Another East Coast Trip plus Illustrated Talk

On the 17th we travelled through to the east coast once again, thanks to Mike & Judith. The weather was overcast and became really misty as the day developed. As a result the photographs are generally awful, at least that is my excuse!!! So much so that some of them remind me of the days of black & white film.

We started at Torness and it was clear that there were a lots of birds in the bushes and shrubs, as I had predicted. Sadly they were mainly Robins and Blue Tits with the odd Goldcrest and Chiffchaff plus good numbers of Greenfinches and House Sparrows ..

Part of the House Sparrow flock - Torness - 17 September 2014

House Sparrow - Torness - 17 September 2014

 

A few Swallows were flying around and this Wheatear was the only other 'summer migrant'

 

Wheatear - Torness - 17 September 2014

 

Moving on to the beach and walkway we encountered good numbers of common waders including this Golden Plover flock ...

 

 

As you can see, the mist was rolling in from the sea so we headed of to Skateraw where we had lunch and I took this 'atmospheric' photo of the Power Station in the distance ..

 

Skateraw, with Torness Power Station in the distance - 17 September 2014

 

With visibility getting worse we made the short journey to Barns Ness. Initially, whilst walking around the old camp site there didn't seem to be any birds present. However, we persevered and around the famous 'wire dump' we started to hear and see a few birds including this Whitethroat ...

 

 

and this Garden Warbler .........

 

 

Other birds found in and around the dump included Spotted Flycatcher, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Dunnock and a Woodpigeon, still on a nest with young!!!!

 

 

Inspired by this we returned to the old camp site and found another Spotted Flycatcher ....

 

 

..and finished with a male Stonechat and a Kestrel as we returned to the car. We travelled on to Dunbar and walked along the John Muir Way looking for more waders but the visibility was now down to just a few yards so we called it a day and headed home via a local hotel.

 

Last night, I was speaking at the Hamilton RSPB Local Group on 'Zambia and Botswana'. Thanks to everyone that attended and hopefully you enjoyed it. To give you a flavour of the talk, one of my photos follows ....