Feb 25th-

Met up with JD for an afternoon's birding in Perth and Kinross, the main plan being to look for goose flocks. One place I hadn't got round to going to even though I used to pass it frequently when I was working more in this part of the world was Carsebreck. This seemingly unremarkable collection of lochans and rough grassland near Gleneagles attracts good numbers of roosting pinkies and has potential for other wildfowl and waders.
Certainly a very atmospheric place with a derelict 'haunted' house to use as a hide and allowing you to experience the sight and sound of the geese coming in at close range.
To be honest it wasn't the geese that were stars of the show but up to 4 Short-eared Owl that were constantly on view often down to 30-40 m. Always superb birds to watch and with the sight and sound of around 1,300 pinkies coming in at dark along with a roost flight of 4-5,000 Starling it was an enjoyable afternoon. Other birds on the Lochans included a gull roost of mainly Common Gull (c.800) and small numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Tufties etc. Waders are starting to come back inland to breeding areas with Curlew, Oystercatcher and Lapwing seen.

With a large influx into Britain this winter there have been plenty of photos of this species. My turn to jump on the bandwagon as you can never have enough of these beauties.

Abstract (or out of focus) starlings