East Coast Magic Part 3

I've just finished an intensive week of birding travelling through to the east with Stephen, Peter and Lynda. Originally we had hoped to spend a few nights away but that fell through so we got to fall in love (!) with the M8 and its traffic.

The weather wasn't conducive to taking photos plus I was concentrating on bird watching/finding - you really can't do both well, at least that's what I've found.

We added to our year list, and in Stephen's case 'life list', saw some rare birds and missed a few and on one occasion -  Great Grey Shrike at Skateraw - this was literally by seconds!

On Monday, we looked at the weather forecast and concluded we needed somewhere with hides! We headed for Vane Farm/Loch Leven RSPB Reserve where our best find was a Scaup on Loch Leven. Note one of the hides was closed due to storm damage. In the afternoon we travelled down to Pettycur Harbour where according to the forecast it would be dry and thankfully, it was. We spotted a couple of Great Skuas as well as lots of common sea birds such as Guillemots and Gannets. This juvenile Gannet came incredibly close to the harbour wall ……

On Tuesday, we visited Musselburgh Lagoons and were successful in finding the Little Stint and White-winged Scoter, but not the Jack Snipe that others had seen earlier!The White-winged Scoter is from North America and very similar to 'our' Velvet Scoter so we were pleased we got good enough sightings to distinguish it from its more common cousins. Record shots follow ….

Little Stint (2nd from right) with Dunlin and Lapwing

White-winged Scoter (3rd from left) with Velvet Scoter

The next day it was on to Torness and Barns Ness. The winds were forecast to eventually turn to a south easterly direction and we hoped that might bring in a few unusual birds. We didn't find anything unusual at Torness although a Wheatear proved some birds were on the move. However, there were 100s of Linnets and Goldfinches using a field planted with sunflowers …

We also saw one of the local Peregrines ..

Having explored all the bushes and shrubs, as well as the sea wall and shore, we headed to Barns Ness where the tide was coming in and allowing us close views of common waders with this solitary Golden Plover standing out ..

Our final day was Thursday (we had Friday off to recover). We started at Musselburgh Lagoons in the hope of seeing Jack Snipe but once again we were 'unlucky' but we did see our first Barnacle Geese of the autumn.

With the winds remaining in an easterly direction we soon headed off as we were convinced we would find something unusual at Torness and/or Skateraw, and we did -  a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers - one at Torness and one at Skateraw. They were difficult to see, although we could hear them calling, as they moved through the sycamores but we eventually got good enough views to confirm their identity.

We also got our first Redwing of the year at Skateraw. Record shot only ….

Sadly, whilst looking for migrants at the waterfall we missed a Great Grey Shrike which flew in, landed on a fence post for a minute or two and then flew off towards a dung heap on the crest of the hill, just as we emerged from the wood. We saw the photos so know it wasn't a wind-up! Despite intensive searching it wasn't relocated.

So, despite missing a few species it was a great week's birding in all sorts of weather. I reached 200 species in Scotland for the year including a UK tick with the White-winged Scoter and had some fun on the way.

And finally, thanks to both Stephen and Peter for doing the driving and to Lynda for being the sensible one!

PS remember to click on each photo to get a slide show and enhanced viewing of the pictures.