If there is anything positive in these locked-down times, it is that it’s very quiet and our garden birds are helping keep us entertained. So it’s no surprise that our seasonal batch of entries for the Photo Gallery are from gardens and where we can exercise. I’ve included a few here – please see the Gallery for the others.
My thanks go to Dave Grant, Angus Hogg, David Lynn, and Bob Ross for their contributions.
BTW, is it just me that keeps saying “Corvid 19“?
Dave McGarvie, our new BTO Representative, has put together an article 
describing a survey he performed near Carsphairn last Easter. Hopefully it will encourage people to sign up for surveys of other squares in SW Scotland. (Disclaimer: great weather not guaranteed!)
We have a new BTO Representative for the county: Dave McGarvie. Dave introduces himself in the attached BTO Ayrshire Newsletter .
In just under a month Dave is helping run a training event in Dalmellington, on Sunday 8 March. This will be an all-day event, designed to introduce people to the methods that the BTO use for its main breeding bird surveys. ID training will be included, though with an emphasis on songs and calls, and assuming a solid baseline skill level with respect to visual ID of upland species.
It’s a great way of finding out more, and will be especially useful if you are wondering whether your bird skills are good enough to do the main breeding bird surveys – the Breeding Birds Survey (BBS) and Waterways Breeding Bird Survey (WBBS).
If you’re not quite there yet, then you’ll be able to get a good idea of where and how you need to improve. And you can also learn about other surveys that you could do that don’t require such a high level of bird identification skills. Further details can be found here.
In recent years the flock of Brent Geese at Maidens has become a regular and growing feature. As the series of photos in the Photo Gallery shows, this flock has been closely monitored over the years by Angus Hogg. Now Angus has brought all the information on these geese at Maidens into a new article: the Maidens Brent Geese .
Back in 2018 Angus Hogg and Dave Grant saw and photographed an unusual looking Black Redstart near Maidens. It had the characteristics of an Eastern sub-species and so they submitted a detail report. Dave has produced the attached poster showing what they submitted and the outcome.
With the second weekend in a row spoiled by a named storm, I’ve no excuse to not deal with the backlog of photos for the Photo Gallery. We’ve had a few lovely birds to brighten up the winter: I’ve included a few here – please see the Gallery for the others.
In addition, a Siberian Chiffchaff appeared in Auchenharvie to get those sad souls who like sub-species excited (or insurance for when it gets split?).
My thanks go to Dave Grant, Angus Hogg, and Bruce Kerr for their contributions.
If like me you aren’t as up-to-date on your Siberian Chiffchaff identification as you’d like, then you’ll find the attached poster produced by Dave Grant essential reading. Using his photos of the bird that recently popped up in Auchenharvie and explanatory notes, you’ll be ready for when the next one pops up. Click on the icon to download the poster. Makes an ideal spousal Christmas present.
Again, we have a nice mix of the rare and common with stunning photos. The really impressive bit was getting the photo in good light and blue skies: not easy this autumn! The above are just a sample: please go to the Photo Gallery to see all the other great pictures.
I’m always on the hunt for photos to illustrate our Ayrshire Species List. David Lynn sent in, as he himself says, a record shot of the Lesser Yellowlegs that popped up at Capringstone in Irvine. Doesn’t matter: as it is the first photo we have, it gets the glory, and being only the third record for the county (TBC by the Great+Good), also gets a place in the Ayrshire Rare Species List
My thanks go to Dave Grant, Angus Hogg, and David Lynn for their contributions.
The Autumn 2019 issue of The Gannet, the club newsletter of the RSPB Central Ayrshire Local Group is now available: click here to download it .
The Autumn 2019 issue of The Stonechat, the club newsletter of the Ayrshire Branch of the SOC is also now available: click here to download it .
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