More East Coast and Local Birding

Since my last post I've continued to make use of my travel cards for long walks and excellent birding. I also enjoyed an excellent trip by car, thanks to Stephen!

On the 18th it was a bus from Edinburgh to Thorntonloch. Things were a lot quieter than on the 15th but there were still a few birds around if you were patient and looked hard enough!

The berry bearing bushes at Thorntonloch proved popular with a number of species including this Chiffchaff ....

and this Song Thrush .............

Off the sea wall at Torness, I was surprised to see this Red-throated Diver, still with much of its red throat!

 

From here I walked along the John Muir Link passed Skateraw towards Barns Ness. I stopped at the small burn/clump of rosebay willowherb and with other birders tried to get views of a reported Dusky Warbler.

 

 

I managed a 10 second glimpse of what was probably the bird but not enough to confirm its identity! A flyover of 18 Barnacle Geese offered some compensation .....

 

 

Realising that time was tight and as the original intention was to enjoy a long walk, I headed off towards my bus connection in Dunbar.

 

It was strange to see White Sands Bay at high tide as on nearly every other walk the white sand has glistened in the sun!

 

 

Whilst the sand might have been lacking, the usual Stonechats (3 in this instance) were not. And although the sun was low in the sky, I managed a record shot of this bird ...

 

 

Thankfully, I made the bus connection with c5 minutes to spare!

 

On Friday we both travelled up to Aberdeen and explored the Girdle Ness area .... 

 

 

 

The trip can be summed up as being a very pleasant walk but a failed twitch - Daurian Shrike!

 

Yesterday, I travelled through to the East Coast, courtesy of Stephen and we stumbled across 4 cracking Shorelarks at John Muir Country Park .....

 

 

I also found a distant Dark-bellied Brent Goose

 

 

From John Muir Country Park we headed to White Sands Quarry just in time to see some geese fly off. We were told they were Bean Geese but again as I can't be sure of their ID they became another possible sighting rather than confirmed!

 

 

There were lots of other birds in the quarry and we agreed this would be a good place to visit on a regular basis...

 

 

Having explored the east coast we stopped at Garnqueen Loch in Glenboig on the way home and were impressed by the range of wildfowl to be found in such a relatively small loch - yet another place worthy of further visits ...........

 

 

Finally, some recent sightings from the Greater Glasgow area, courtesy of the SOC Clyde Grapevine:

 

Sunday 23 October 2016
Two drake Ruddy Ducks on Garnqueen Loch.
70 Fieldfares flew north over Pollok Country Park, and two Nuthatches at the feeders.

Friday 21 October 2016
A Chiffchaff with a tit flock at Garnkirk Moss Wood, Glasgow.
A Kingfisher over the causeway at Milngavie Reservoirs at 0930 hrs.

Wednesday 19 October 2016
90 Fieldfare and 18 Redwing at Gartloch Pool.

Mammal Record
Evidence of a Pine Marten (footprint, droppings) at Garnkirk Moss Wood (NS675675), possibly the first recent record for Glasgow.