I was wondering about that
Autumn migration season almost upon us up here. Lots of very yellow juvenile Willow Warblers and a few bits and pieces starting to appear.
This juvenile Stonechat looks too young to have crossed the North Sea so I suspect it must have hatched, either here or on one of the neighbouring islands.
A Spotted Flycatcher has been in my back garden all day
Managed to find a Barred Warbler at Funzie, a very skulking species, it was a surprise to see one out in the open!
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Proper birding - 3 x LBJs that I’d not stand an icecube in hell’s chance of recognising. Chapeau.
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Autumn IDs are waaay more tricky than in the Spring, more often than not they are juvenile birds or adults moulting into winter plumage.
It will be a while before we start getting a chance of any ‘mega’ rarities, those predominantly arrive in late Sep/Oct or even early Nov.
Anyway, from today, a juvenile/female type Pied Flycatcher
and a distant (moulting adult) Grey Plover (likely to be the usual returning bird that wintered here last year and only left for its breeding grounds at the end of May)
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A tragic end for a man who, through his writing, tried to help others suffering from mental health issues.
I didn’t know him personally but he did once send me a free PDF copy of his book
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Poor sod; what must he have been going through ?
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Sadly this one didn’t make it. Quite a surprise to see in town, must have been unwell from the start.
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Just listening to a Tawny Owl at the back of the garden, no chance of seeing it mind.
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Individuals can surprise you - for a few seasons we had a male that would perch on the edge of the gutter and watch me and the dogs when I let them out for a wee last thing at night. Others will come and investigate even a quite ropy attempt at an owl call! A minority tho’, for sure.
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I’ll keep an ear and eye out for it again tonight. Not hard to hear , loud squawks and sounds like it’s being strangled, very un owl like 
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Sounds more like a Barn Owl
Like this?
Like the last 3 on that barn owl recording. Merlin got it wrong, it’s not perfect i suppose. It was no more than ten meters from where i was sat. Really loud.
Hope it makes another show over the next couple of evenings.
Scarce migrants are quite thin on the ground but at least there has been decent numbers of commoner birds passing through.
Turtle Dove is one of the scarcer birds here. It’s been here for four days but extremely elusive.
There was always the chance it could have been an Oriental Turtle Dove but I’d only seen it from distance and mostly in flight.
I finally got good views today which confirmed it as a first winter European Turtle Dove.
Grey Wagtail
Brambling (quite a few of these around)
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Love the grey wagtail. We have 3 or 4 on our stream. Always brings a smile when I see them
I’ve seen 3 here in 10 yrs, not common by any means
That in flight Turtle Dove photo is beautiful 
Smashing shots Paul, Turtle Doves are quite something