If the weather forecast for Saturday was reasonably decent, Ian and I had provisional plans in place for a visit to the Lothians for a few of the available birds down that way. In particular the 2 rare Scoter species - White Winged and Surf, though we were also hoping to see Black Necked Grebe, Red Necked Grebe, Tundra Bean Goose and Water Pipit. There hadn't been any particularly recent sightings of a few of them so expectations were not overly high. As things transpired the forecast wasn't ideal with strong winds and overcast conditions but we decided to go anyway.
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| Black Necked Grebe |
I was meeting Ian in Perth around 0715 so it was an early start for me but it meant we reached our first stop just after 0900. A relatively dark-eyed and apparently long billed 'Herring' Gull had me questioning whether or not it might be something more interesting but having seen the photos at home I was leaning towards Herring Gull but hadn't ruled out something more interesting. Comments online came back as 'just a Herring Gull'. We had a quick scan offshore from Fisherrow but the birds were rather distant as it was around low tide. For a better view we headed along to Joppa where we found a few birders scanning out over the Forth.
One of those present was Dave Allen who confirmed that there wasn't yet any sign of the White Winged or Surf Scoters. However, within a few minutes Dave spotted a distant Scoter flying in our direction from beyond the Esk mouth and thought it looked good for the White Winged Scoter. Thankfully the bird splashed down out in front of us, though still reasonably far from the shore and it was indeed the
White Winged Scoter. Identifying the fast moving White Winged Scoter in flight, in poor light, from a front 3/4 view is quite probably some of the most impressive birding I've ever witnessed. Dave left shortly after and we had a fly-by from a Peregrine before we set off for the mouth of the Esk to try for the Surf Scoter.
We bumped into Dave and his friend there again just as he was about to leave. He hadn't looked for the Surf Scoter but he indicated where the bird tended to be seen as he headed off. It was rather cold and windy but a quick check of the indicated area found the drake
Surf Scoter not too far beyond the exposed mud which still meant it was rather distant. Target number 2 in the bag though. Next stop was Skateraw where we hoped to catch up with the single Tundra Bean Goose which has been keeping company with a flock of Pink Footed Geese near Torness. As we neared the junction we could see the geese in the fields and with a report of the bird still being around from a short while before we knew our chances were good.
I asked the birder in front of us if he'd seen the goose. He hadn't. We scanned through the flock and drew a blank too. There were 2 others there who I suspected were Darren Woodhead, the amazingly talented watercolour painter, and his son, Corin, who looks to have inherited his Dad's talent for painting birds. A few minutes later, Corin, let the 3 of us behind know that they had found the
Tundra Bean Goose and we all managed to get onto the bird. We were then joined by Rab Shand and I had a wee catch-up chat before shooting a couple of short video clips of the goose. Our next target was Water Pipit, although the previous sighting in that area had apparently been around 10 days or so ago.
We headed down to the beach. We didn't see or hear any Pipits near the limekilns so we set off along the beach towards the north end where there were some piles of seaweed on the beach. As we neared the area we heard and then saw a few Rock Pipits feeding down on the beach. Ian spotted a paler bird and I got onto it too. It was very obviously brown on the back and white on the undersides without any hint of olive colouring. Two prominent white wing bars and a lot less streaking on the breast and flanks than the Rock Pipits completed the picture. We had our
Water Pipit. Unfortunately a Rock Pipit then chased it off and we spent a considerable amount of time trying, and failing, to re-find the bird.
Time was by now running against us a little so we decided to head for Cramond, missing out a return to Musselburgh for high tide views of the Scoters and a chance at Divers. It took around 45 minutes or so to reach Cramond which was very busy with people. There were lots of Black Headed Gulls around, with more Herring Gulls and a Lesser Black Backed Gull offshore. A few Wigeon were further to the west with another pair close in to the causeway. Ian eventually picked up a Grebe to the east of the causeway but relatively close in. Initial impressions were that it looked very like the
Black Necked Grebe we were hoping to find and better views through the scopes were confirmed with photos and I had my 5th year-tick of the day.
Although the light was beginning to go on account of the rather overcast skies, we decided to try for Pochard at Loch Leven as Ian had seen some the previous day off Burleigh Sands. Unfortunately when we arrived there the light was really poor and the ducks were all rather distant. I did find a Slavonian Grebe behind the flock of Tufted Ducks bobbing around out on the Loch but we failed to find any obvious Pochard among the flock. We had a quick look through a large flock of Greylag and Pink Footed Geese in a field across the road from the car park but there was nothing unusual among them, so we headed back to Dundee and home.
A really good day out once again with only the Pochard missed of the birds we actually tried for (Red Necked Grebe wasn't really expected and Black Throated Diver wasn't tried for). We managed to see 58 species with 5 year-ticks (in bold) among them and the weather more or less held, though rain did put in a few brief appearances while we were in the car between destinations.
Species seen - Dundee to Musselburgh - Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Woodpigeon, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull, Canada Goose.
Fisherrow/Joppa - Oystercatcher, Eider, Feral Pigeon, Curlew, Velvet Scoter, Redshank, Dunlin, Great Black Backed Gull, Shelduck, Great Crested Grebe, Shag, Long Tailed Duck, Starling, White Winged Scoter, Peregrine, Bar Tailed Godwit.
Musselburgh and/to Skateraw - Mallard, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Mute Swan, Common Gull, Surf Scoter, Blue Tit, Cormorant, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk., Kestrel.
Skateraw/Torness area - Pink Footed Goose, Tundra Bean Goose, Meadow Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Skylark, Chaffinch, Rock Pipit, Yellowhammer, Ringed Plover, Pied Wagtail, Water Pipit, Red Breasted Merganser, Grey Plover, Purple Sandpiper, Sanderling, Turnstone.
Mammals - Roe Deer.
Cramond - Lesser Black Backed Gull, Lapwing, Black Necked Grebe.
Loch Leven - Tufted Duck, Slavonian Grebe, Greylag Goose.
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| Herring Gull |
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| Dunlin & Redshank |
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| Velvet Scoter & White Winged Scoter |
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| Velvet Scoter & White Winged Scoter |
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| Bar Tailed Godwit |
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| Great Black Backed Gull, Shag, Herring Gull & Curlew |
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| Surf Scoter & Velvet Scoter |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Tundra Bean Goose & Pink Footed Goose |
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| Skylark |
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| Tundra Bean Goose & Pink Footed Goose |
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| Tundra Bean Goose & Pink Footed Goose |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Tundra Bean Goose & Pink Footed Goose |
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| Tundra Bean Goose & Pink Footed Goose |
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| Water Pipit |
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| Water Pipit |
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| Water Pipit |
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| Water Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Sanderling |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Roe Deer |
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| Roe Deer |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Lapwing |
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| Black Necked Grebe |
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| Black Necked Grebe |
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| Black Necked Grebe |
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| Wigeon |
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| Black Necked Grebe |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull,
Black Necked Grebe, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Goldeneye, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Plover, Grey Wagtail, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Duck, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Purple Sandpiper, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sanderling, Shag, Shelduck, Skylark, Slavonian Grebe, Sparrowhawk, Starling,
Surf Scoter, Tufted Duck,
Tundra Bean Goose, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter,
Water Pipit, White Winged Scoter, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Yellowhammer.
Mammals seen - Roe Deer.
