Tuesday 5 July 2011

Rooks and terns

Living next to a rookery and large corvid roost is an interesting if sometimes noisy existence.Counting them in the other evening I was surprised by just how many there are roosting at the moment, 1477 and 127 Jackdaws. We'd noticed them "snoring" a few weeks ago and last night I listened carefully and what was apparent was they are synchronised snorers. But for desperate slowness of our upload speed the video would be posted with this. I must look this up in BWP and find out a bit more.



I went to look at the Skiba Geo Arctic Terns the other evening and found to my surprise that a small number were back on the colony. Careful inspection revealed no eggs or young but they were behaving like freshly arrived birds, displaying and staking out claims.


These photos were taken at Skaill where ten or so seemed to be defending a phantom colony on the beach. It has been a very poor year for this species here. I understand the Northumberland ones are faring better.
Skaill Bay

I wandered up on the moor yesterday and found my route littered with Common Blue butterflies.Onto the side of the Kame of Corrigall and across the moor where I flushed a couple of Red Grouse one of which had chicks, proof of breeding for The Atlas.

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