Spring Birds

There are increasing signs of spring in the air but, being so far north, we are having to come to terms with the fact that spring will be late but, hopefully, should happen quickly. One very pleasing indicator is the birdsong: the woods and thickets are full of noise, not least from some very vocal song thrushes.

The hundreds of greylags which were feeding in local fields seem to have gone - we saw a large skein flying north the other day. While it's about time they were moving to their summer breeding grounds in Iceland, we're told that more and more greylags are now breeding in Britain.

We have far too many crows here, perhaps encouraged by the lack of predators, including rooks, carrion crows, hoodies and jackdaws, but this bird, which looks like a member of the crow family, may be something a little special. It's small by crow standards, about the size of a jackdaw, but its white bib is unusual.

With spring in the air we're seeing more of the local buzzards. In the three months we've been in Golspie they are the only raptors we've seen except for a fleeting glimpse of a small raptor flying along the sea wall by the golf course and, the other day, a sparrowhawk flying low over the back garden, which caused consternation amongst our sparrow horde.

We don't often see these birds sitting, sunning themselves on the beach, and this one allowed us to get close enough for a good enough picture for an identification. Shags and cormorants are very similar but this is definitely a shag, so we assume the others we see along the coast are also shags.