Assynt Rare Raptor Record
Why do we bother to look at or listen to the weather forecast? It seems that the information given by a big broadcasting company on its website and wireless broadcasts rarely match each other. They struggle to be anything like the weather actually turns out to be.
Oh well, despite knowing this we had been (mis)led to believe that Tuesday 8th May 2012 was to be a heavy rain day. We thought we would be as well to catch up with our sightings records.
Right, the forecast was wrong, so records were ‘filed’ away to be dealt with another day. We headed off to all points past Stoer School. A quick stop at Loch Neil Bhain and we spotted a dead Great Black-backed Gull lying near the south-west corner of the loch.
We had a wander over to look at it. A bit morbid you might think but we always check dead birds to see if they have been ringed. If so, we remove the ring and send it to the British Trust for Ornithology so the history of the particular bird can be completed.
No rings. Apart from two missing primary feathers on its right wing and a smallish wound on its ‘belly’ it was immaculate. It is not often you get the chance to see such a magnificent gull close up or to open out its wings to admire the 1.6m wingspan.
Next stop
Back in the car and round to Balchladich to check out Loch na Claise. Not a duck in sight. Only two weeks ago there were still Goldeneye and Tufted Ducks along with three Whooper Swans. That’s migration for you. On the plus side we did see five Swallows and heard our first Sedge Warbler of 2012 – migration again.
Sedge Warbler is one of those birds you first find by sound. Its excited churrs, trills and whistles are unmistakable, particularly when they suddenly erupt from the middle of a reed bed.
The Lapwing were displaying, and the Snipe were also heard but not seen as they performed their vocal chip-per chip-per chip-per song. Quite different to their perhaps more familiar airborne ‘drumming’ sound. The latter is actually produced by air vibrating the spread outer-tail feathers during the bird’s display flight.
And breathe
All that was just sinking in. Then, from the reeded island in the middle of the loch a dark-brown bird with a golden head softly lifted and cruised over the tops of the reeds. We just about stopped breathing but managed to say “marsh harrier” and “female”.
Marsh Harriers are not exactly a common sight in Scotland generally. They are even less so in the Highland Recording Area, with typically three or four birds seen each year. Assynt, however, has only one previous record dating back 10 years to 17th August 2002. That bird was also seen at Loch na Claise which is fairly easy to explain – Marsh Harrier’s favourite habitat is reed beds. This is where not only do they like to hunt for small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds but they also breed. They build their nest on the ground in thick marshy vegetation and also sometimes in plants growing in shallow water.
The Marsh Harrier is, in the main, a summer migrant to the UK from the Mediterranean basin southwards into sub-Saharan Africa. There is a small resident population across several locations in England. It’s difficult to say with certainty where this bird flew in from.
Keep watching
We watched it for around an hour as it was mobbed by gulls; rested by landing on several reed stems where it preened; quartered the loch shores and reed beds. At one point it put up 10 Whimbrel, which took our attention for less than a minute, and then it vanished. We thought it had perhaps landed in the reeds again or, as is Marsh Harrier habit, landed on a low rock or mound. No luck, we never saw it again. Fortunately it had been seen by another person who also contacted Andy Summers, Highland Council’s Senior Ranger.
Andy tried to see it later on Tuesday and again as we did, early on Wednesday. Sadly there were no further sightings of this bird.
More excitement
While we were still looking for the Harrier on Tuesday we had one other bit of amazing viewing. A Cuckoo appeared from the tree belt at the Balchladich side of the loch and flew out across the reeds. Suddenly a female Peregrine shot into view. She chased the Cuckoo which started to climb rapidly with the Peregrine in hot pursuit.
As we all know, Peregrines are pretty fast in level flight and really fast in their dive but they are not really noted for their stamina or ‘climbing’ flight. So the Cuckoo just kept climbing and weaving. If it levelled off a bit we could see the Peregrine try to get above it, which is their tactic to gain the advantage. This happened a few times but the Cuckoo would simply climb again. Eventually it had had enough of this deadly game and it ‘pooped’ at the Peregrine. It missed but that seemed to be enough for the Peregrine and it broke off the attack.
So next time you consider planning your day around the weather forecast don’t. Just go out anyway because you never know when things will suddenly hot up!
D and A Haines
Article originally published in the Assynt News during May 2012