A pleasant enough day but rather dull. Bird song continues to gather in intensity and a Great Spotted Woodpecker spent the morning drumming in the woodland nearby to the house. The passerine flock in the stubble field adjacent to the house was a repeated focus but produced nothing new. A small party of Lesser Redpoll picked around in rough ground along the boundary of the garden. Suddenly a male Common Redpoll ( Mealy Redpoll )appeared, its greyer, more contrasting plumage and whiter wing bar standing out against the browner tones of its relative.
Down on the Firth Whooper Swans and large parties of Grey lag Geese repeatedley rise and fly around calling as if preparing for their imminent northward flights. A recent message from a contact in Iceland advises that both species are begining to arrive from their wintering quarters, perhaps even from here in Scotland. Their winter has not been that severe in the south of the "island" with even odd Blackcaps being present.
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