Twitching Lothian...

Yesterday morning we set off on our first ever twitch to Scotland from home, hoping to catch up with the scoters at Musselburgh, Lothian...

The heavy rain and sleet on the drive up were a bit worrying, but thankfully it cleared as we crossed the border, and conditions at Musselburgh when we arrived weren't too bad. We walked east along the sea wall, and arrived at the twitch just as our target was found. The smart drake American White-winged Scoter was showing quite well with a group of Velvet Scoters, not far beyond the surf. It showed throughout our visit, although could be difficult to find in the rough seas, despite being quite close in. I opted for videos of it today due to the choppy water, so the below photos are nothing more than record videograbs!

Other birds off the sea wall include a drake Surf Scoter which gave a couple of nice flypasts, before settling on the sea, around 30 Velvet Scoters, 3 Slavonian Grebes and our first Sandwich Tern of the year.

We took quite an indirect route home! Calling in at Low Newton, the Grey Phalarope was showing nicely on the scrapes, while a first-winter Glaucous Gull was in the field next to Monks House Pool. Finally, at Druridge Pools, a Water Pipit was showing well along with 36 Black-tailed Godwits, 4 Pintail and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers.

American White-winged Scoter - video should be viewed in HD at 1080p

Grey Phalarope - video should be viewed in HD at 1080p

Glaucous Gull

Water Pipit - video should be viewed in HD at 1080p

More decent seawatching!

We've had a good run of seawatching this year with highlights up to today including Cory's Shearwater, Sabine's Gull, Storm Petrel and two White-billed Divers. We weren't as hopeful about today when we set off this morning, but were pleased to be proved wrong in the end!

We decided to start at Hadston Carrs and it wasn't long before we had our first Little Auk of the morning heading north. We stayed for two hours but it was pretty quiet with the highlight perhaps being a single Snow Bunting flying north past below the small cliff. Here's the totals for Hadston (09:30-11:30)...

2 Little Auk
10 Goldeneye
1 Long-tailed Duck
1 Little Egret
1 Snow Bunting
1 Great Northern Diver
3 Red-throated Diver
2 Great Crested Grebe

We then took a break for lunch and checked a quiet Druridge Pools before deciding to have another look at the sea from Snab Point. With rougher seas and the wind coming more from the north, our two and a half hours here were much more productive.

There were a few more Little Auks passing now and I got onto a distant Grey Phalarope which kept on disappearing behind waves. A second-winter Glaucous Gull suddenly appeared over the rocks and was close enough to make out the pale iris through binoculars. The Grey Phalarope reappeared much closer feeding in the surf and a second more distant bird flew north at speed shortly afterwards. After one had been seen earlier I was pleased to now be able add it to my finds list. Another finds tick for me came shortly afterwards when I picked up a lark flying straight towards us at distance. Despite the long range, its pale face was visible and as it got closer we could see that it lacked a white-trailing edge to the wings, confirming it as a Shore Lark.

It quietened down shortly after this but just as we were about to leave a Little Auk appeared flying over the rocks before landing in a rock pool, and I was able to get within a couple of metres of it,  providing easily my best ever views! The totals from Snab Point 12:45-15:20 were as follows...

2 Grey Phalarope
16 Little Auk
1 Glaucous Gull
1 Slavonian Grebe
1 Great Skua
1 Manx Shearwater
3 Goldeneye
1 Goosander
1 Grey Plover
1 Shore Lark

Little Auk - second photo taken on my phone without any zoom!

Brilliant day at Stag Rocks

The Grey Phalarope which had been around Stag Rocks for the past month or so was the target for our days birding. A couple of hours at Stag Rocks early morning was good with the highlights being: a Black-throated Diver, very close Red-necked Grebe, Little Gull as well as at least 5 Slavonian Grebes and more than double that of Long-tailed Ducks.

We decided next to have a look around some of the other sites in the area and return at high tide. At Budle Bay there was good numbers of both subspecies of Brent Goose and Barnacle Geese as well as a few Grey Plovers. The hide at Fenham-le-moor produced more Grey Plovers and Brent Geese.

Back at Stag Rocks the Grey Phalarope had returned and we saw it before we'd even got out the car. I spent the next hour photographing it at really close range and filling my boots with freezing cold sea water, though it was certainly worth it! 2 Little Gulls also gave amazing views, but by this point the light was fading, so my photos of them probably could have been better (perhaps more like these!).

Grey Phalarope

Little Gull

Turnstones

Herring Gulls