Alternative bird race shows diversity of species across Caithness
Wildlife Sightings by Rob Hughes
Over the weekend of January 16-17, a "bird race" was held in Caithness. In a normal year it would involve teams trying to see as many species as they can in a day within the county boundary, with the highest-scoring team winning.
This year, with travel restrictions and not being able to meet up as groups, it was decided to drop the competition element of the bird race and enjoy trying to build up a good species total between everyone instead. The "alternative bird race" was open to anyone who wanted to join in, with participants asked to record all species they saw on their exercise walks or in their garden.
Caithness birdwatchers collectively recorded an amazing 110 species over the weekend, an amazing achievement given the travel restrictions and non-perfect weather conditions.
At least 22 people participated in 16 "teams" from all over Caithness. There were 20 bird species that only one team saw, including barn and tawny owl, peregrine, red kite, dipper, grey wagtail, knot, ruff, surf scoter and Greenland white-fronted goose. Interestingly, no bird species was seen by all groups, though there were plenty of species seen by most groups such as blue tit, blackbird and wren.
The 110 species recorded shows the diversity of birdlife and range of habitats within the county.
Red kite was a particularly good record as I don’t know any records of the species in the county during 2020. The race also shows the challenge of finding species like blue tit in Caithness that would be much more common in southern parts of the UK.
Inevitably some species that we know to be present in Caithness become elusive on bird race days. There were no records of pintail and merlin for example. Low and behold, a week later and a merlin flew past me whilst walking near Castlehill and the pintail are back on Loch of Mey.
Restrictions meant that no participants were able to get to Loch Watten where American wigeon, smew and Slavonian grebes are wintering. Next year, I reckon everyone could top the 120-plus mark by visiting sites we could not get to this year.
With the recent snow, the cold weather movements of skylark, redwing and fieldfares have been particularly noticeable, streaming overhead at times. This weather also pushed raptors such as merlin, hen harrier and short-eared owls to coastal locations.
It’s now challenging to work out how many Iceland gulls are in the county with a high count of nine recorded in Scrabster harbour alone during the last month. Glaucous gull records have also increased with the returning adult in Dunnet Bay being the most reliable place to see one.
A female surf scoter has been in Dunnet Bay with at least 12 velvet scoter and 15 common scoters. An "Eastern" type lesser whitethroat was the rarest bird in the county in December, however it disappeared just before the new year. This could have come from as far afield as Mongolia.
Looking forwards, if this cold weather continues, I would expect more snow buntings to arrive over the coming weeks, especially on our beaches.
To report any sightings feel free to email me: xema_sabini@hotmail.co.uk