Keep an eye out around the two minute mark for the big feast.
Burray is one of the Southern isles on the East side of Scapa Flow linked to the Orkney Mainland by the Churchill Barriers. I have been living on Burray since August 2012 and this blog is about the birds (and other wildlife) seen around island. Birds listed in BOLD are my first sightings of the year on Burray and UNDERLINED my first sightings of the year on Orkney.
Sunday, 15 February 2015
Gotcha Part 2
I mentioned in my last post that I had some video footage of the Water Rail. I have now managed to get it off of the video camera and on to the computer. I hope you enjoy it.
Keep an eye out around the two minute mark for the big feast.
Keep an eye out around the two minute mark for the big feast.
Spring is coming - honest
As I sit here typing this the wind out side is gusting 40+ mph, that's Force 7 gusting 8 so it is hard to believe that Spring is rapidly approaching. However, wind permitting you only have to look and listen outside to find it is true.
The Daffodils are starting to appear and we already have one flower in bloom outside the kitchen window. This afternoon I noticed a purple coloured Crocus has appear in the lawn with signs that there are more to come.
The last few mornings when setting off to work returning Oystercatchers could be heard in the fields around the cottage and yesterday morning I heard my first Skylark of the year just before daybreak singing away.
Talking of daybreak, the days are also getting noticeably longer with dawn around 7am and dusk just before 6pm meaning that with nearly 11 hours of daylight it won't be long before we have more daylight than darkness.
I've not been doing much birding over the last couple of weeks, the number of blackbirds has started to drop although there are still a few about the garden. House Sparrow numbers have increased with 18 in the garden yesterday.
The Water Rail was still present in the garden last Thursday (12 Feb) when my good lady spotted it in the pond.
I have now added a Firewire card to my new PC so I can download the video footage of the Water Rail from my video camera (still using a tape camera) and upload it onto the blog so keep your eyes out for that.
The Water Rail has certainly got a lot of attention on social media, having posted pictures of it on both Facebook and Twitter, it has been liked and shared by over a hundred people and has even ended up being featured on the Garden Bird News page of the Wildlife Habits website: In my garden: Water Rail
If you spot any birds starting to build nests or sitting on nests around Burray then please let me know.
The Daffodils are starting to appear and we already have one flower in bloom outside the kitchen window. This afternoon I noticed a purple coloured Crocus has appear in the lawn with signs that there are more to come.
The last few mornings when setting off to work returning Oystercatchers could be heard in the fields around the cottage and yesterday morning I heard my first Skylark of the year just before daybreak singing away.
Talking of daybreak, the days are also getting noticeably longer with dawn around 7am and dusk just before 6pm meaning that with nearly 11 hours of daylight it won't be long before we have more daylight than darkness.
I've not been doing much birding over the last couple of weeks, the number of blackbirds has started to drop although there are still a few about the garden. House Sparrow numbers have increased with 18 in the garden yesterday.
The Water Rail was still present in the garden last Thursday (12 Feb) when my good lady spotted it in the pond.
I have now added a Firewire card to my new PC so I can download the video footage of the Water Rail from my video camera (still using a tape camera) and upload it onto the blog so keep your eyes out for that.
The Water Rail has certainly got a lot of attention on social media, having posted pictures of it on both Facebook and Twitter, it has been liked and shared by over a hundred people and has even ended up being featured on the Garden Bird News page of the Wildlife Habits website: In my garden: Water Rail
If you spot any birds starting to build nests or sitting on nests around Burray then please let me know.
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