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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Lothian Birding (3 Viewers)

A look around Musselburgh Lagoons again for a couple of hours today, quite reasonable weather, we have escaped the 'worst' of it, so far. ;)

Dipper and Dabchich near the mouth of the Esk.

Not much in the first lagoon or on the sea, 5 Common Scoter, 120 Teal and a Moorhen (!). No sign of Water Pipit but a couple of Stonechat, Reed bunting and 3 Twite showing well, along the seawall.

Had a sit down by the boating pond, which is only a third frozen. A Kingfisher flew past and perched up nearby for about 10 minutes. Pretty nice.

P1030656.jpg

Cheers G
 
Not been out and about recently- AKA winter doldrums:-C

But like others this morning woke up to a thick blanket of snow, immediatly obvious were the large numbers of Fieldfare, with at least 100 in surrounding gardens of my west Ediburgh home, also good numbers of Redwing & Blackbird present. Put out Apples and seed trying to get them down into the garden (hoping for a BT/Dusky Thrush) but all were very skitterish including the Blackbirds, that f***** Cat will have to die soon perhaps;), though to be fair I think most of the Blackies were winter migrants due to their behaviour.
Also seen were 4 Bullfinch, Robin, Wren and Dunnock, with three flocks of Pink-footed Geese low over the house heading SW, heading for Bavelaw perhaps?
THought I heard Skylark but not definate, although I see from Lothian NO Birds News;) that they were on the move also, it has been around 20 years since I last heard them here as they used to breed in the nearby Gyle, now all houses and shopping Malls.

On Monday I had a Woodcock in flight in a Loanhead Industrial Estate, with cracking views of 11 Black Grouse walking around in the snow in Borders, just I might add.

So a cracking and interesting days birding and all from the comfort of the house:t:
 
-9 c at 7am when I set off for work. 7 skittery blackbirds were in the hawthorn tree outside work behaving much as Calum mentioned. 20 redwings raiding a rowan in Northfield Broadway. 200 pink foots heading east at midday. Got home and had 5 fieldfare in the garden holly tree-the first garden tick for over a year. I walked round to Duddingston and the loch was frozen except for a tiny area at the east end. Met a rather excited Ian Andrews in the car park who had a jack snipe, woodcock and water rail all in one wee area. Saw the latter two myself.

So a good Xmas and good New Year to all posters and lurkers on the Lothian thread-though I hope Mr Anderson has a miserable New Year when the Big Team(we're only 15 points behind the Wee team) play at ER ;)
 
20+ Redwings right next to the Shell garage in South Queensferry on Christmas Day - year tick for me, and a lifer for the missus!
 
Hi All,

I have started a thread entitled LOTHIAN 2010 FINDLIST in the members 2010 list section, or words to that effect (would do a link if I knew how to).
This after reading some comments in Stephen Welch's excellent blogspot after he done one last year and had hoped that something similar might happen again along with other Lothian birders.

Thus all are invited in this venture, so check it out and post your totals.

Remember this is a fun,fun exercise, Punkbirder rools apply..........so LETS GET IT ON;)
 
Birdspotter said:
Thus all are invited in this venture, so check it out and post your totals.

Remember this is a fun,fun exercise, Punkbirder rools apply..........so LETS GET IT ON;)
Click to expand...

Not that likely to be taking part meself (something to do with location? ;) ), but I think the section it's in doesn't allow other posters to reply to it unfortunately. I think you need the main members lists section for that... (sure you'd have found out sooner or later!)

Cheers and good luck with it,

Dan
 
Hi Cal

You would be much better off if anyone interested just started up a BUBO list for Lothian 2010, using BOU rules. Anyone can then mark it as being self found, etc. That's certainly what Stephen did for 2009.......

One thing that is good about it is that it is entirely transparent - so going on there now you can see the full Lothian lists for the likes of TO'C and CND, amongst others. You can enter the date and location for any birds seen, or found in this instance, and it means anyone participating or otherwise can see where anyone is at. I've actually put myself onto there already for 2010, though admittedly not self found wise, and you will see that as of yesterday I am on 89 (it's actually 91 now as I have had Dipper and Siskin from the house today whilst working ;) ). Knowing how much birding I am likely to get in again this year I can't see me getting very competitive about any year lists, like I was to an extent in 2006, but it does encourage you to get out and about, and making it self found just adds that extra spice to it (though I'll really need to check out those Punkbirder rules to see how being the only person who evers seems to see 2 Water Pipits at Barns Ness works).

Anyways hope to see you soon - need to borrow that 2000 LBR and Birds of the Lothians for the article I am doing for KG for the next report.

Mike
 
Mike swims like a fish said:
You would be much better off if anyone interested just started up a BUBO list for Lothian 2010, using BOU rules. Anyone can then mark it as being self found, etc. That's certainly what Stephen did for 2009.......

One thing that is good about it is that it is entirely transparent - so going on thsere now you can see the full Lothian lists for the likes of TO'C and CND, amongst others. You can enter the date and location for any birds seen, or found in this instance, and it means anyone participating or otherwise can see where anyone is at. I've actually put myself onto there already for 2010, though admittedly not self found wise, and you will see that as of yesterday I am on 89 (it's actually 91 now as I have had Dipper and Siskin from the house today whilst working ;) ).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the initiative Calum and BUBO plug Mike. I agree with the advantage of transparency - this also means you can click the "targets" arrow and see what others have seen and you haven't in the same category. One tip for anyone starting out - you can generate new lists by copying. So for example I could enter my self-found list then make a complete list by copying and adding those extra few species. Same with East Lothian/Lothian, Lothian/Scotland, etc. Also if you start with a decent year list it reduces time to make a life list. By that means I was able to get several lists set up quite quickly.

It might be even better in the future too as the developers are considering providing a facility to define regional base lists, i.e. we could get Calum's complete Lothian list on as a base list and no need to be bothered with stuff like Oriental Pratincole and the rest. In fact an individual user could already do that and use it as a basis for generating new lists/spotting targets but would be inefficient if we all had to do it. Actually, come to think of it, I could put that list on under a pseudonym and it might already work for the targets bit - will have a think about that later.

Reed Buntings in gardens - not that infrequent in hard weather - they even use feeders happily. Had them in our garden in Banchory a long way from water/bog, but not seen in Longniddry yet. There is a also a spate of reports of Bramblings in gardens at present.
 
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WelchS said:
Reed Buntings in gardens - not that infrequent in hard weather .
Click to expand...


B****y infrequent in my garden though;)

Hi Steven and Mike,

Happy New Year to you both.:t:

As for lists, I am not into BUBO listing as you have to enter EVERY SPECIES WITH LOCALITY AND DATE, very tedious I found, hence I have never bothered putting any of my lists on it.

I will stick with my list in the Birdforum 2010 thread, but as Dan so kindly pointed out to myself and others, other people cant post on it!
However that dosnt stop other folk posting up there own Lothian 2010 list also.

Cheers and good birding.
 
Birdspotter said:
As for lists, I am not into BUBO listing as you have to enter EVERY SPECIES WITH LOCALITY AND DATE, very tedious I found, hence I have never bothered putting any of my lists on it.
QUOTE]

Not sure where you have got the notion that you have to put every species with locality and date on there, though for the purposes of my 2010 year list I am doing. The only species you have to do that for are BB Rarities - so unless you are planning on finding so many 'rares' that you can't cope with the hassle, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Bottom line though it's up to you - shame that we can't all use the same thing though, as it then becomes a pain in the posterior looking in mulitple locations to see how folk are getting on (and that goes for all of us having a separate list on Birdforum)

Oh, and Happy New Year of course B :)
Click to expand...
 
Not sure where you have got the notion that you have to put every species with locality and date on there, though for the purposes of my 2010 year list I am doing. The only species you have to do that for are BB Rarities - so unless you are planning on finding so many 'rares' that you can't cope with the hassle, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Click to expand...

Correct, I have only bothered to enter places and dates to very few, the sort of species where people might wonder "has he really seen one of those?!". As for BB rares, I was not aware that was a requirement, not having seen one, never mind found one!
 
Mike swims like a fish said:
Lesser Yellowlegs last year? ;) Last time I looked it was a BB rare, though I know you didn't find it
Click to expand...

Yes, you must be right - I had probably entered the date anyway, so did not realise I could not have entered it without it. A useful check in the system - I see also for things like Snow Goose you get prompted as to whether it might have been an escape...
 
Mike swims like a fish said:
[
Not sure where you have got the notion that you have to put every species with locality and date on there, though for the purposes of my 2010 year list I am doing. The only species you have to do that for are BB Rarities - so unless you are planning on finding so many 'rares' that you can't cope with the hassle, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Click to expand...


Maybe Bubo listing has changed since I was last on as I tried to do my Scottish list once and it wanted to know everthing.

I gave up before I even got to the Geese!

Might go back and have a look at it now though.

Out and about at Muss today Blackwit, Twite and Woodcock was pick of the bunch, heard from Merv that there was a couple of Lap bunts on the go down the coast, as well as a SnoB.
 
Mike swims like a fish said:
Oh no, I didn't want to know that......now if I go and see one I won't be able to claim it as a find! ;)
Click to expand...

Ah but the key was that I didnt tell you where they were so if you do bump into one it will be a surprise;)

As for Bubo listing it was in fact my world list that I tried to put on, deleted it whilst I was back on.
 
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Hello folks,

I might be going up to the Lothian area this coming weekend, as my sister has to be dropped off back at her home in Edinburgh. I was wondering what the status of the Baird's Sand at Barns Ness was, as if I do go up to Lothian it'll be worth a visit there. Is it being seen regularly? If so, where in the area can I see it? How do I get to the place itself? I ask the same questions of the Lesser Yellowlegs at Aberlady Bay. Is that too being seen often, and is it possible you could give me directions to Aberlady Bay. Thank you if you can, it'll help me if I do make the trip up there.

ATB,

Joseph
 
Birdspotter said:
Ah but the key was that I didnt tell you where they were so if you do bump into one it will be a surprise;)
Click to expand...

Good point - not sure I'll be out this weekend mind, so whether I will get chance over the next wee while I don't know.

Just read up on the rules as well - they don't cover common birds though at all, so how do you go about things which you know are there at a given location already? Surely the rules only count for less common birds? But then what about nationally common birds, such as Nuthatch? We all probably know the areas they are seen in regularly - so if I happen to go to Roslin, Vogrie or the Gosford Estate I couldn't count one from there I suppose, but if I went to one of the woods around Penicuik that I have no knowledge of them being in, that would be fine?
 
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