Goldeneye but not James Bond.

            

On Monday night we had word that there was a very rare duck near us, well I say near us it was about 40 miles away at a place called Callander.  The weather on Monday night was dreadful heavy rain and wind so we did not really think we would be going on Tuesday.  When we got up on Tuesday morning it was a lovely sunny morning so we decided to make the trip.  We made good time the roads were quiet, and the sun was still shining when we arrived which gave us very good light.  There were a few other birders about when we arrived but the duck had moved  . The place where the duck had settled was a river that had flooded fields.  We had a walk down the road a bit in the direction the bird had flown and set up our equiptment to see if we could find him.  I say him because we had been told it was a  drake. After a few minutes I picked the bird up in my binoculars just a short way off .  The picture I have put at the top is of one male Barrow's Goldeneye and one Goldeneye.  Goldeneye winter with us every year but a Barrow's is very rare and much saught after. The Barrows is the one with the larger white patches on his face. Also in the picture are three females.  The Barrows Goldeneye was very much fancied by the ladies and always had one or two with him all the time we were there. This sighting was great for us as we have been looking for one of these ducks for many years. Every time we see Goldeneye we always check them all out to see if there is a Barrow's with them.  He is a bit off course just now he should be in Canada for the winter.  After lunch we had lovely run home round Loch Earn on the quietest roads I have ever seen in that area.  All in all a super day out.
Bye for now.                    


                                     Joan.

Look out below.

Good Afternoon, I missed a big event in our garden this morning as it was a cold and wet morning I walked round for the daily paper as I like walking in the rain.  While I was out a Sparrowhawk came and landed on our fence at the bottom of the garden.  Stuart was in the kitchen taking his medication and saw all this happening.  He said it came up from behind the fence sat for about a minute had a good look round and was off at the blink of an eye and I missed it. Teach me to be nice and  go for a paper. We had a Tawny Owl last year and we both missed that just got report from next door.  I think our little birds on the table had better watch out with a Sparrowhawk about.  We have a very big nasty Robin this year too that will not let any of the birds feed they have to wait till he goes elsewhere before they can feed.
Was reading the last report from Loch Garten this morning and the  Ospreys have been very good this year they raised 3 chicks which is excellent well above the norm.  They left for there winter holidays on 4th September so they will now hopefully be sunning themselves in Africa.  It will be 3 years before these chicks will return to breed so we wish them well. That's it for just now all is very quiet up here just now but we did see a lovely Kingfisher the other week just to keep us interested.
Total for the year is now 181.

                                                     Bye for now,

                              Joan.