Mark's Project Miscellany

Fantastic to see this spotted flycatcher less than a mile from home. Bird 141 of the year and lifer 197...

#196 on the life list - just 4 to go for 200!

And the story doesn’t end there - the next day we climbed a Munro on Deeside, with the primary aim of Ptarmigan. Just as I approached the summit, with nary a Ptarmigan to be seen, I spied a pair of Golden Plover on the summit itself. A few other plover-like birds were scurrying around, and I assumed they were Goldies too. A couple of birders were approaching on a different path and we had a quick chat about our failed Ptarmigan hunt - they’d seen loads of course - and they headed off towards the summit to check out the Golden Plover. As we headed back to where these guys had seen the Ptarmigan, we heard a whistle from behind, and the other birders were waving at us - the other plover like birds were in fact Dotterel! 2 females and a male again, with a female preparing a nest right in the middle of the path... The romantic idea is that these are the same birds we saw the day before, but as these ones were due south west of the others it seems a bit unlikely. As they were preparing to nest we gave them a wide berth - after having a quick chat with some dog owners whose doggos were not on leads! Luckily they were happy to comply, especially after the saw where the birds were nesting. Dotterel - lifer #18 of the year, bird #136 for the year

The first woodworking project on here may not be particularly interesting, well constructed or easy on the eye, but it’s functional - a warped and otherwise useless bit of plywood turned into a little platform to capture some of the mess the goldfinches make as well as an attempt to provide somewhere for the bullfinches to feed. It kind of works I guess. Luckily, we don’t have much of a squirrel or cat issue round here.

My newest hobby, photography, goes hand in hand with one of my first loves, ornithology and naturalism. There’s a little nature reserve just down the road from where I work, and I’ve started taking my camera with me. This week I got a special surprise, these tawny owl chicks were staring down at me from a almost stereotypical hole in a dead tree trunk! The adult owl was keeping tabs on me from another tree. Lovely to see in broad noon daylight. I’ll be keeping tabs on how they do over the next week or so. They were also bird #121 for the year.