East Coast Magic 2017 - part 1

With a favourable weather forecast,  dry and south easterly winds, I travelled through to Torness Power Station yesterday - Borders Buses no.253 from Edinburgh Bus station to Thorntonloch Junction.

Even from the bus I could see small flocks of thrushes flying overhead, so things looked promising.

Having reached the stop at the Thorntonloch Junction and having crossed the A1, I was soon approaching the perimeter boundary of the Torness Power Station. Again I could see birds flying high overhead - thrushes and skylarks - when I noted this Wheatear sitting in a field quite close to the access road  ...........

 

When I reached the bushes and trees in the vicinity of the Visitor Centre car park, I bumped into two other birders. Remarkably, they had read this blog - thanks chaps! They were both helpful and we had an interesting chat about 'dogs and nature reserves'!

 

On the bird front there were lots of thrushes as well as a few common birds such as Wren.............

 

Blackbird

Song Thrush

Robin

 

A Chiffchaff was spotted briefly and also a Brambling ..........

 

Brambling

 

I also eventually managed a brief glimpse of a Yellow-browed Warbler before deciding to explore further ...

 

From the sea wall looking towards Thorntonloch

 

In the fields that lie between the Power Station and Thorntonloch, there were a variety of waders including 22 Golden Plover ...

 

Golden Plover

 

The bird list now stood at 30+ with the addition of species such a Tree Sparrow but no more migrants or rarities. As I still had an hour or so before catching the 3pm bus back to Edinburgh I returned to the bushes and shrubs where I had glimpsed the Yellow-browed Warbler

 

AND I got some excellent views and even a few photos ....

 

Yellow-browed Warbler

 

... a great end to the day.

 

Note: Just a reminder you can click on the photos to create a slide show. As it was overcast for most of the day, the photos aren't great but hopefully they give an impression of what you can see, if you are patient, when birding the east coast.

 

Finally, some recent sightings from closer to home, courtesy of the SOC Clyde Grapevine:

 

Thursday 19 October 2017
A Brambling and a Fieldfare in a Mugdock garden this morning.
Two Kingfishers and a Water Rail at the Firhill Basin, Glasgow.