ending scotland trip

well, it's been a whle bloody mnth since I was up there, but school, social life and general teen lethargy have prevented me from doing much on this blog since then. October 29th was my last day in Scotland, and on the 30th we took the ten-hour drive back down to East Sussex.

We spent the late morning birding on the 29th. At Longniddry, a Sparrowhawk came in/off, disappearing inland. A female Long-tailed Duck flew west, and other ducks were 3 Velvet Scoter, 20+ scoter sp (probably all Velvet), 1 drake Eider and 1 female Goldeneye. A Slavonian Grebe (yeartick 193) and a Guillemot were also offshore. Waders on the shore were c10 Sanderling (yeartick 194), c10 Dunlin, 1 Turnstone, c40 Lapwing, 2 Grey Plover, c250 Golden Plover and c100 Bar-tailed Godwit.



Golden Plover on the shore east f Longniddry. and No, they aren't Starlings!


At Mussleburgh Lagoons, I didn't bother with a camera. A mistake in retrospect, as Razorbill, Shag, Goldeneye, Slavonian Grebe and Velvet Scoter all showed well within photographic range. The totals were c20 Velvet Scoter, 3 Slavonian Grebes (together, and very close inshore), 1 Guillemot, 1 Razorbill (also very, very close), and 3 Shags. On the lagoons were c100 of Golden Plover and Lapwing, and c20 Curlew.

In the same field (off the A27) where we had seen 2 Roe Deer on the 24th, there were 13 today!

On the 30th, we stopped in Kieltner Forest, Northumberland. On a beautiful morning walk in the stunning scenery, a flock of 40 Crossbills were brilliant and my best ever views of this normally elusive species. Also seen were 60 Siskin, a sole Mistle Thrush and several Goldcrests. Dad also saw another Dipper.

two Red Kites were seen over the A4, and several flcks of Golden Plover and Lapwing were seen from the A68 (Pennines), A1 (the NE) and A14 (E Midlands). Totalling 600 Golden Plover and several thousand Lapwings.

24 Oct-Midlothian birding

In the interests of my sanity, I'm using as little thought in writing this post as possible. Just a list of birds and pics for a change...

Longniddry

• Several big skeins of Pink-footed Goose flew over, 1000+ overall
• waders on the rocky shore were approx. 15 Redshank and the same number of Curlew, 40 Oystercatcher, 40 Bar-tailed Godwit and 40 Turnstone (unbelievably, a yeartick!!)
• offshore were 20 Eider, 40 Common Scoter and a handful of Velvetines, and 2 redhead Red-breasted Mergansers

Oystercatchers and Curlew



a skein of Pink-footed Geese

Redshank

Curlew

Black-headed Gulls

and a few of my picks from the many Turnstone's I photographed

Next up was Aberlady Bay. Waders were the main feature here, with approx 300 Lapwing, 100 Golden Plover and Dunlin, 20 Redshank, Oystercatcherand Curlew and a single Grey Plover(yeartick 187 for Britain). The only wildfowl were 200 Pink-footed Geese, 100 Wigeon a few Shelduck and a single Common Scoter, picked out well flying well offshore...

Grey Plover and Redshank





scenic shots of Aberlady

The final stop was Mussleburgh Lagoons. Here, I had barely got out of the car when I saw a flock of 20 starlingesque birds, making a trilling call it took me a few seconds to recognise. The WAXWINGS gave us a flyby before landing by the lagoons. Out here were 400 Golden Plover, 50 Dunlin and a few Lapwing. As we went to check offshore, we saw a loose flock of 30 Velvet scoter in the distance, 5 Eider scattered accross the sea 3 female-type Goldeneye fairly close in, and 2 female LONG-TAILED DUCK flying west. Walking back, two more female Goldeneye were on the pond by the car park, along with 10 Tufted Duck.

As we drove back to Edinburgh, we saw 2 Roe Deer, in a field off the A720 near Tranent.

some of the Waxwings

various Golden Plover photos

Splash Point, seaford

in an two and a half hours of seawatching at Splash Point today, SE winds looked promising, and we saw some good birds, but it wasn't a classic day.

Dad and I started at 7.00, with the first bird we saw being...

a White Wagtail!
It was walking in the middle of the road, 30 yards back from the carpark at Splash Point, as we drove along. First priority, don't run it over(!), second priority, have a closer look at the pied wagtail, which is now deeply indebted to us, and realise it is in fact the Pied's much scarcer cousin! Sharifin Gardiner and Dick Gilmore were alreadt at Splash, and had seen an Arctic Skua and a few other things without us. During an hor and a half until 9.30, To start with, we saw mainly Common Scoter (we saw about 150 overall), and they were by far the most numerous species during the moring. We also saw 25 Sandwich terns, a similar number of Brent Geese, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Mediterraena Gulls, 2 Teals and a Velvet Scoter, along with 2 Meadow Pipits, amd presumably the White Wagtail, coming in off the sea. Some o the Common Scoter were close in, and I managed to separate males and females within the flocks that were reasonably close in, the male/female ratio was approximately 3/1, though I don't remember very specifically. One flock of 10 Common Scoter settled 100 yards offshore, giving excellent views throgh the scope, with the males yellow bills very noticeable. Another flock of about 15, flying high above the sea a dn also about 100 yards out, had a female Velvet scoter in it, the first time I have seen this species locally and only the second time I have managed to pick one out in a scoter flock. the two Mediterranean Gulls were passign with 5 Sandwich Terns, which went through in small groups of 4-10 througout the morning. One flock of Brent Geese, seen from the car as we were leaving, were flying directly over the beach, and it looked like they would go directly over the groyne and the watching Dick Gilmore and Matt Eade, but taking one look at the two men with binoculars they came to their senses, and dramatically swerved around the groyne at the last possible moment. However, despite their impressive flight co-ordination and escape manouveres, Matt still managed a photograph, see here.