What a difference just a spindly electric fence can make - all of the following pictures were taken by Ken Crossan in June 04 and show that even with a very basic defence a whole range of watery stuff can actually produce some young.  2009 will go down as one of, if not the worst breeding seasons since the pool was developed in 1989 - I hope 2010 with a brand new (de)fence will herald the beginning of a whole new era for waders and waterbirds.

Mute swan and cygnets / St. John's Pool - 04

Gadwalls and Black-headed gull chicks/ St. John's Pool - 04

Little grebe and chick on nest / St. John's Pool - 04

Teal and ducklings/ St. John's Pool - 04

Tufted duck and 1 of 8 ducklings / St. John's Pool - 04

Coot on nest/ St. John's Pool - 04

2009 is going down as just a continuation of the progressively more disastrous breeding seasons of recent years. The sight of a mere handful of Arctic terns hanging around and the Black-headed gull ‘colony’ reduced to a feeble shadow of its former self is as depressing as ever.  It’s been another open season for foxes, crows and otters - and as usual havoc has been wreaked on most ground and pond nesters.

BUT THINGS ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE!

I hope to announce within the next few months that a high specification predator proof fence is in place ready well in advance for the 2010 breeding birds.  As well there will be some serious landscaping undertaken, designed to give maximum opportunity for terns and waders to nest successfully.  Other works are also envisaged which will unfortunately necessitate closing access to the hide temporarily - so please check the website regularly.

There has been some action this month but nothing much in the migration/rarity line:

Lapwings /Redshank / Curlew all somehow seem to still have chicks but the ever present predators means I haven’t actually seen any wader chicks at all!?  Maybe only 1 or 2 pairs of each maximum.
Snipe - don’t seem to be nesting again which is a massive change from a few years back when there were 3 or more birds drumming throughout the summer
Cuckoo 1 - 27/5 and still around on 3/6
Teal 1f + brood of 5 on 27-5
Shoveler pair - 27/5
Spotted flycatcher - 27/5
Common redpoll -  15 & 16/5

Common redpoll / 16/5/09

Arctic terns arrived earlier and in greater numbers than recent years - and there might be an explanation in the pic below.  Food?  Sandeels of the right size has been the problem for auks, and terns trying to breed in northern Scotland for some time now.  The effect has been disastrous with chicks simply starving to death.  Let’s hope this is a promising sign.

Latest on the pool:

Black-tailed godwit - male ssp. islandica (left) on 14/5

Black-tailed godwit - 14/5
Sedge warbler 1 - 14/5
Garganey - 13/5

Barn owl on 13/5

Barn owl - 13/5 and 10/5
Whimbrel 2 - 13/5

Arctic tern with sandeel - 11/5 Wendy Sutherland

Arctic tern ca. 50 - 10/5
Dunlin 17 - 10/5
Pinkfeet 150 - north on 10/5
Sand martin ca.100 - on the loch on 10/5
Greater scaup 1f - 10/5
Greater scaup 1m - 9/5

By end of April I’d expect (in a good year) lapwings to have chicks; black-headed gulls to be on eggs and little grebes on their 5th nest at least. None of this has happened.  Lapwings have nested and been predated so it’s second brood for one pair and the other pair have only just laid; black-headed gulls have not settled because our friend Mr Otter’s doing the rounds… which is good news for the Little grebes because they haven’t been bothered by BH gulls nicking their nests - so they’re still on their first - and the otter’s not found them… yet.  So glad I’m not a ground/pond nesting bird.

The scores:
Mute swan - on eggs
Moorhen - on eggs
Little grebe - on eggs
Oystercatcher - maybe nesting
BH gulls - only 10 pairs and none settled
Teal - 2 or 3 pairs
Tufted ducks - 20+ coming in to roost

Latest stuff:
Greater scaup 1m on pool 28/4
Great skua 1 over pool on 29/4
Arctic tern 1 over pool on 30 April

Goldfinch / St. John's 28/4/09

Goldfinches have only bred once at St. John’s but a pair are hammering the niger seeds and have been for a few weeks - so maybe they’ll stay?  Also siskins have been very much in evidence recently.

Dunnet Head on fire 15/04

Birdwatching sort of took a back seat for a few days as the community watched the worst heath fire ever on Dunnet Head advance eastwards against the breeze for four days.  Eventually a rebel squad of firefighters (average age over 60!) prevented the blaze torching Brough. Fortunately the resident grouse and most migrant breeders won’t have chicks yet so there will be plenty of time to raise a brood once the peat cools down.

Difficult to explain but from not being sure what I was seeing back in November 08, to watching a major migration of Larus argentatus argentatus go past the window on 17 April, seems kind of unreal.  Either I’ve been completely oblivious to previous 20 years of gull movement or this is in fact something new in Caithness?  Whatever, 200 spiralled up in a thermal and drifted kind of west then north, then dispersed and later well over a hundred were in a field to west of the loch following a tractor.  Many more were at the east end behind another tractor and birds went north through the day past the house.  In total I’d guess over 300 which is ten times the previous record from February this year.  Quite amazing.  Day count at St. John’s:

Herring gull ‘argentatus’ ca. 300
Lesser black-backed gull ‘intermedius’ 2
Sandwich tern 1
Sand martin 33
Barn swallow 1
Greater scaup 2
Pochard 1
Pink footed goose 70 - north west at dusk
Black headed gull 100 - double the numbers of recent weeks
Mute swan pair - nesting in front of hide now
Little grebe pair - on eggs now
Moorhen pair - on eggs now

Take one boring field …just add water… and wait.  Twenty years ago St. John’s Pool filled up for the first time - and nothing much happened …for a day.  On 9 April the first bird arrived - it was a greenshank, which was a bit special. For one thing it’s a wader - for another it’s probably been to Africa - which is good because migration is something that birdwatchers like to see - and on 9 April twenty years ago I was watching migration right in front of the house.  And I remember thinking, “this could be good”.   Twenty years on …I don’t think I’m disappointed the way it’s turned out.

Greenshank / Caithness - Ken Crossan

There have been so many amazing memories over the years, and who knows, today there might be another greenshank drop in, as they have done almost every year since. But if not, there’s still plenty of interest and many regular species that feature now, didn’t appear on the pool for a long time after it came into being.  Today’s specials:

Shoveler 1m
Wigeon 15
Teal 3 or 4 pairs
Tufted duck 2 pairs
Mallard 8
Little grebe pair
Mute swan pair - nest building for first time ever in front of the hide - and possibly on eggs now.
Lapwing 3 pairs with one pair sitting on eggs since 6 April
Redshank 2 or maybe 3 pairs
Oystercatcher 1 or 2 pairs
Moorhen pair
Grey heron 1
Black headed gull 30
Common gull 2 pairs

Busy couple of days with visible migration in evidence and breeding activity hotting up.

Pinkfeet / over St. John's Pool - 3/4

Slavonian grebes, Greater scaup and tufted ducks / St. John's Loch 3/4

Pinkfeet ca700 - over last few days
Red throated diver 2 - displaying 2/4
Slavonian Grebe 2 - displaying on loch 3/4
Little grebe pair - nest building
Mute swan - nest building(?) in front of hide
Whooper swan 20 - arrived late 2/4 and probably headed north overnight
Golden plover 2 or 3  on 3/4

Pinkfeet /St. John's Loch 26/03/09

Spring’s kicked off again after a few days of pretty grim weather which culminated in a bracing northerly force 6-7 with snow flurries over 27/28th. Pinkfeet have been slowly building up in numbers around the loch and a flock of ca.500 may have moved on north with the southerly breeze picking up this morning.

Stonechat / Weydale 28/3/09

This is just an excuse to slap in a photo I took yesterday - but not at St. John’s.  The more you watch nature the more you realise we know virtually nothing about what’s going on. Could have been anywhere in Caithness (and Stonechat’s have moved in up the road) but this guy and his mate were ‘flycatching’ off a fence into a force 5 northerly with snow showers. How?  But more to the point - why?

In the last couple of days the influx of birds onto the pool has been quite significant:

On 11 March the first Little grebe arrived along with the first wave of:
Black headed gulls - 25
Common gull - 3
Curlew – 2 displaying
Redshank  - 1
Also:  Wigeons (30); Teal (10); Mallard (25); Tufted duck (2); Oystercatchers (2) on platform and the lone(?) wintering Moorhen.

Today Black headed gulls have risen to (50); Moorhens (2); Grey heron (2); Little grebe (1) and Mute swans (3) … and of course the inevitable ‘turf war’ kicked off.  Trouble is it’s almost impossible to work out who actually wins these scraps unless the birds are marked somehow.  Anyway one of the boys eventually took the honours and presumably that’s it …until a bigger lad rocks up.

3-headed-swan? Mutes scrapping for the King of the Pond title.