School of Birding, Class Four - November '24

Crested Tit in snowy Anagach 

 After a week of guest guiding and speaking, it was time for the real work to begin - School of Birding, Class Four! Another great group, and another wonderfully busy, bird-, learning- and fun-filled week, with a great many highlights along the way.

A beautiful, sunny, snowy day here in the #Highlands, with a focus on the forests for our School of Birding team - extended sessions with Crested Tits and Crossbills among the many highlights

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— Mark the Birder (@markthebirder.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 4:32 PM

A Robin hoping for Christmas Card stardom

November is one of - if not the - best time to enjoy the cream of Highland birding - the raptors are busy looking for food, and - as with other local specialities (Crested Tit, Black Grouse, Crossbills, etc) are often easier to find outside of the breeding season, the winter visitors from further afield have arrived (seaducks, divers, grebes, waders, geese....), and the days are still long enough to cram in lots of quality birding time.

Treecreeper

Varied weather is always a feature of birding in the Highlands, and this week was no different; we had the full range of conditions, but with our adaptable schedule, we always make the most of daylight hours, whether on the coast, in the forests, up in the hills or down the glens. We were blessed with (if you like that sort of thing, which we do!) a couple of proper snowfalls, resulting in spectacular scenes and memorable birding experiences.

For the first time on our Schools, we had a Snow Day (with all major and minor routes blocked), which resulted in us spending some quality time in Anagach woods, the lovely Caledonian Pine forest right behind the hotel; as it turned out, an absolutely wonderful session, with huge numbers of Redwings and Fieldfares roving through the snow-covered trees, Dippers on the river, and our best, prolonged views of Crested Tit of the week.

Redwing

Red-breasted Merganser and Kittiwakes on the coast

A few of the Greater Scaup close inshore off Jemimaville, Black Isle for our School of Birding group today - the last day of Class Four, and of last day guiding in 24 for me (of 81 days this year!)

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— Mark the Birder (@markthebirder.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 5:28 PM

More Kittiwakes, and Eiders on the coast

Golden (above) and White-tailed (below) Eagles - the photos don't do the views justice, but group views always take priority over the camera! 

Cresties in Anagach

Fieldfare (above) and Redwing (below) - many thousands enjoyed!

The Highlands, mid-November '24

The Moray coast - heavenly, as ever, and as birdy as always

For two weeks in November, I was once again back in the Highlands of Scotland, for the third time this year (after Schools of Birding in February and April). The second week was for another School (see next post), but before that, I had a week as guest guide and speaker at the hotel, a tradition I've been fortunate enough to maintain for the last seven years.

Masses of Fieldfares heading down the Findhorn Valley

For most of those years, this week at the hotel has been themed as Seaduck Week, and I once again had the pleasure of guiding the hotel guests to seaduck hotspots as well as giving a Seaducks of Europe talk to kick the week off.

Atlantic Salmon spawning in the river below

I had lots of downtime inbetween BWWC commitments and, with good (and often unseasonably mild) weather during the week, I roamed my favourite birding spots both inland and along the Moray coast (as well as getting in a lot of highly enjoyable trail-running in Anagach Forest, behind the hotel).

Kept it local here in #Grantown-on-Spey today - guided a lovely group in the morning, then a forest run in Anagach Woods this afternoon, during which huge numbers of Redwings and Fieldfares were funneling SW (and many v high Pink-feet) - wonder if there's a change in the weather coming... (!)

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— Mark the Birder (@markthebirder.bsky.social) November 16, 2024 at 6:22 PM

A late Barn Swallow perched up (with a European Starling) on a yacht in Lossiemouth harbour

The birding was great (as it always is up here at this time of year) and there were many highlights, a few included here. As well as the classic, iconic localised species, the most show-stealing highlights were provided by the massive numbers of winter thrushes.

Peregrine, just before a successful catch

More #raptor recon locally for our upcoming School of Birding and I was spoiled for Golden Eagles, with at least six individuals of all ages entertaining me through the day.... #UKBirds #UKbirding

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— Mark the Birder (@markthebirder.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 6:12 PM

Every day involved encounters with large flocks, and several days involved genuinely biblical numbers; during one particularly fabulous session in Strathdearn, I'd over 5,000 Fieldfares, including a megaflock of 2,500+.... as well as both Eagle species, and lots of other raptors - including a Peregrine that I watched smashing a Fieldfare out of the sky right above me.

#Raptor recon for our upcoming School of Birding today in my favourite local Highland glen - this beast of a Peregrine perched up close for a while before smashing a Fieldfare out of the sky and troughing it down shortly after..... #ScottishBirds #UKbirding

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— Mark the Birder (@markthebirder.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 3:32 PM

More thrushes (above), as watched by Red Deer (below)....

... and Red Squirrels

Wigeon at Lossiemouth

Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones and Oystercatchers enjoying breakfast at Hopeman on the Moray coast #seaduckweek #scottishbirds

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— Mark the Birder (@markthebirder.bsky.social) November 12, 2024 at 7:36 AM

Scarborough Harbouring aplenty

Test your skills! Slightly better (and more conclusive) images below, but these were the initial views of several species in South Bay, all distant and silhouetted. Click on images to enlarge. See how you did by scrolling down..... 

After a very pleasant few hours back at Filey, I randomly drove to Scarborough - the tide was incoming, the weather pleasant, and so a check of the harbour and surrounding areas seemed like a good idea.

Nothing in the harbour, but a scan of South Bay from the harbour wall revealed several interesting shapes.... the only problem being everything was silhouetted by a low setting sun. An entertaining challenge, and after a while I'd nailed pretty much everything out there, which included:

A Little Auk (first pic) fed actively, surfacing occasionally to consume small fish it'd caught on long, deep dives; a Puffin (second pic), eventually popping up close by before leaving east; a Slavonian Grebe (third pic), which occupied the most impenetrable line of blinding sunny sea for much of the session before drifting south on the waves; two close Great Northern Divers, which I guiltily ignored as they paraded their fishing skills right below me; plus lots of Red-throated Divers, Common Scoters, a Red-breasted Merganser, an Eider and more.

Puffin

A busy sea and a busy session, and a good choice before heading back to Flamborough for some family time.

Slavonian Grebe

Little Auk (above), Red-throated Diver (below)

Grey Heron, briefly alighting on the Castle wall

Turnstones and Purple Sandpiper

Filey, 28th Nov '24 - Lapland Bunting and more

Up on Carr Naze, meanwhile, an accommodating Lapland Bunting sneaked along the paths in the sunshine, while three Great Northern Divers made fly-bys (with another in the bay).