Andrew Whitehouse

A screenshot from Google's AI that says: Wild Penguin Sightings (Rare but Happen) Gentoo Penguin: In April 2022, a Gentoo penguin, a species usually found in sub-Antarctic regions, made an unexpected appearance in Stonehaven harbour, causing local excitement. Police Rescue: More recently, in December 2025, there were reports of police rescuing penguins that had somehow found their way to the harbour, sparking interest in how often they visit

You: Catherine, why don't you use genAI?

Me: Because there are not, in fact, any wild penguins in Stonehaven, Scotland.

(Screenshot from Google AI.)

As I'm sure you know, his parents were birders and ringers. I wonder if he chatted to your team about it. In his photographs, he seemed to show a birder's eye for people.

You too! Glad you saw the diver so well.

A Red Squirrel is standing on a greenish tree branch, facing right.

At least one Red Squirrel is still around St Fittick's Park. This one was coming into the bird feeders today.
#UKWildlife #Squirrels #Mammals

A 'golden' coloured Crossbill is feeding on larch cones, facing towards us. You can see its tongue.

A greenish female Crossbill is feeding in larches, slightly hidden behind a branch. Its tongue isn't hidden.

A red male Crossbill is feeding in larch trees. Sticky bits of larch cone are all over its bill.

It's not often I see Crossbills feeding, so I enjoyed a group of 12 that were getting stuck into the larch cones in St Fittick's Park today. Crossbills surely possess one of the best tongues in the bird world.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #UKWildlife

A female Black Redstart is standing on kelp branch among some rocks. It has its back to us and the red tail is visible.

A female Black Redstart is standing on a grey rock with pale speckles. It's facing left to right. There is some dead seaweed at the front right.

A Snow Bunting is standing on a wet locking rock, facing left. There are some branches of kelp in the background.

The seaweed patch in Greyhope Bay is often worth checking. Today, as well as the regular Rock Pipits, there was a female Black Redstart and a lovely Snow Bunting. Both were my first for the year at Girdle Ness.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #PatchBirding #UKWildlife

Excellent! It's a while since I've seen one - might have to try and rectify that soon.

A Velvet Scoter is flying right to left over a blue sea. It is a mostly blackish duck with a white rectangle on its wings.

A Great Northern Diver is swimming right to left. The water is reflecting red from a nearby ship in the harbour.

I'm still gleaning patch year ticks at Girdle Ness with this Velvet Scoter that flew north today. Meanwhile, the Great Northern Diver continues in the harbour.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #PatchBirding #UKWildlife

A partially obscured Woodcock is sitting on the ground among leaf litter and other vegetation, it's large eye staring back from the centre of the image.

This Woodcock was quietly roosting under a small conifer in St Fittick's Park today.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #UKWildlife #ThermalBirding

A Jack Snipe crouches down close to the marshy, wet ground. It is surrounded by wetland grasses and plants and is well camouflaged amongst them.

A Jack Snipe crouches down close to the marshy, wet ground. It is surrounded by wetland grasses and plants and is well camouflaged amongst them. This is a close up of the head and bill.

Jack Snipe have been hard to find this year, but this one at St Fittick's Park today shone out in the thermal imager as it flattened down against the edge of the reeds.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #PatchBirding #UKWildlife #ThermalBirding

Compared to the weights of other Swarovski 65mm scopes, this seems around the same weight as the ATS and a bit less than the ATX.

Does that include the lens Steve? The weights for the Swarovski's are for the whole package. From what I can tell, the APO 65 with a lens is 1545g.

1300g for the 55 and 1470g for the 65.

A juvenile Arctic Tern is flying left to right over a rippled blue sea.

A juvenile Arctic Tern is flying left to right over a rippled blue sea.

A juvenile Arctic Tern is flying left to right over a rippled blue sea.

A juvenile Arctic Tern is flying right to left over a rippled blue sea.

A juvenile Arctic Tern at Girdle Ness today, which in late November should be as far south as it currently is north.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #UKWildlife #PatchBirding #SuperSeabirdSunday

A fox is pawing at a carton of tuna steak in the snow.

A fox is pawing at a carton of tuna steak in the snow.

A fox is holding a carton of tuna steak in its mouth while standing in the snow.

A fox in the snow on the bowling green in Torry, Aberdeen today, a carton of tuna steak giving some nourishment in the cold.
#UKWildlife #FoxOfTheDay

YouTube video by basicclode blood sausage - billy joel.wmv

Some thoughts from Blood Sausage in 1993.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoPH...

“As a medical anthropologist, I’m fascinated by the political, economic, and social networks that have transformed humble bird’s nests into one of the most expensive animal products in the world.”

Read more: www.sapiens.org/culture/edib...

theonion.com/u-s-continue...

Hard agree. Incredible that you can routinely drive in winter from Grantham to Norwich now and not see a single flock. It is increasingly becoming a bird of reserves and not the wider countryside, even in winter #UKBirding

Very much so. I wonder what the increasing restriction of once common species to nature reserves says about conservation more generally. Even if they're doing well on the reserves, it suggests that conservation more generally is not succeeding.

A large group of Purple Sandpipers are dotted about on a dark, rocky outcrop amidst frothy sea.

Purple Sandpipers gathering on the rocks at Greyhope Bay, Girdle Ness today, their busy twittering cutting through the rolling surf. Their numbers are building up for the winter but changes in roosting habits make it harder to accurately assess the numbers these days.
#Birds #BirdingScotland

A Great Northern Diver is swimming on dark, rippled water, facing left.

A Great Northern Diver is swimming through dark rippled water holding a narrow fish in its bill.

A Great Northern Diver is swimming through dark rippled water with its bill submerged beneath the surface as it swims forward.

A Great Northern Diver is swimming on dark, rippled water, facing slightly toward us as it swims left.

The young Great Northern Diver is still in Aberdeen Harbour, today ploughing head-first through the waters and pulling out fish.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #UKWildlife

You make a fair point about the disappearance of breeding Lapwing, Andrew. The thinning out of the breeding distribution has meant that they have ceased to be a 'local' bird for many.
This was a sad blog to write:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/11/30/2...
#ornithology

A Lapwing is standing on a rock in the foreground, showing its crest and greenish upperparts. In the background are more rocks with waves crashing onto them.

Things have come to a pretty pass when it takes until mid-November to see my first Lapwing of the year at Girdle Ness. This one was in Greyhope Bay this morning. Maybe the bird that's undergone the most perceptible loss in British avifauna in my lifetime.
#Birds #BIrdingScotland #UKWildlife

A grey sea and sky, with waves crashing onto rocks. In the foreground is a grassy slope, a gravel track and a high fence.

Seawatching below grey skies and an easterly at Girdle Ness. After yesterday's late Sooty Shearwater, 2 more passed today. Also, 2 Little Auks, 3 Bonxies, a Manx Shearwater and a Little Gull. The highlight was my first Slavonian Grebe here for several years, heading north.
#Birds #BirdingScotland

A shimmering, blue grey sea with blue sky and fluffy grey and white clouds. A concrete jetty goes out into the sea among dark rocks. Short grass is in the foreground.

My latest ever Sooty Shearwater headed north over some iridescent seas at Girdle Ness this afternoon. Bunched parties of Kittiwakes were heading the same way, looking for a route out to the Atlantic.
#Birds #BirdingScotland #UKWildlife

The Twite of divers...😜

I don't keep track of them but there seems to be one here a lot of the time. Not sure why nowhere can fix them on the west coast!

They're here pretty frequently, I presume being fixed. Saw this one come in yesterday.

A Short-eared Owl is flying away from the camera in a foggy blue-grey sky.

A ship appears out of a bank of fog. Only the top half is visible. To the right is the beacon at the end of the harbour breakwater.

A ship appears out of a bank of fog. To the right is the beacon at the end of the harbour breakwater.

The sun shines through the fog above some short, dewy grass.

Foggy arrivals at Girdle Ness today: Short-eared Owl (primarily), the NS Iona (emergently), the sun (diffusely).
#Birds #BirdingScotland #weather #UKWildlife