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

Lothian Birding (1 Viewer)

As nobody it seems goes birding in Lothian anymore judging by the lack of recent posts on here I thought I might tell all you silent readers out there about my adventures today for your bedtime story!

Look what you did Cal - no messages for 10 days and then you open your big mouth.....a veritable plethora since then ;)

Anyway, time for the weekly supermarket shop now, followed by my customary few hours of birding for the week :t:
 
Cramond & Dalmeny this avo, other than around 40-50 lbb's & a calling Jay not a lot.

Stonechat! what about em I hear you say?

Ave you seen any as I havent.

Why?

Because they are all deid!!!:-C
 
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Not that I was out birding today, but after a family walk in Holyrood & lunch in town, saw the Iceland Gull on Dunsapie again this afternoon. It was sat on the grass nearest to the small 'wood' giving cracking views.

Have a nice evening Cal - just be thankful that it wasn't England winning at Murrayfield today, or it could have been very noisy tonight! And if you want to talk about being f**ked off with a football team, trying being a Wednesdayite at the moment :-C

What is wrong with the mighty Owls, Mike. You should be over the moon with Gary Megson now at the helm:eek!:
 
What is wrong with the mighty Owls, Mike. You should be over the moon with Gary Megson now at the helm:eek!:

The good thing about Meggy, and I'm struggling for this to be honest, is that he will feel the pain of the fans just as much as us - born and bred a Wednesdayite, father a former player, son a season ticket holder, etc. That said another dispiriting loss tonight and we aren't far off as low as the club has ever been in it's history, and where they were when I first started going back in the mid 70s. It seems a long while ago I went to Wembley 4 times in one season!

My day could only have been worse if I had been stood 16th in the queue for the Oriental Turtle Dove today.....6 1/2 hours in the rain for nothing. Ouch!
 
The good thing about Meggy, and I'm struggling for this to be honest, is that he will feel the pain of the fans just as much as us - born and bred a Wednesdayite, father a former player, son a season ticket holder, etc. That said another dispiriting loss tonight and we aren't far off as low as the club has ever been in it's history, and where they were when I first started going back in the mid 70s. It seems a long while ago I went to Wembley 4 times in one season!

My day could only have been worse if I had been stood 16th in the queue for the Oriental Turtle Dove today.....6 1/2 hours in the rain for nothing. Ouch!

The roof was fine m8;)

As for Wembley I went once, travelled from Edinburgh's waverley train station in a football special. It took all day to get there (10 hours), before arriving an hour or so before kick. The game ended with Scotland getting thumped 3-0 by England, then it was back on the train before arriving back in Edinburgh at 8.00am the next day!
Still was a great day out with the Tartan Army whom made up the majority of the crowd, as for what English were there, well lets just say it was like Bannockburn all over again;)

Hope Wednesday get their act together soon Mike
 
Aside from the Football, Rugby et al ( by the way the Cricket world cup has started !) Has anyone seen red necked grebe at Gosford recently please, or have they all left ? Was hoping to get out on the weekend . Ta
 
Aside from the Football, Rugby et al ( by the way the Cricket world cup has started !) Has anyone seen red necked grebe at Gosford recently please, or have they all left ? Was hoping to get out on the weekend . Ta

Not looked recently but there were a few there a couple of weeks ago, the day after 78 Slav Grebe had been counted. 2 also reported around same time at Musselburgh and since at Gullane Bay so possibly a small number moving up and down coast? That said they are apparently sometimes quite faithful to one spot with one or two off Port Seton harbour very regular in recent winters (not this one though).
 
Long Tailed Tits

After almost a months break, managed to go out with my camera today. Went to Roslin Glen, and saw my first dipper and a pair of Goosander. On my way back, saw some LT tits. The goosander and dipper were difficult to photograph as they were quite skittish. However the LTT were a couple of meters away but were a bigger challenge none the less. They didn't sit still, and were in a tree with multiple small branches, making it a nightmare to focus. This is the second time I have failed to photograph LTT.

You might find LTT easier to photograph on or near a bird table :t:
 
Hi everyone, I saw online a couple of weeks ago a website about the John Muir Way that runs from Edinburgh to around North Berwick. I was thinking of doing this in the summer, taking my time and staying in b&bs. I noticed part of the path goes through Aberlady, but it does not go through the reserve there - I looked at the map and figured I could go through the reserve, and join up with the path at the other end of the reserve.

I don't have a car anymore, so getting to places like this is just about out of my reach, and I thought doing this long distance path might be a good way to catch up with some birding and see a bit more of the area.

Any thoughts?
 
I don't have a car anymore, so getting to places like this is just about out of my reach

I see you live in Glasgow, so it is easy for you to catch a train/bus through and then connect with a bus in Edinburgh. Both North Berwick and Dunbar in East Lothian can be reached by train/bus from Edinburgh, as can Longniddry.

Enjoy your walk.
 
Hi everyone, I saw online a couple of weeks ago a website about the John Muir Way that runs from Edinburgh to around North Berwick. I was thinking of doing this in the summer, taking my time and staying in b&bs. I noticed part of the path goes through Aberlady, but it does not go through the reserve there - I looked at the map and figured I could go through the reserve, and join up with the path at the other end of the reserve.

I don't have a car anymore, so getting to places like this is just about out of my reach, and I thought doing this long distance path might be a good way to catch up with some birding and see a bit more of the area.

Any thoughts?

It would be a very good way to do some birding. It starts at Musselburgh (easy to get to by bus from Edinburgh city centre) and obviously you have the Esk, scrapes and sea there. Gosford bay is well known for red necked grebes in late summer. There is a path through Aberlady reserve and it ends at the west end of Gullane Bay so you can walk through the reserve, along the coast and rejoin the walk up in Gullane. Tyninghame/John Muir Country Park is well worth a detour. East of Dunbar White Sands Bay, Barns Ness, Skateraw, Torness and Thorntonloch are all good birding spots. At the end I guess you would have to walk from Dunglass to Cockburnspath to get a bus back towards Edinburgh.

So it sounds a really good idea. Birding would be better if you had a scope but you might not want to carry that on the walk. Obviously what you might see depends on the time of year
 
Trains run hourly to Musselburgh from Edinburgh Waverley , or bus numbers 30 ,26, and 44 run from Edinburgh Princes Street to Musselburgh . Number 129 runs through to North Berwick. Cross country Trains run the Direct services to Dunbar . I do most of my birding on push bike and all these areas are well accessable, though you do have to book your bike on the Cross Country Services .
 
Trains run hourly to Musselburgh from Edinburgh Waverley , or bus numbers 30 ,26, and 44 run from Edinburgh Princes Street to Musselburgh . Number 129 runs through to North Berwick. Cross country Trains run the Direct services to Dunbar . I do most of my birding on push bike and all these areas are well accessable, though you do have to book your bike on the Cross Country Services .

129 goes to Seton Sands, 124 goes to North Berwick and goes through Aberlady. Also please note that these are FirstBus services and their 44 goes through Musselburgh too. The other services are Lothian Buses.

David
 
Thanks for the information everyone. I've been to the Aberlady reserve a few times when I had my car, it was definitely one of my favourite places in the country because once you're out on the sand dunes, you feel like you could be in a remote spot on the Western Isles.

I can understand the John Muir Way might not go through the reserve because they don't want to encourage too many people traipsing through it, but if you know what the reserve has to offer it seems such a shame to give it a miss.
 
I went for a walk around Tranent this afternoon before the Rugby, I walked from my house to the large pond at Blindwells. The best sighting was 5 Buzzards over the fields to the north of the town. The pond didn't have anything special on it, some Tufties, Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls and Coots. Lots of singing in the early Spring sunshine.

David
 
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