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.

Winsford, Cheshire

 A family visit took us up to Cheshire in September and the River Weaver again not many birds about but there were a few other things around.

Buzzard going over,

Red Admiral,

The River Weaver,

Common Hawker (I think!)

Always wanted to get a Dragonfly in flight and finally managed it!

Juvenile Goldfinch,

Speckled Wood,

Common Darter, again I think it is, no expert on Dragonflies,

and a distant Heron.

Lovely Day!

Kinver Canal

 We have been very busy with one thing and another the last few weeks so haven't had time to post anything, so I am starting a bit of a catch up. Back in mid September, we popped over to Kinver and one of our favourite walks. It takes you between the canal and the River Stour. From a birding point of view it was very quiet, the highlight being the Grey Wagtails:

Otherwise not much to add just some bits and bobs:

The full bird list:

Back at Ladywalk NR

 Paid our third visit to Ladywalk this week, very quiet, although we did see some Egyptian Geese, haven't seen any of those since February in Norfolk, those lovely days before Covid.

See here are a few photos:

The aforementioned Egyptian Geese, seen from hide A,

Gadwall,

Goosander on the river,

As usual plenty of Herons.

Two of the three Little Egrets seen,

Yes it's a hide, in fact it's hide B!

Shoveler,

yet another Heron,

a Muntjac,

a Great Crested Grebe with youngster.

The sun came out so this Cormorant took the opportunity to dry those wings, bad design!

And finally one of the four Green Sandpipers seen foraging in the shallows.

As usual a lovely walk, our favourite at the moment, might spice it up next time and go clockwise 😄

Up Inverness Way

 So a long time since the last post! We had planned a week in Grantown on Spey, with 'covid secure' guided trips out for mid August, but due to some issues we had to sadly cancel, we did manage to sort things and find an outrageously expensive flat just outside Inverness for later the end of August. Due to the demand we just couldn't find anything else!

Having said that we had a great time exploring some new and some old places. I won't go into a day by day account, but we did manage to bring our 2020 total for birds up to 143 for the UK, still way short of our normal totals, but that's down to missing spring really in lock down.

So here are a few highlights:

Slavonian Grebes, Loch Ruthven,

Knot, Chanonry Point,

Canada Geese, Gulls & a Redshank at Udale Bay, The Black Isle,

Ringed Plover at Chanonry Point

Turnstones, Chanonry Point,

Herring Gull, North Kessick,

Osprey, Beauly Firth,

Curlew, Beauly Firth,

Wren, Balblair Wood, Loch Fleet

Seals, Loch Fleet,

Falls of Shinn

Salmon, Falls of Shinn,

Osprey, Spey Bay,

Brent Goose, Spey Bay,

Redshank & Bar-tailed Godwit, Nairn

and Goosander, Leith -Edinburgh

Common Terns, Longniddry, East Lothian

Sandwich Tern, Longniddry, East Lothian

So a really great trip, ending up in Edinburgh to celebrate our daughters birthday, so all worked out well in the end! Over 70 species of birds seen, sadly no Eagles or Crossbills, but with the aid of our new scope, managed to get a Red-throated Diver in the sea by Burghead, plus fantastic views of the Osprey in the Beauly Firth. In fact we had 8 separate Osprey sightings, which was awesome (admittedly that includes 3 flying together at Spey Bay)