00am, spotting a Fox when we were stopping for petrol at our local ASDA along the way! We were with Kristian and Carl and our target bird was a rare Bufflehead. We made our way along the Loch Leven Heritage Trail until we arrived at a sandy beach with a fence. We met some other birders, including Brook, who pointed out the Bufflehead , which was quite distant, but clearly distinguishable amongst the  Goldeneye which it was with. It continued to dive while we were there, making it hard to get a record shot, but it was a great bird to see in the UK. Satisfied with our views, we made our way back to the visitor centre to look for the resident Red Squirrels. Once we had arrived at the visitor centre, we saw that a Red Squirrel was on a feeder that was being filmed by a live camera. We asked a warden for directions to the feeder, and immediately set off. As soon as we arrived at the feeder, we spotte...

The King of Garden Birds! We set off at 3:30am in hopes of seeing a mainland Myrtle Warbler in Kilwinning. The last mainland Myrtle Warbler in the UK was ten years ago, so this was quite a special bird.  As soon as we arrived, we met Kristian who pointed out the Myrtle Warbler  straight away feeding on the feeders. We also met Wayne who was there for seconds of the bird.  The Myrtle Warbler  was much bigger than I expected, and its prominent white wingbars stood out when I first saw it. It stayed on the feeders for quite a while, before it started chasing away the Blue Tits  and the Great Tits . There was plenty of food in the bird feeders in the garden, but the Myrtle Warbler was too busy chasing off birds. The only birds it didn't chase were those larger in it, which included the  Song Thrushes and the Blackbirds . Suddenly, as I watched the Myrtle Warbler  through by binoculars in the trees, a female Siskin appeared from behind but it too got chase...

Scarcities in Scotland We arrived at Slamannan at around 10:00am in hopes of seeing the wintering flock of Taiga Bean Geese. As soon as we arrived, while driving, we noticed a flock of around 40 Taiga Bean Geese  in a field north of Shortrig Farm. They were quite distant, so I patiently waited for them to come out into view! After a bit of time I managed to get some digiscoped images of them and with loads of light left, set off to Broadwood Loch. We arrived at Broadwood Loch at around 11:00am in hopes of seeing my first drake Smew. Immediately, we noticed a lot of common waterfowl, like Canada Geese , Mute Swan and Coot , but there were also lots of Tufted Duck , Goldeneye  & Goosander  as well as some distant Wigeon . After a bit of scanning, we spotted the drake Smew  far out. We got some images of it and then left, on a high, to Newshot Island in hopes of seeing another scarce bird. We arrived at Newshot NR at around 12:00pm in hopes of seeing an American Wig...