15-minute twitch: Grounds of Waverley Castle Hotel, near Melrose, Scottish Borders

 

The Waverley Castle - one of the first Scottish hotels to be constructed from concrete

Date: August 30, 2025

Time: 7.45am - 8.00am

Weather: Sunny and warm

Target species: Great Spotted Woodpecker

Star species seen: Siskin

Other species seen/ heard:

* Wood Pigeon

* Nuthatch

* Blue Tit

* Coal Tit

* Blackbird

* Carrion Crow

* Jackdaw

* Robin

                                           

These Jackdaws were finding plenty to feed on 

The delightful grounds include their own small apple orchard

Statue of Sir Walter Scott, celebrated novelist who spent most of his life in the area

                                                                                   

Giant Redwood - specimen tree imported many years ago from California

Coal Tit in quest for something to eat

Expansive lawns are a feature of the grounds

                                                                            

This Nuthatch made its presence felt by calling persistently

Juvenile Robin on high alert

Five Shetland pony foals mysteriously disappear - were they taken as prey by Sea Eagles?

 

How Sunday Post newspaper headlined the 'story'

A CROFTER  has pointed an accusing finger at Sea Eagles after five recently-born foals disappeared from his herd of Shetland ponies 

According to a report in the Sunday Post newspaper, Donald John Cameron believes the huge birds are the "most likely culprits" for the disappearance of his foals, and he has called on the Scottish Government wildlife agency, NatureScot, to investigate the disappearance. 

Though they sometimes take lambs and deer calves, there is no known  record of Sea Eagles predating foals, but it is understood NatureScot is willing to  check nests for any prey evidence.

The report was later picked up in England by newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph.

                                               

The report in yesterday's edition of The Daily Telegraph newspaper

Bidding for John Gould's five-volume Victorian masterpiece failed tor reach pre-sale target figure

                                                     

Barn owls - as featured as depicted in Birds of Great Britain

                                                   

AN antiquarian bird book failed to set the  heather alight at a sale in Yorkshire.

Leyburn-based auction house Tennants had hoped John Gould's  five-volume The Birds of Great Britain, which was published over a period between 1862 and 1873, would sell for between £25,000 and £35,000.

But, at the sale on August 22, a bid of £20,000 was sufficient to clinch the sale.

The volumes contains no fewer than  367 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates by Gould himself and by other notable artists of the day, namely, H.C. Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Hart. 

In line with auction practice, the identities of neither the vendor nor the successful bidder have been revealed.

It was  thought the five volumes could fetch as much as £25,000

                                          

One of the plates - the Red-footed Falcon was known as the Orange-legged Hobby in Victorian times

Thirty-minutes twitch: Peebles, Tweed Valley, Scottish Borders

Peebles - delightful but unsung Borders town

Date: August 25, 2025

Time: 11am - 11.30am

Weather: Sunny and warm

Target species: Dipper

Star species seen: Goosander

Other species seen/ heard:

* Wood pigeon

* Mallard

* Heron

* Black-headed Gull

* Nuthatch

* Blue Tit

* Great Tit

* Blackbird

* Carrion Crow

* Grey Wagtail

A heron waits to pounce

On the rocks - juvenile Grey Wagtail

Goosander surveys its territory

The ever-enchanting River Tweed

                                                            

Second UK record of Black-winged Kite pulls birders into Gloucestershire - then goes AWOL

 

Black-winged Kite - as depicted in Gould's Birds of Europe

IT has been destination Gloucestershire this week for birders eager to catch a glimpse of a vagrant  Black-winged Kite.

It is thought to be only the second UK record - the first being in Montgomeryshire in April 2023 and subsequently, three months later, in various parts of East Anglia.

A medium-sized raptor, its is not globally rare, being found widely in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent and increasingly in South-east Asia.  

It is spreading its range and is now familiar in many parts of Europe, including the Netherlands.

Some believe the two UK birds could be 'pioneers', heralding more sightings in the years to come  (as with Collared Doves and Little Egrets). 

Nineteenth-century writer-artist John Gould has some interesting words about the species in his Birds of Europe (1837).

"When we consider the wide range of this beautiful species, scattered as it is over all the temperate and warmer portions of the Old World, it is a matter of no surprise that its capture has of late years been so frequent in Europe. 

"It is abundantly dispersed along the banks of the Nile, and, in fact the whole of Africa and India is inhabited by it.

"Spain, Italy, and the Grecian Islands are the portions of our quarter of the globe most frequented by the Black-winged Kite, but there are also  instances on record of its having been captured in the middle of Germany.:

"In all probability, however, no part of Europe affords it a permanent residence.

"It must, therefore, be regarded  merely as an irregular visitor which has crossed the Mediterranean from the opposite shores of Africa. 

"From the great length of its wings, together with its short and feathered tarsi, we are led to infer that it is capable of rapid and powerful flight, and that it possesses the power of remaining suspended in the air for a great length of time.

"Its food consists principally of insects, chiefly captured in the air, to which are sparingly added lizards, frogs, snakes, and birds.

"The sexes are very much alike in colour, but the female is said to be rather larger than her mate.

"The young of the first autumn may be distinguished from the adults by their having the back strongly tinged with brown, and the end of each feather encircled with buffy white; the sides of the chest brown, and the feathers on the breast streaked down the centre with dark brown.

"The adult has the head and the whole of the back of a fine grey; the centre of the wings black; the primaries and secondaries greyish brown, with lighter grey edges."

Meanwhile, back in Gloucestershire, this week's Kite was variously  seen on Wednesday and Thursday at Splatts Bridge, Saul Worth and Frampton-on-Severn, but it is proving elusive and may now have left the county.

As of noon, there had been no confirmed sightings today. 

RSPB identifies recreational disturbance as 'key cause' for 2024 breeding flop of Slavonian Grebes and Dotterel

                                                           

Slavonian Grebe - population dip at former breeding stronghold on Scottish loch

A NOTE of real concern has been sounded on the declining breeding status of  three species associated with upland habitats.

According to the RSPB's report for its nature reserves, the species that fared "particularly badly" in 2024 were;

* Ring Ouzel

* Slavonian Grebe

* Dotterel

Says the report: "Ring Ouzels declined to an all-time low on those of our reserves where they are  monitored.

"Numbers of Slavonian Grebes fell to their lowest level in modern times on the whole of Loch Ruthven, near Inverness.

"And there were no breeding Dotterels recorded for the first time on the area of the Cairngorms plateau covered by our Abernethy reserve."

It continues: " Recreational disturbance is likely to be a key cause of the decline in the last two species, with climate change also a cause of concern for the future of Dotterel."

On the plus side, last year saw populations of Bitterns, Cranes, Spoonbills and Great White Egrets continued to increase in both number and range. 

Says the report: "These rare wetland birds make use of the high-quality wetland habitat created and maintained on RSPB nature reserves."

Meanwhile,  Capercaillie and Black Grouse numbers increased, while, outside reserves, site-specific interventions proved successful at maintaining the breeding populations of under-pressure ground-nesting birds such as Corncrakes, beach-nesting Ringed Plovers and other waders such as Curlews.

The RSPB says Roseate Terns had a productive breeding season at Coquet Island, off Northumberland  - their main UK breeding colony - but populations of Sandwich, Arctic, Common and especially Little Terns were all low on RSPB reserves.

Meanwhile,  productivity has also been "very poor" for two wet grassland-breeding species -  Black-tailed Godwits and Stone Curlew.

                                      

Dotterel - no longer breeding on Cairngorms plateau near Aviemore (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Ring Ouzels are now at an all-time breeding low on RSPB reserves

                                           

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Single feather from bird thought to be extinct sells for much higher than expected at Yorkshire auction

The feather that 'took flight' at saleroom in Yorkshire 

A SINGLE feather from a bird thought to be extinct has sold at auction for more than double the highest pre-sale estimate.

The feather from an Ivory-billed Woodpecker was Lot 126 at the sale held earlier this month by Tennants of Leyburn in Yorkshire.

Bids were expected in a range between £80 and £120 but, in the event, it was not until £280 was reached that the hammer fell.

A note in the catalogue states: "Presumed extinct as of 1987, the  Ivory-billed Woodpecker is a species native to the southern United States and Cuba.

"Habitat destruction and hunting have reduced populations so severely that the last universally accepted sighting in the United States was in 1944, and the last universally accepted sighting in Cuba was in 1987. 

"In the 21st century, reported sightings and other evidence that the species persists in Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida, have been published, but the validity of these reports are disputed, with many sources arguing that the bird  is likely to be extinct. 

"Habitat protection and restoration efforts have been initiated in areas where the species might persist."

The feather came with a portrait and signed letter confirming the species and provenance from the vendor, Errol Fuller.

The identity of the successful bidder has not been revealed.

'Extinct' woodpecker and feather