Following on from my Hogganfield visit we have been through to Musselburgh (again), courtesy of Judith and Mike, and up to Mallaig, courtesy of our travel cards!
At the scrapes we enjoyed views of common waders and with careful scrutiny we also picked up a Greenshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Whimbrel ...........
Wader spectacle
Off the sea wall there was no sign of the Velvet Scoter flock nor the Surf Scoter that normally associates with them, although we did see a small group of Common Scoter. There were large numbers of Eider, many of which were 'moulting' ...............
Moulting Eider
And in with a large flock was this Red-necked Grebe ..........
Red-necked Grebe
We left Musselburgh and had a quick look around Port Seton and I was pleased to find a Mediterranean Gull (a year tick).
In total, we saw around 60 species for the day.
On Friday we travelled up to Mallaig and on the Saturday went on a Cal-Mac cruise around the Small Isles. From the boat we saws 100s of Manx Shearwaters, Puffins, Guillemots, Black Guillemots, Razorbills (only 2), Gannets, Kittiwakes, Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls, 3 Red-throated Divers and Great Skuas ..............
A few video grabs .................
Great Skua
Gannets
Manx Shearwaters
This was the first time we had visited Mallaig together and is something we'll definitely do again - it was just a pity that the weather clouded over and there was a bit of a swell making photography difficult! But it has to be said the scenery was awesome - aren't we lucky to live in such a wonderful country................
Eigg and Rum at sunset
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