Musselburgh

 We made another visit to Musselburgh last week as we were visiting our daughter in Leith. We started at Fisherrow Harbour: Redshank

and Dunlin were seen,

plus the odd Oystercatcher. We then moved on to our first ever visit to the Esk Mouth in search of various Scoter, but speaking to others there, they had drifted away into the Forth, so that was a shame. There were quite a few Goldeneye on the Esk and plenty of Curlew on the shore:

Also load of Corvids and Gulls, but we didn't stay long as the wind was spiteful and it was very cold, even though I had three layers on.

We carried on to Levenhall Links and the Lagoons, where there were Wigeon, Oystercatcher, Bar-tailed Godwit, Redshank, lawing and Curlew aplenty!

Curlew,

Oystercatcher,

Bar-tailed Godwit,

Oystercatchers,

Wigeon

and Lapwing.

We also had a good sighting of a Kestrel on the hunt, a single Shoveler put in an appearance, as well as plenty of Teal. But the big highlight for us was a very brief appearance of a Short-eared Owl. This is our mission for 2022, to see the three main species of Owl (Bar, Short-eared and Tawny) as we hadn't until then seen an owl for over two years! Not for want of trying I might add.

We left just before dusk, frozen solid. Never been more grateful for heated seats in the car.

Musselburgh - Lagoons & Seafront

 In between celebrating my Birthday we paid a visit to Musselburgh, spending a while in the left most hide as that was where the majority of the birding was to be had, then finishing off with 15 minutes or so at the sea wall before heading off for some Prosecco!

The lagoons were dominated by the large number of lapwings, but among that lot there were some great birds.

Black-tailed Godwit;

Ruff;

Some distant Snipe;

and Green Sandpiper;

There was also a solitary Wigeon, some Teal and the odd Curlew dropping in and out. There was also 4 or 5 Grey Heron, the most I think we have seen here.

At the sea wall, there were plenty of Guillemot and Razorbill close in, more evidence of this strange phenomenon going on this year all along the coast. Going fishing 😊;

 Further out apart from the Gulls, Gannet and Goosander were seen, plus great views of three Velvet Scoter through the scope, much too far for the camera, this is when I had an adapter so that I could digiscope with the phone.

As we walked back to the car some Little Grebe were seen on the boating pond, as well as a large flock of small birds heading into the trees. These turned out to be a mix of Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and a solitary Willow Warbler.

So a nice couple of hours.

Musselburgh, East Lothian

 Final catch up posting, we had to go to Scotland at the beginning of October for a week and in the middle of a hectic few days we managed a lie in an afternoon out and took ourselves off for a bit of relaxation at Musselburgh Lagoons. We spent a good couple of hours there in the concrete roofless hides, thankfully it stayed dry, before driving along the Forth to Longniddry.

The Lagoons were really busy, with;

Plenty of Redshank,

Oystercatchers and Greylag Geese,

Bar-tailed Godwit,

a Couple of Whooper Swans,

Knot,

Barnacle Geese,

and Dunlin.

Just realised a never took a photo of my favourite waders, the Curlew!

In addition there were a couple of Ruff about, as well as Wigeon and Teal. The boating pond produced Mute Swan, Mallard and Gadwall. We had some great socially distanced chats with some of the local birders all very friendly. It was a great couple of hours. Can't wait to go back, but now we are in Tier Two, and the Central Belt in Scotland is under tough restrictions, it won't be happening for a while. 😒

Longniddry was very quiet, some Turnstone, a couple of Rock Pipit, fly bys by Cormorants and some distant Eider and Goosander to round off the day. We had planned to carry on to Aberlady but ran out of time and tide.

Good Start to the Birding Year in Scotland

Firstly a belated Happy New Year to anyone reading this....

We had spent all of Christmas and New Year at our daughters in Leith managing a day out in between Christmas and New Year, but not much to report from our explorations. We chased a couple of Waxwing reports from within Edinburgh, but each time they had gone by the time we got there, that's life!!

We started the year with a new years day afternoon out on the south shore of the Firth of Forth east of Edinburgh. We started at the Council Concrete Hides overlooking the Musselbrugh Lagoons. It was fairly quite, with nothing out of the ordinary until three Grey Partridge ran across the grass between us and the water:

There were a good number of Curlew about, but only one came close enough for a photo:

Other birds on the Lagoons; Lapwing, Wigeon, Teal, Oystercatcher, Mallard, Crow and Black-headed Gull. Some Bullfinch were seen behind the hides on the path, which was very nice.
Back at the boating pool, a pair of Goldenye showed well (in the gloom!) here#s the male:

Also on the pool were a some Mute Swan, Tufted Duck and a couple of Gadwall.

From Musselburgh we ventured further east stopping at Prestonpans and Longniddry before ending up at the estuary at Aberlady. The weather was really murky and with the tide in there wasn't a great deal to see, but we added Eider, Cormorant, Redshank, Shelduck, Black-tailed Godwit and Golden Plover to our new years day tally. So not bad for day one.

Firth of Forth South Coast

We have just returned from a loooong weekend in Edinburgh, we were up for our daughters birthday, where much beer and wine was consumed! In between we managed a couple of short trips along the south coast of the firth calling in at a couple of our favourite spots.

Our first trip out after some errands took us to Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Aberlady. However before we arrived at Musselburgh Lagoons I realised that I had left my camera at our daughters place! Which was a shame as the sun was out and the birds were showing really well on the Lagoons, especially the Curlew Sandpiper, this was a first for us in the UK, but not a lifer, but it did edge our UK list up to 234, not too bad as we don't twitch.

I know there are some great birds about at the moment, but I don't fancy a 5 hour drive down to the tip of Cornwall to see the Brown Booby or Wilson's Petrel!! Anyway there are so many photos being posted on twitter, saying look at what I have seen and you haven't, it gets on my nerves! Sorry rantette over! (could be jealousy!)

Back to to Musselburgh..... in addition to the Sandpiper there were tons of Black-tailed Godwit, Sandwich Terns, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew and a some Greenshank, Lapwing and a couple of Ruff. There were Gulls of course, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring. A few Teal were wandering around too.. plus a couple of early Wigeon dropped in just before we left. The other great thing to see were the Gannet fishing just offshore always a delight.

We moved east to Prestonpans, seeing Eider and Red-breasted Merganser, which was nice, we also found a nice parking spot behind Lidl that gave us great views across to Edinburgh, the water and some shoreline, here we picked up a group of Turnstone to add to our list, as well as more Eider.

We then carried on to Aberlady, sadly we had got the tide wrong, so there wasn't much about other than a large number of Gadwall, Greylags and Canada Geese. Not a bad couple of hours.

On Monday we went out again, this time with the camera, but the weather was really dull and when we got to the hides at the lagoons, all the birds had decided to move as far away as possible! Species wise there was no sign of the Greenshank or Ruff, but the Curlew Sandpipers were still there. We did add some Shelduck and a Ringed Plover to our Tally though.

Then a visit from the RAF... that's what got the birds up!

We didn't have a lot of time, so we just popped up to Prestonpans again, where we added, to our surprise, a Wheatear to the tally.