markgrubb
Leading a life of quiet desperation
There are several excellent threads on BF covering local areas such as Durham, Norfolk and Northumberland Birding. I thought it might be a reasonable idea to start a Lothian birding thread-Lothian may not have the variety of some of these places but it’s certainly not the worst place in the UK to bird. I know there are some excellent Lothian birders who post on here, some like me who are really still learning about and getting into birding and some that I plain just don’t know. Hopefully the thread will also let folk find out about some of the lesser known spots in Lothian that are worth visiting. I started birding in the autumn of 2004, mostly at Musselburgh and have gradually got to know some wonderful places like Woodhall Dean and Presmennan Wood that I did not know existed.
Well it has been a quiet autumn. No real easterlies and few migrants to get excited about. In the last few days I managed to get down to Aberlady to see the American Golden Plover, a bird I’ve not seen before. I always imagined that when I did see one that it would be a case of scanning through a large flock taking an age to find it. But no, there it was 50 yards from the car park, just upstream from the bridge all on its own. It certainly had a prominent supercilium and in the light had a more grey appearance than a typical golden plover. It was only when someone with a big lens approached too close and the bird took off that I saw the coloured underwing.
Today had a couple of hours at M’burgh-and a typical day-kingfisher at Esk mouth, seal eating a large fish, one LTD, one RTD, one male stonechat, one RNG, one adult med gull on the ash lagoon and all the usual suspects on the scrapes.
So let’s here from you if you live in the Lothian’s about what you see and where you’ve been-whether you are an expert, enthusiast or beginner
And finally, I just added my name today to survey some tetrads for the Bird Atlas. It starts in November and there are still plenty of squares left in Lothian-you don’t have to be an expert to help out. www.birdatlas.net lets you know what it’s about. I’ve chosen areas I have never been to-so quite look forward to exploring some new territories. Help out if you can
Over to you
Well it has been a quiet autumn. No real easterlies and few migrants to get excited about. In the last few days I managed to get down to Aberlady to see the American Golden Plover, a bird I’ve not seen before. I always imagined that when I did see one that it would be a case of scanning through a large flock taking an age to find it. But no, there it was 50 yards from the car park, just upstream from the bridge all on its own. It certainly had a prominent supercilium and in the light had a more grey appearance than a typical golden plover. It was only when someone with a big lens approached too close and the bird took off that I saw the coloured underwing.
Today had a couple of hours at M’burgh-and a typical day-kingfisher at Esk mouth, seal eating a large fish, one LTD, one RTD, one male stonechat, one RNG, one adult med gull on the ash lagoon and all the usual suspects on the scrapes.
So let’s here from you if you live in the Lothian’s about what you see and where you’ve been-whether you are an expert, enthusiast or beginner
And finally, I just added my name today to survey some tetrads for the Bird Atlas. It starts in November and there are still plenty of squares left in Lothian-you don’t have to be an expert to help out. www.birdatlas.net lets you know what it’s about. I’ve chosen areas I have never been to-so quite look forward to exploring some new territories. Help out if you can
Over to you