On the way home on Wednesday I happened to be messaging a friend who lives on the south side of the Forth about camera gear and mentioned that I was going to be heading back to Lothian for the third time in a week to try again for the Rose Coloured Starling at Barns Ness. Ally isn't a birder but he does sometimes point his camera in the direction of birds so as Thursday was his day off work he said he could pick me up and come birding with me. This plan had lots of advantages and so I readily agreed. One of the advantages was I wouldn't need to start really early and another was I wouldn't have to walk for miles once I finally reached Dunbar.
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| Rose Coloured Starling |
Having arranged to meet Ally at 0945 at Edinburgh Gateway I headed out at just after 0745 to get to the railway station in plenty of time to buy my tickets for the train. Feral Pigeon, Herring Gull and Blackbird were all I managed to see on the way to the station. The list from the train stretched to around a dozen species, mostly larger species, with Starling, Carrion Crow, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Rook, Grey Heron, Woodpigeon, Black Headed Gull, Buzzard, Kestrel and Magpie all noted. Swallow and Pied Wagtail were the only additions from the car on the way to Barns Ness as we chatted about all sorts of stuff.
We arrived around an hour or so later and scanned along the beach. The Linnet flock took flight from the shore and a few Ringed Plover scurried around a little further on. Offshore were plenty of Gannets. We had a quick look at the Woodchat Shrike though as it was more distant than on Saturday or Monday I didn't take any photos. Sandwich Terns, Rock Pipits, Meadow Pipits, Dunlin, Wheatear, Curlew, Redshank and Great Black Backed Gull were noted while Shags and Cormorants shared a large rock by the water's edge while a large flock of Starlings landed on the wires towards the lighthouse. I thought I saw the Rose Coloured Starling fly past with some Starlings but when we failed to find it after some searching I began to suspect the bird I'd seen had been a young Starling catching the light and looking paler than it actually was.
When we'd arrived I was greeted by a couple of familiar faces from Dundee - Lainy and Adam McCormack who were there to photograph both rarities, though both got distracted by some of the other birds. I suggested to Ally that we wander along the beach towards the lighthouse as no-one was checking that particular area. A skein of Pink Footed Geese flew in off the sea. We followed the curve of the beach and were approaching the end of the 'north beach' where the grassy area swung round towards the lighthouse when I spotted a pale bird down on the seaweed ahead of us. The
Rose Coloured Starling at last! Despite the distance we took some photos. Suddenly the bird took flight and flew past us, into the wind. It then landed down on the beach near a couple of birders totally oblivious to it having done so.
I hurried round to them to alert them to the bird's close proximity and then we were all treated to close and prolonged views as the bird picked around among the seaweed piles unconcerned by the growing audience watching from the grass. I took plenty of photos and a few video clips before deciding to try and find Lainy and Adam to let them know the Starling had turned up and was now showing well. I found Adam quickly and he told me Lainy was round behind the rocks photographing Wheatears on the beach. She wasn't though and I couldn't see her. I could see another couple of birders who I knew were looking for the Starling so I headed along to let them know the bird was showing and asked them if they'd seen Lainy. It turned out she was just a little further on and I let her know about the Starling so she headed back along with me.
I spent a wee while waiting for the Shrike to show with Ally before we decided to head for Musselburgh to add a few more species to Ally's rather hypothetical life-list. Canada Geese and Greylag Geese were seen from the car as we passed the quarry. The weather wasn't looking too promising when we reached Musselburgh so we headed to the scrapes first where we were looking for the Pectoral Sandpiper. There had been a negative report for the Curlew Sandpiper on RBA that morning, so I was expecting the wader that others were watching to be the Pectoral Sandpiper, which had been seen that morning. It wasn't. It was a Curlew Sandpiper. However, the Pectoral Sandpiper did eventually put in an appearance, as did a second Curlew Sandpiper alongside Dunlin and Teal.
The other scrapes held Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Curlews and what we eventually ascertained was a couple of Pheasants lurking among the weedy fringes. Speckled Wood butterflies were found in the trees and bushes by the path between the hides. We headed next to the seawall to scan for White Winged Scoter, stopping en route to photograph a trio of Stock Doves that were less wary than the Riverside Nature Park birds back in Dundee. Off the seawall we found a handful of Velvet Scoters, a few Red Breasted Mergansers, a Razorbill, a few Eider but no sign of the White Winged Scoter. I suspect it was most likely around the same area I'd seen it on Saturday.
A flock of Wigeon flew out over the sea and hundreds of Oystercatchers flew over us inbound to their high tide roost site on the scrapes. A Turnstone landed briefly on the concrete banking below the seawall. A Red Admiral butterfly fluttered past. While scanning the sea I spotted a Slavonian Grebe quite far out and managed to get Ally onto the bird which thankfully then came in a bit closer. A Common Gull flew past as did an interesting looking young Cormorant which I think looks good for a Sinensis race bird from this year. As Ally had something he needed to attend to around 1445 we headed off but not before a quick 'what is where' chat with Lainy and Adam who had just arrived. Lesser Black Backed Gull was seen on a lamp post in Edinburgh. I had another long wait for a train home once Ally dropped me off but made it home for around 1800 having added a pair of Mallard from the train.
Mission accomplished at the third time of asking with another lifer - the 3rd in a week, in the proverbial bag. There wasn't really a lot of looking around at other stuff so the list wasn't as long as it maybe could have been but I still managed 51 species of bird including the year-tick/lifer (in bold) and a couple of butterflies, and despite Ally only having a 200mm lens he'd managed nice photos of both the Starling and the Shrike too. It was also good to catch up with Ally's news.
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| Starling |
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| Rose Coloured Starling & Starling |
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| Rose Coloured Starling |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Rose Coloured Starling |
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| Rose Coloured Starling |
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| Rose Coloured Starling |
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| Rose Coloured Starling |
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| Rose Coloured Starling |
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| Curlew Sandpiper |
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| Curlew Sandpiper & Teal |
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| Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Teal & Pectoral Sandpiper |
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| Dunlin, Teal, Pectoral Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper |
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| Stock Dove |
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| Wigeon & Red Breasted Merganser |
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| Velvet Scoter |
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| Turnstone |
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| Velvet Scoter |
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| Velvet Scoter |
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| Cormorant |
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| Cormorant |
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| Red Breasted Merganser |
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| Velvet Scoter |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Eider |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Turnstone |
Species seen -Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Eider, Gannet, Great Black Backed Gull, Grey eron, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pectoral Sandpiper, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Razorbill, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook,
Rose Coloured Starling, Sandwich Tern, Shag, Shelduck, Slavonian Grebe, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Teal, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter, Wheatear, Wigeon, Woodchat Shrike, Woodpigeon.
Butterflies - Red Admiral, Speckled Wood.
