• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Scottish Borders (1 Viewer)

Goshawk sites can be sensitive because of persecution so they are usually not publicised. However there is one that is known and publicised that is near you. The site is Thornylee viewpoint between Walkerburn and Selkirk. There was a report on Bordersbirdnews of a goshawk displaying last week. As will@bill says a nice sunny/breezy day is best and patience is required. This site is also excellent for tree pipits once they arrive in May
 
Kestrel, sparrow hawk and 7 buzzards today

Just outside melrose a female kestrel was on a lamppost. I heardly ever see kestrels now, so was feeling quite privileged. At carfraemill, a pair of oystercatchers were feeding. Just outside pathhead a male sparrowhawk flew in front of the car an into some woods. My third day in row I've seen a sparrow hawk. A record! A buzzard was seen on the A68 just outside Edinburgh.

The way back rewarded us with a few buzzards and another oystercatcher.

Later, we went to thornylee to try and see the goshawk. As I expected, we failed, but had great views of three very noisy buzzards giving us a nice display of tumbling and diving. Two of the buzzards followed us along the trail and back, giving their characteristic 'eee aaah' call. As soon as I saw the buzzards I knew I wouldn't see the goshawk, as the buzzards certainly wouldn't be sharing the same patch of sky with a gos.

A very good BOP day, although my record still stands at four species in a day.
On the way back another oystercatcher was seen.
 
20.3.11

Yesterday was a good birding day

One of the peregrine was in galashiels. Along the A72 to Peebles plenty of pheasants and buzzards.

Got to Yarrow valley and walked. A grouped of four buzzards flew into view. One of them circled right over over us, possibly out of curiosity, or maybe trying to impress the other three by saying "hey i can fly over humans:)". They then flew away. A bit further along a tawny owl was heard from within the woods, but wasn't seen

On a non birding note, i found a the largest mayfly larva i have ever seen in a nearby stream. About 2 and a half centimetres long, dark brown with orange legs. Photos coming soon.

On the walk back a buzzard flew quite close and again circled over our heads (possibly the same one) but this time calling, before losing interest and flying away. I have never seen such curious raptors. Perhaps they dont see people that often.

At the river, a pair of oystercatchers and a mallard were seen. On the a72 a lapwing, buzzards and pheasants were seen.

On another non birding note, a possible wildcat was at clovenfords, but am still having this confirmed on another thread.

More mallards were in galashiels.
 
Hi Lucas any tips for me this coming weekend , coming up to Alnwick for a long weekend, its to far to travel over to keilder, as I would like to check out the other things we talked about, dont suppose you have seen anything. best regards.
 
eagle golden said:
Hi Lucas any tips for me this coming weekend , coming up to Alnwick for a long weekend, its to far to travel over to keilder, as I would like to check out the other things we talked about, dont suppose you have seen anything. best regards.
Click to expand...

Sorry eagle golden dont have anything for you, haven't been over the border recently.
Good luck !
 
Lucas

I was disappointed when I saw your reaction to BordersBirdNews - I know you can't see what it contains unless you ask for membership -it's the way it seems to work - but it really does post real-time bird news.

For instance there have been Waxwings at Tweedbank over the last few days that I'm sure you might have been interested in, and close to home. And probably easy to photograph!

Similarly if your are wanting to see Black Grouse - there will be a Borders SOC branch excursion into the Moorfoot Hills at the end of the month. We will get Black Grouse, Wheatear, Snipe, Ring Ouzel, and have a chance of things like SE Owl, Merlin and Haen Harrier (if any survive there that long). Everyone is welcome to attend.
There will also be a trip up to the mosses around Lindean Reservoir to survey for Water Rail next month, another species I'm sure you might like to add!

The announcements for these things and any current news (arrivals of summer migrants etc). are made on the newsgroup. If you don't like it, you can always come out of it.
Ray Murray - group moderator
 
I have just applied to join BordersBirdNews Ray. I am moving down from the Black Isle to Jedburgh at the end of April to start a new job in the area. I dont know the Borders so looking forward to getting to know the area. We were down last week looking at houses and I was delighted to see nuthatches (there are none up here) and a pair of shelduck near where I'll be working in Ancrum. I thought the Highlands had most of Scotlands buzzards but you seem to have a fair share of them yourselves!

I'll be re-joining SOC and I'm already in BTO so I'll be out doing surveys again.
Hope to see you out there sometime.
 
I spent an enjoyable couple of hours on the B road north from Innerleithen. Black grouse were present in good numbers lekking. I managed to see or hear them at 8 sites. Numbers were 1,1,3,5,8,2,1 & 5=26. A couple of sites were heard only so I counted them as just one-the lie of the land would not let me see the birds and I wasn't going to get out and disturb them. On the way back a few birds had flown down to near the roadside to give excellent views from the car. Reassuring to see such good numbers after a hard winter.

A ring ouzel was singing and seen at Dewar as well, first of the year for me

Oh, and there was this oddity below. Maybe Girdleness's 'The Freak' has multiplied and sent forth his progeny-anyway his looks don't seem to have stopped him from getting a partner
 

Attachments

  • B Grouse 1.JPG
    B Grouse 1.JPG
    126.7 KB · Views: 79
  • B Grouse 2.JPG
    B Grouse 2.JPG
    191.8 KB · Views: 93
  • Oick.JPG
    Oick.JPG
    133.2 KB · Views: 117
RayMurray said:
Lucas

I was disappointed when I saw your reaction to BordersBirdNews - I know you can't see what it contains unless you ask for membership -it's the way it seems to work - but it really does post real-time bird news.

For instance there have been Waxwings at Tweedbank over the last few days that I'm sure you might have been interested in, and close to home. And probably easy to photograph!

Similarly if your are wanting to see Black Grouse - there will be a Borders SOC branch excursion into the Moorfoot Hills at the end of the month. We will get Black Grouse, Wheatear, Snipe, Ring Ouzel, and have a chance of things like SE Owl, Merlin and Haen Harrier (if any survive there that long). Everyone is welcome to attend.
There will also be a trip up to the mosses around Lindean Reservoir to survey for Water Rail next month, another species I'm sure you might like to add!

The announcements for these things and any current news (arrivals of summer migrants etc). are made on the newsgroup. If you don't like it, you can always come out of it.
Ray Murray - group moderator
Click to expand...

Have just joined now, regretting not joining earlier now after hearing about hen harriers, se owls and merlins, three species i have yet to see
 
Hi
Not been online recently
Turns out my grams garden is quite good for birding
She lives in Galashiels.
A couple of weeks ago, I looked into the next garden to see two red legged partridges running around.
Today, a great spotted woodpecker was in a tree and on a non birding note, a hedgehog was right next to me as I watched the woodpecker. I wasn't sure if it was alive, but then it tried to crawl away. Most of the time it just sat there with it's head under the fence. After some photos and a few prods with a stick (just to try and get it to do something) I got bored and left it alone. When I checked later it was gone.

Photos are hopefully coming soon if I can install Bluetooth onto my computer.
Thanks
 
I will boldly revive this thread in the hopes of getting some updates on where it is worth going.

Some family members are in the process of moving to Peebles, so looks like I will be in the borders now and then :)
 
jjaw said:
I will boldly revive this thread in the hopes of getting some updates on where it is worth going.

Some family members are in the process of moving to Peebles, so looks like I will be in the borders now and then :)
Click to expand...

Went to Mire Loch at St. Abbs on saturday, great place to go to.
The whole place was alive with birds, had 6 species of thrushes there; Redwing, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, a Fieldfare & 2 Ring Ousel.
Amazing amount of warblers and some real stunners too !
Sardinian Warbler, Yellow-browed Warblers, Pallas's Warbler and really close views of a superb Radde's Warbler.
Other birds seen were Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, 2 Water Rail and Brambling.
 
gus guthrie said:
Went to Mire Loch at St. Abbs on saturday, great place to go to.
The whole place was alive with birds, had 6 species of thrushes there; Redwing, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, a Fieldfare & 2 Ring Ousel.
Amazing amount of warblers and some real stunners too !
Sardinian Warbler, Yellow-browed Warblers, Pallas's Warbler and really close views of a superb Radde's Warbler.
Other birds seen were Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, 2 Water Rail and Brambling.
Click to expand...

Awesome!
Quite a successful outing by the sounds of it, and a good location to aim for!
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

Mendobirder
Western Isles questions
2
Replies
20
Views
984
Mendobirder
Mendobirder
TicoTyler
The 10% Club - Milestones
2 3
Replies
49
Views
2K
Lerxst
Lerxst
N
Scottish Crossbill - I need an expert!
Replies
13
Views
2K
Gander
G
kingfisher53
Bird of Prey ID pls - from Ardahan, Turkey
Replies
4
Views
599
Ratal
Ratal
Scozmos
A trip to Lewis & Harris - Feb 2024
Replies
19
Views
961
JTweedie
JTweedie

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top