'Scarce' birds start to appear

I travelled through to Fife and Lothian with Stephen and Peter last Sunday in the hope of adding a few 'unusual' species to my year list.

We started at Pettycur harbour, near Kinghorn ……

The Forth from Pettycur

… and quickly saw a number of terns - Sandwich and Common. However, in the distance, two birds looked darker whilst flying around the estuary. We all thought Black Tern and our thoughts were then confirmed when one landed on a distant buoy giving us good scope views. This photo was shot at maximum zoom on my bridge camera but does at least provide a nice record!

Distant record shot of juvenile Black Tern

Having also added Arctic Skua to my year list, we then headed for Guardbridge and the Eden Estuary ….

Eden Estuary

Here we saw a variety of waders including Greenshank, Ruff and Black-tailed Godwit. Other species of note included Little Egret, Osprey and Kingfisher …..

Greenshank

Two distant Little Egrets

Having planned to then visit 'The Wilderness' and 'Letham Pools', we had a change of heart when we heard about a Pectoral Sandpiper at Musselburgh Lagoons!

We arrived after 5pm but managed to see the bird albeit it spent most its time at the back of one of the lagoons or in the grass! So photographs are limited to this heavily cropped token shot …

Pectoral Sandpiper

So a great day's birding and creeping ever closer to 200 species in Scotland for the year!

On Tuesday I paid a short visit to Hogganfield Park LNR to check out progress on the planned path improvements and to hopefully get a passage tern or chat.

The path work was almost complete but sadly no sign of any birds on passage …..

One of the new surfaced paths

… although I did get an atmospheric shot over the loch towards the island ….

Elsewhere, in Greater Glasgow, sightings (courtesy of SOC Clyde Branch) included:

Tuesday 4 September 2018
The female Garganey still on Frankfield Loch, also an excellent 25 Shovelers, 380 Lapwings and two Kingfishers.

Monday 3 September 2018
The female Garganey still on Frankfield Loch. 
An Osprey fishing at Gadloch, Lenzie between 1500-1800 hrs.
Eight Black-tailed Godwits at Balmore Pool.

Saturday 1 September 2018
The female Garganey still on Frankfield Loch, also a Greenshank.