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Lothian Birding (1 Viewer)

Well after a heavy week at work and terrible weather I looked forward to today off-until I got a court summons on Tuesday meaning I had to remain at home on standby-thankfully at 1pm I got permission to stand down. So there was time for a first wander round Musselburgh this year. And it must have been really cold in the last few days because this normally frost free seaside spot was largely frozen apart from one small part of one scrape.

After the incessant rain, wind and sleet of the last few days it was good to have a calm day. A kingfisher did his usual party piece at the esk mouth. Goldeneye reached a record for me of 135. 10 or so longtailed ducks, 10 or so slavs, 50+velvet scoter were the highlight on the sea with some being so close in that I could capture them with a 400mm lens.

The scrapes were crammed with wigeon and teal on the one free bit of watern with the bonus of a male gadwall

Nothing outof the ordinary but just so damn good to get out in clear calm fresh air after the last few days
 

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Harperrig and Bavelaw area

I decided to have my first look at Harperrig having read Calum's reports. It was a fabulous cold clear winters day and when I arrived the road down to the fishery car park looked too icy to go down so I parked off the main road. This was fortuitous as I heard loud "tooping" as soon as I reached the first set of conifers barely 50 yards down the track. I got decent views of about 20 crossbills for 3-4 minutes and even remembered to try and take a picture. Harperrig was 95% frozen over and 60 mallards and nothing else vied for the little patch of unfrozen water. I walked up towards the main forest and had fly overs of 4 & 6 more xbills. I got brief views of another 10 at the edge of the main forest before it was time to move on.

I went to a favoured spot from last year-an area of set aside near Buteland farm. There were several hundred finches and buntings flying into the field and up to the few low trees. Probably about 15 bramblings,20+ yellowhammer,20+reed bunting with the majority being chaffinches and smaller numbers of other birds. A little further along were 15-20 twites

Time to head then to Easter Road-a raucous atmosphere and superb result as we thrashed our bogey team ICT 3-0-a great start for the new manager, Mixu|:D| A fine end to a good day
 

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Hi Mark,

Good to see you connected with quite a few Xbill's, did you get any recording's ?

Weekend's birds for me was Black-necked Grebe still of Ferny Ness on Saturday and redhead Smew still at Linlithgow today, as well as a fly-over Raven which is very unusual for there I suspect.
Went for seconds of the Spotted Sandpiper at Kinneil, just outside the Lothian border, but as we were so close we decided to go.
We found a nice 1st w Glaucous Gull also.
 
Hi folks,
I've just found this excellent thread full of great excursions to the coast. I remember what that was like, before I became desperately addicted to crossbills. ;)
Great photos! Makes me all nostalgic for Musselburgh. It's only 10 miles away but I haven't been for ages. How sad is that? :eek!:
 
Hi Mark,

Good to see you connected with quite a few Xbill's, did you get any recording's ?

No-I ordered a mic and was then got told it would take the shop 2 months to get another of the type in. Could have tried elsewhere but treated myself to a USB turntable instead so I can put my old vinyl onto the hard drive. Still it comes with audacity so I am getting used to that. Feel a bit ambivalent about a mic TBH. Though I am OK at song call and often find it easier than id by sight, part of me says just get on with concentrating and learning calls/song-the other half says , well recording what you hear is a good way to learn-so I don't know..........
 
No-I ordered a mic and was then got told it would take the shop 2 months to get another of the type in. Could have tried elsewhere but treated myself to a USB turntable instead so I can put my old vinyl onto the hard drive. Still it comes with audacity so I am getting used to that. Feel a bit ambivalent about a mic TBH. Though I am OK at song call and often find it easier than id by sight, part of me says just get on with concentrating and learning calls/song-the other half says , well recording what you hear is a good way to learn-so I don't know..........

Enjoy the turntable and the sounds from years gone by, I still have Freebird by Leonard Skinnard on 12" picture disk from years gone by, sitting in the garage. There was nothing like it , spinning round on the deck full blast, as well as earlier stones & U2 albums:t:
 
Back to Harperrig

This week produced a bonus in the form of a female blackcap-a first ever for my garden and especially good coming in winter.

Today I went back up to Harperrig-It was sunny when I left but cold and raw with the sun trying to break through low cloud and a gentle but raw wind. A hour+ walk round the forest and I was about to give up when 10,8 and 5 crossbills flew into the sitka spruce just past West Cairns. What seemed odd to me was that they seemed to be chewing at the buds at the top of the trees(see pic 2) rather than the cones. Anyway views for 3 or 4 minutes and then off they went. Another 5 flew over calling on the way back.

Unfortunately the birds were into the light so the pictures were poor-though the silhouettes look nice-artful some might say if being charitable, just plain c**p if being more objective. Hmm....

Nothing of interest amongst the 100 or so geese feeding at the resevoir edge-couldn't believe how low the reservoir was given the recent rainfall
 

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Today I went back up to Harperrig-It was sunny when I left but cold and raw with the sun trying to break through low cloud and a gentle but raw wind. A hour+ walk round the forest and I was about to give up when 10,8 and 5 crossbills flew into the sitka spruce just past West Cairns. What seemed odd to me was that they seemed to be chewing at the buds at the top of the trees(see pic 2) rather than the cones. Anyway views for 3 or 4 minutes and then off they went. Another 5 flew over calling on the way back.

Unfortunately the birds were into the light so the pictures were poor-though the silhouettes look nice-artful some might say if being charitable, just plain c**p if being more objective. Hmm....

Mark, I've got a load of shots like that too! Sad to say they're among my best xbill shots. :-C
Good weather this weekend for crossbilling. Unfortunately I had a relation staying so couldn't slope off to the hills. Tomorrow though I'll be in the far-east (Dunbar ;)) all afternoon so I might get over to Tyninghame, John Muir CP, or down to check woods between Coldingham and Co'path hopefully.
 
We missed each other it seems Mark.
I was up there from 11.30-3.00pm on Sunday.
I walked both forestry tracks just after the house with the incessant barking dogs, I encountered around 20-30 Crossbill's all on the right track.
Managed to record a few more flight and excitement calls, although I have been too busy to do anything with them so far.
An interesting point was that in a previous post in this thread I mentioned how well pishing worked on Crossbill's, we'll i've gotta say they ignored me this time, or at least the vast majority did!!
I had read somewhere in Birdforum that another member had a similar experiance, so perhaps some types respond well to pishing, but other's dont, just a thought.
 
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An interesting point was that in a previous post in this thread I mentioned how well pishing worked on Crossbill's, we'll i've gotta say they ignored me this time, or at least the vast majority did!!
I had read somewhere in Birdforum that another member had a similar experiance, so perhaps some types respond well to pishing, but other's dont, just a thought.

I hate that. It's usually a pair sitting there quite the thing, ignoring you completely, while you pish till you're blue in the face. Ever done that and then realised your being watched by a walker or somebody? I have! Talk about cringe with embarassment!!
 
Dunbar starlings

Whilst entertaining the kids at a play park in Dunbar this afternoon I spent 45 minutes watching between 1000 and 2000 starlings doing their fancy swirly formation flying thing. :clap:

I know its a small number of birds compared to the famous spots down south but it was spectacular nonetheless. Anyone know of any roosting sites in the Lothians or Borders with bigger numbers?
 
Good to get out again

Well I had a day off and in the morning it all looked fairly apocalyptic with very strong winds and sleet/rain. The wind started to lift and the cloud rose by lunchtime so I decided to head out. On Monday I had been working in Chirnside and had stopped at Torness for 20 minutes at lunchtime and had noted a lot of birds in an old brussel sprout field. So I decided to have another look. There were plenty of birds present but viewing was difficult and I only saw a flock oflinnets and another of skylarks. I headed on towards Skateraw and just past the juction was a group of 8 tree sparrows. The real prize however came at the entrance to a path down to Barns Ness. 2 birds were visible on the path. By the time I got my gear ready I could only see one but it had a chestnut head,white wing bars and spots at chest side-a lapland bunting. Using the car as a hide I saw it feeding at about 20m for 2-3 minutes. The other bird had disappeared from view over a rise and I never saw it again.
 
A quiet week birding wise. Last Monday I went round Musselburgh-very cold with the scrapes entirely frozen. The one record of note was 325 goldeneye on the sea. I went down to Torness with camera in hand hoping to get a picture of the lapland bunting I had seen previously. Seed had been left near where I had seen the bird and I could immediately see a bird feeding raising my hopes. Sadly it proved to be a female reed bunting. However others have seen the lapland bunting kicking around in the past week so hopefully it's not departed

It was interesting to look out at the Forth from the "wrong side" on Saturday-form Fife at Largo Bay . And rather a good spot it was too-with male and female surf scoters, black and red throated divers, red necked grebe, velvet and common scoters on show
 
Not quite Lothian birding

In my last post I forgot to mention that last weekend the one part of the BF trip that took in a Lothian site was Linlithgow Loch. Good views of a red headed smew were had.

Yesterday was fine and bright so I decided to complete the 2 tetrads I had been allocated for the BirdAtlas. I was late in applying and was allocated what seemed to be at first 2 slightly unpromising areas of rough upland farmland with what looked like stands of conifers. And one area was just outside Lothian and the other half in half out. It proved to be an interesting exercise and quite tiring having to concentrate hard to pick up everything and to accurately count, for example, the mixed corvids. The one striking thing was the presence of birdsong this time-chaffies, song thrushes, greenfinches and goldcrests all in fine voice. And both areas produced around 25 species which was much more than I expected. Best birds were a flushed woodcock,a dipper and stonechat. After this I went up to Monynut edge. I flushed another woodcock. Typically the best birds were just over the border in Borders region. A huge noisy finch flock was feeding on cones. Numbers were hard to gauge accurately but there must have been around 100 siskins. A slight surprise was that the second commonest bird was bramblings with around 20 or so. Plenty of goldfinch and greenfinch too.

I was up early this am and again ventured just 2 miles into Borders region. I spent a lot of time last year looking for black grouse in Lothian but had no luck. Cycling back from my sisters in law early one morning I stumbled across a lek just 50-60 yards from a minor road not far into Borders region. There were up to 5 males last year. Today I went back and used the car as a hide which was nice as it was cold, gloomy and there was a raw wind. 2 birds were present at 7.30 and they were having a real square go at each other-absolutely riveting. After half an hour one bird slunk off leaving the other as victor. A couple of poor distant shots below
 

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In my last post I forgot to mention that last weekend the one part of the BF trip that took in a Lothian site was Linlithgow Loch. Good views of a red headed smew were had.

Yesterday was fine and bright so I decided to complete the 2 tetrads I had been allocated for the BirdAtlas. I was late in applying and was allocated what seemed to be at first 2 slightly unpromising areas of rough upland farmland with what looked like stands of conifers. And one area was just outside Lothian and the other half in half out. It proved to be an interesting exercise and quite tiring having to concentrate hard to pick up everything and to accurately count, for example, the mixed corvids. The one striking thing was the presence of birdsong this time-chaffies, song thrushes, greenfinches and goldcrests all in fine voice. And both areas produced around 25 species which was much more than I expected. Best birds were a flushed woodcock,a dipper and stonechat. After this I went up to Monynut edge. I flushed another woodcock. Typically the best birds were just over the border in Borders region. A huge noisy finch flock was feeding on cones. Numbers were hard to gauge accurately but there must have been around 100 siskins. A slight surprise was that the second commonest bird was bramblings with around 20 or so. Plenty of goldfinch and greenfinch too.

I was up early this am and again ventured just 2 miles into Borders region. I spent a lot of time last year looking for black grouse in Lothian but had no luck. Cycling back from my sisters in law early one morning I stumbled across a lek just 50-60 yards from a minor road not far into Borders region. There were up to 5 males last year. Today I went back and used the car as a hide which was nice as it was cold, gloomy and there was a raw wind. 2 birds were present at 7.30 and they were having a real square go at each other-absolutely riveting. After half an hour one bird slunk off leaving the other as victor. A couple of poor distant shots below

How brilliant. How late into the year do the leks go on?
 
How brilliant. How late into the year do the leks go on?


Helen,

Black grouse lekking activity peaks in April/May. After that it tails off and there is very little activity over the summer. Some lekking usually resumes in the autumn early winter, but it is sporadic until now.


Great photos by the way Mark. I'd be tempted to check out some of my local leks, if it wasn't so cold at that time in the morning!
 
Helen,

Black grouse lekking activity peaks in April/May. After that it tails off and there is very little activity over the summer. Some lekking usually resumes in the autumn early winter, but it is sporadic until now.


Great photos by the way Mark. I'd be tempted to check out some of my local leks, if it wasn't so cold at that time in the morning!

Thanks, C.

Shame on you for being scared of a bit of cold though. Call yourself a Scotsman? ;)
 
Helen,

Black grouse lekking activity peaks in April/May. After that it tails off and there is very little activity over the summer. Some lekking usually resumes in the autumn early winter, but it is sporadic until now.


Great photos by the way Mark. I'd be tempted to check out some of my local leks, if it wasn't so cold at that time in the morning!

I guess you just have to find one like mine Paul where you can sit in the car and enjoy a flask of coffee;)

I've only visited this site up until the mid April-the early morning starts are beginning to get a bit much for even me by then. I told an artist friend of mine about the site and he visited on the 1st of May last year-he got a greyhen walking round the car looking inquisitively!!
 
hello Lothian Dunbar folk ;-) . I was wondering if you've seen any bird movements, falls of fresh birds recently . there's been the odd mipit at musselburgh and the water pipit thats there at the moment but have you seen any migration at all ?
I've been meaning to come down the coast to skateraw but never been so don't know how much area there is to cover?
 
hello Lothian Dunbar folk ;-) . I was wondering if you've seen any bird movements, falls of fresh birds recently . there's been the odd mipit at musselburgh and the water pipit thats there at the moment but have you seen any migration at all ?
I've been meaning to come down the coast to skateraw but never been so don't know how much area there is to cover?

Hi Mohican,

The only birds on the move today was 3 groups of Whooper Swan's heading North totalling some 55 birds, using the South Easterlies to their advantage past Dunglass.

Nothing at Skateraw, except a Scandi Rocket, with nowt at Dunbar Harbour,Belhaven Bay,Seafield Pond and Scoughall, so save your fuel and go to Musselburgh as it's waaaaaaaay to early for decent falls, if any happen at all!

Yesterday I had Bl N Grebe,Ferny Ness and Yank Teal at Abo, lots of Gulls around the returning fishing boats in Port Seton harbour but no Glauc.
 
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