VELVET SCOTERS!!!!!

I spent two hours at Musselburgh Lagoons on the outskirts of Edinburgh this afternoon, where I had the most amazing views of both male and female Velvet Scoters.

Although I've seen them before flying along the coast, this was the first time I've managed to get them in the 'scope and watch them swimming and fishing. At one point the birds were about 20m away from the seawall - amazing!! Here's a photo and my first You Tibe video.

Velvet Scoter (male)

 

Male and female Velvet Scoter

As well as the scoters I also managed to see another 2 adult male Long-tailed Ducks (that's 4 in one day!!), a pair of Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Slavonian Grebes, Eider Duck  and another Red-throated Diver.

On the lagoons themselves there were 200+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 40+ Grey Plover, 30+ Golden Plover, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Teal, Tufted Duck, Mallards and my first Goldeneye of the winter.

Bar-tailed Godwits and Golden Plover

Year List addition:

159 - Velvet Scoter

Aberlady Bay and Gullane Bay

I've made a couple of visits to Aberlady Bay over the last few days to look at the flock of approximately 20,000 roosting Pink-footed Geese that gather here every winter.

Bridge at Aberlady Bay

This morning I arrived at 06.30am and waited for it to become light. I could hear the geese out on the mudflats and, after scanning the area with the scope, I began to pick up the birds. I not great at estimating large flocks of birds, but there were "many thousands" present. Quite a sight!

Distant Pink-footed Geese

 

As it became light, small skeins started to fly out of the roost and I managed to get a few shots of these birds.

 

Pink-footed Geese

 

Other birds seen yesterday evening and today were: Shelduck (200+), Wigeon, Teal, Eider Duck, Mute Swan (2, including a colour ringed individual), Redshank, Curlew, Great-crested Grebe, Goosander, Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls, Linnets, Wren and a Redpoll sp, which could have been a Mealy Redpoll, as it looked larger than a Lesser and was very pale on the breast. Unfortunately I didn't get very good views before it flew off!!

 

Next stop was Gullane Bay, a few miles nearer North Berwick. I made my way down through the sand dunes out onto the bay.

 

Gullane Bay/Bents

 

On arrival I scanned the water's edge and found a few Oystercatchers, Black-headed Gulls and one Great Black-backed Gull. Shags were flying out on the water and, after about half an hour's searching I spotted a lone male Common Scoter. A Red-throated Diver was fishing just behind the scoter and then a male Long-tailed Duck flew past. Another male Long-tailed Duck was soon found feeding nearby and a winter plumaged Slavonian Grebe was also spotted in the same area!! A very productive time!!!

 

Year List additions:

 

156- Common Scoter

157 -  Long-tailed Duck

158 - Slavonian Grebe

 

Barns Ness

This morning's walk saw me heading down the coast to a beach south of Dunbar called Barns Ness. I was hoping to catch up with a Water Pipit that had been reported yesterday, but the tide was out and I couldn't find it anywhere!

Barns Ness lighthouse and beach

First bird of the morning was a Common Buzzard that flew up from a tree as I drove down to the beach. Next up were Meadow Pipits, followed by several Rock Pipits and at least a dozen Pied Wagtails that were feeding on the seaweed on the beach. Redshanks, Turnstones, Oystercatchers and Curlews were all feeding along the edge of the sea. A couple of Stonechats (1 male and 1 female) were seen in the sand dunes and Linnet and Goldfinch flew overhead.

Out on the sea there were several Eider Ducks, 1 Red-throated Diver, Great Black-backed, Herring, Black-headed and Common Gulls along with 2 new species for the trip: Gannets and Red-breasted Merganser (also a Year Tick).

Just behind Barns Ness there is a large, active quarry with a large lake. I had a quick look at it on the way back and added Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Lapwing and Shoveler to the morning's list.

Back in North Berwick a short walk along the beach produced the same birds as yesterday, plus a late Swallow that flew south overhead.

Year List:

155 - Red-breasted Merganser

North Berwick birding

I'm away in North Berwick in East Lothian, Scotland, for a few days and had my first bird watching walk this morning. I was out for a couple of hours from 7.30am and managed a fair few birds including my first "year tick" for quite a while, in the form of 3 winter plumaged Red-throated Divers.

North Berwick beach (with Bass Rock in the background)

My walk this morning started off in the harbour area where the first birds recorded were Starlings, Herring and Black-headed Gulls. A couple of Pied Wagtails were flying around and the first of at least a dozen Shags were fishing in the sea. Two Grey Herons flew up from the rocks below and a party of about 8 Eider Ducks were spotted out on the water. There were a couple of winter plumaged Guillemot out on the sea, along with the Red-throated Divers.

Back on the beach there were several waders: Turnstone (c30), Purple Sandpiper (at least 6), Oystercatcher (c10) and 1 Redshank. Several Rock Pipits were also around on the beach, along with more Starlings and House Sparrows. A great start.

154 - Red-throated Diver

First Fieldfares arrive

Following a big arrival on the esat coast last week, I managed to catch up with my first Fieldfares of the winter on Friday morning when a couple flew over my school. I know it's nothing out of the ordinary, but it's a good excuse to put a photo on the blog that I took a few years ago. Hopefully you'll like it.

Fieldfare

 

In the afternoon I also popped in to Linacre to top up the feeders. Whilst driving up the main drive I spotted the farmer ploughing the field on the right. Following the plough were approximately 100 Black-headed Gulls and at least 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Both these records are noetworthy, the BH Gulls because of the number, my highest this winter, and the LBB Gulls because this was my first record of this species "on the ground" at Linacre instead of flying over. Lovely!!

Interesting bill

This morning I spent four hours out ringing in Wingerworth, Chesterfield with 3 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We were at the new site where, a few weeks ago, we'd ringed 91 birds in one session. This morning's session wasn't quite as busy, but we still managed 45 birds of 8 species (Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Robin, Wren, Chaffinch, Nuthatch and Goldcrest).

The most numerous species were the tits, which included this Coal Tit with an overgrown upper mandible. It was already ringed, so it will be interesting to see if it gets recaught again and to see how we'll it's coping.

Coal Tit

 

Another interesting bird was this Blue Tit which had several brown tail feathers and primaries. I've never seen that before.

 

 



The last bird of the morning was a nice surprise; a Goldcrest. This bird was turned up in a new net, which, until then hadn't caught anything all morning. Just goes to show the power of  a tape lure!

Goldcrest

My totals for today were (new/retrap): Coal Tit 1/1, Blue Tit 4/0, Great Tit 5/1, Dunnock 1/0 and Nuthatch 0/1.

Other birds seen or heard this morning were: Tawny Owl (1 heard), Jay (1 heard), Raven (1 over), Great-spotted Woodpecker (1 heard), Goldfinch (overhead) and  Bullfinch ( 2 over).

Winter visitor arrives

I had a lovely walk around Linacre this morning with Jayne, my wife. We went around the middle and top reservoirs in gorgeous, still, sunny weather. Although it was generally quite quiet we did manage 4 Canada Geese, including the hybrid goose (the first sighting since 19th May) and the first "redhead" Goosander of the winter.

Hybrid goose and Canada Goose

 

Other birds present on the reservoirs today were: Mallard (52), Mandarin Duck (17), Moorhen (6), Coot (7), Tufted Duck (9), Great-crested Grebe (2; 1 adult and 1 juvenile - where's the other juvenile gone?), Little Grebe (1), Grey Wagtail (2), Pied Wagtail (1), Grey Heron (1) and Black-headed Gull (30, numbers are building up again, now all I want is a colour ringed bird!).

 

All the usual woodland birds were seen and a Sparrowhawk was spotted over the woods doing battle with a couple of Carrion Crows. No sign of any Red Kites, despite one being reported over the nearby village of Cutthorpe on the 16th. Surely its only a matter of time isn't it????