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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 8h

Walking on clouds at dawn this morning for a WeBS survey at Findhorn Bay, when you are in the middle of the bay it feels like you are out at sea!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Flight across on Wednesday found on Thursday when the wind subsides! 😉 Now will it be Gorie, Bressay or Lerwick?…

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Not a Red Grouse?, they have white underwings…

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I was amazed to see the Buff-breasted Sandpiper yesterday doing it's wing flashing display to some bemused Ringed Plovers! #highlandbirds 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Short video of the Morrich Mòr Buff-breasted Sandpiper from today in beautiful sunny, calm conditions. A world away from yesterdays perfect storm and monster tides! The tenth Highland record... #highlandbirds 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Do you mean the bulge at the base?, think it's just deformed slightly, other side fine

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Had a nice little influx of Sabine's Gull into Highland waters last couple of days, this juvenile was still hanging on this morning and gave a brief flyby through the largely unimpressed gull roost at Embo! #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The @aba.org missed a real trick during the recent renaming of species not to change from Common Loon to Swivel-eyed Loon! #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Stunned to come across this full summer plumage Great Northern Diver a couple of metres off Embo Pier this morning! #highlandbirds 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Reviewing Golden Eagle records in Highland and came across this stunning individual photographed by Wesley Rich, never seen the like of it!. Look at the white flecking through the underwing and upper breast! 🪶 #ornithology macaulaylibrary.org/asset/655166...

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

A Minke Whale in Gairloch bay, always amazes me how close they come into shore!, taken from Hebridean Whale Cruises boat

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Anybody able to ID this call made from Dornoch Point, two calls one at 2-3 seconds and another at 8 seconds. It was flying high and steady not seen as I was looking into sun, it was a series of calls all exactly the same as that maybe 10 in a row #birdingScotland

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

don't think you are getting a feel for the size difference from that BOC shot, see below from camera. It may be a female but it's certainly not a standard ssp canadensis!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Also present at Big Sand this morning a small Canada Goose alongside a regular feral bird, small bird maybe an ‘Argyll weirdo’! 😂 #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The first Pacific Diver for Highland still present in Caolas Beag off Big Sand this morning. Found by Zsombor Berényi two days ago but may be the same bird reported by Bastien Guibert on the 7th April 2026! #highlandbirds 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

First for Scotland?, polish-ringed continental Black-tailed Godwit in the Borders #birdingScotland

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Delighted to find a Northern Rose Chafer today whilst searching Devil’s Bit Scabious flowers, almost entirely restricted to Strathspey in Scotland!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A productive trapping session at Findhorn in Moray last night with Portland Moth, lots of Coast Darts and a Nutmeg!. Migrants included 8 Small Mottled Willow, 3 Rusty Dot Pearl and a Shuttle-shaped Dart (?!) #teammoth

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Is this Prays fraxinella?, or something else. From VC107 last night, apologies only had mobile phone for photos!! #teammoth

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

And the first of the years Anomalous records, looking box fresh! #teammoth

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Two Cousin German in the garden moth trap this morning, another of the special moths of Strathspey! #teammoth

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Looks very similar to my Voaden Trap, my favourite trap stupidly efficient on cloudy nights or under woodland canopy. Cheap IKEAwashing basket, with Lepiled mounted inside and plenty of egg boxes!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Quite the contrast of pages in this months magazine, first double page ad for cruise to Seychelles flick over to the next spread which is a focus on Abernethy, woods in the back of that picture a lot blacker and smokier now!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The #Cairngorms wildfire looking a lot better this morning after another dose of heavy rain overnight and earlier!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Never thought I’d see one of these moths in Highland, a Dark Spinach from Coul Links yesterday morning! #teammoth

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The #Cairngorms wildfire has flared up again today, as big as it ever was and an incredible plume of smoke drifting west on the strong, gusty winds!, turning northwesterly overnight...

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I’ve had some quality insects over the years in the polytunnel but decent birds have been thin on the ground until today, when a Snipe walked out of the polytunnel! 😂 #highlandbirds 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Think your Gold Spot may be a Lempke’s Gold Spot, put your pic on left and circled feature then done the same with same feature on a Gold Spot on right. See how the white ends in a sharp spike in the Gold Spot and is blunt ended in the Lempke’s. Second small gold spot is also rounder on Lempke’s 👍

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Yep Shark is a decent record, not very widespread and never common, think I’ve only had it twice here ever!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

NASA live fire map showing the #Cairngorms wildfire now close to Ptarmigan restaurant (red cross) at the top of Cairngorm

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The #Cairngorm wildfire looking south with Bynack More on the left and Meall a' Bhuachaille 2/3 of the way to the right, wind picking up now and several days of northerlies forecast

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I dread to think!, we have been doing a large scale upland wader survey this year and have recorded more Quail than Golden Plover on the site!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

and an image from Meall a' Bhuachaille looking southeast, the firefighters have done an amazing job keeping it out of the old Scot's Pine area around An Lochan Uaine at the bottom of the image! #Cairngorms

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Image from earlier today showing the wildfire on the RSPB Abernethy reserve, started along the path between Bynack More and An Lochan Uaine and then headed towards Cairngorm #Cairngorms #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

A wildfire looks to have started on RSPB Abernethy, a hot day today and tomorrow forecast and then northerly winds, not ideal! #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

If Carlsberg did trips home from the pub! Osprey doing loop the loops whilst carrying a fish tryin to impress the female sat in a tree below him! Sound up 🔊 #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Timed it just right walking past this Bird Cherry which was literally raining Bird Cherry Ermines off it! #teammoth

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I had a few thoughts on the results of last years Dotterel survey that I was going to make but then realised the one glaring omission, when are Dotterel predicted to be extinct as a breeding bird in Scotland? Below line of best fit through the last four surveys - answer around 2030, in four years!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Never thought I would get one of these in the garden in Strathspey!, a Small Mottled Willow and a really fresh one at that. First VC95 record 🥳 #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

and a video of the Laughing Gull enjoying the summery weather on Skye! #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Just relocated the Skye Laughing Gull along coast at Tobar Asheig!, finally a Highland tick this year after the pain of the Little Swift and Collared Fly!! #highlandbirds

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

A video from earlier in the year of the longstaying Northern Eider at Loch Fleet courting a female Eider! #highlandbirds 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

A male Northern Reveller (Philedone gerningana) from the hills of Easter Ross yesterday! #teammoth

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Getting to the business end of the season for waders now, a young Curlew chick calling back to parent, filmed from car on the adjacent road. #highlandbirds #ornithology 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

And funnel clouds trying to form!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

and a wee bit of video of the Woodcock with chicks in tow! #highlandbirds 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Driving out of Grantown at dawn was surprised to see a Woodcock feeding on the verge with four chicks in tow!, not often you see them out in the open!! #highlandbirds #ornithology 🪶

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

A Bumblebee Robberfly at a warm and sunny Loch Garten today, always such a menacing vibe to them!

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Peter Stronach @macstronach.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Wandering about in the pine forest looking for crossbills to sound record, all I’ve found are the remains of a 1950’s big year attempt…

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