Joseph N
Lothian Young Birder
I spent more or less the entire day at The Ness by foot. Estimated I was there from 11:30-6:30, considerably prolonged by meeting up with Mark mid-afternoon and doing another whole round of the Ness with him. It was fantastic to see the Osprey heading northwards at Greyhope Bay late on, the highlight of the day.
A House Martin hawked the golf course by the allotments when I arrived, whilst a drake Goosander was in the harbour, and a female there later on. Like Andrew, I found that nothing much at all was happening on the mig front. 3 Whitethroats were spread out, as were 2 Sedge Warblers but these have obviously been around for some time now. 11 Wheatears were in the walled garden early afternoon and another was flushed from the South Bank. Mark and I had a Goldcrest in a clump of bushes by the road relatively near the allotments; about the only genuine passerine mig of the day!
Offshore action was similar to Andrew but I seemed to miss out on the majority of the shearwater action, with only 2 very distant Manxies off the Coo from 14:00-14:30. Hundreds of Kittiwakes and auks were passing in close offshore although no Puffins were involved during my stint, whilst a steady passage of Gannet was going on further out.
I also caught up with the Tern and Purple Sandpiper action at Greyhope Bay. When I was first there at around 13:00 25+ Purple Sandpipers were present, including one colour ringed bird, presumably local, as was the sumplum Dunlin. Around 50 Common Terns were on the rocks here amongst a few Arctic Terns and around 20 Sandwich Terns (including a couple of colour ringed ones), but this dwindled later. I became intrigued by a noticeably dark billed tern which was most likely an abnormally dark billed Common but is continuing to nag me a little as a possible Roseate on feature such as uniform paleness of the upperparts and underparts and bill length/colour which were all striking in the field. It is rubbishly pictured below. Later checks did not reveal the bird in question.
Overall a really pleasant day's birding at the Ness and thank you Mark for the company, it was a pleasure to bird with you this evening.
Joseph
A House Martin hawked the golf course by the allotments when I arrived, whilst a drake Goosander was in the harbour, and a female there later on. Like Andrew, I found that nothing much at all was happening on the mig front. 3 Whitethroats were spread out, as were 2 Sedge Warblers but these have obviously been around for some time now. 11 Wheatears were in the walled garden early afternoon and another was flushed from the South Bank. Mark and I had a Goldcrest in a clump of bushes by the road relatively near the allotments; about the only genuine passerine mig of the day!
Offshore action was similar to Andrew but I seemed to miss out on the majority of the shearwater action, with only 2 very distant Manxies off the Coo from 14:00-14:30. Hundreds of Kittiwakes and auks were passing in close offshore although no Puffins were involved during my stint, whilst a steady passage of Gannet was going on further out.
I also caught up with the Tern and Purple Sandpiper action at Greyhope Bay. When I was first there at around 13:00 25+ Purple Sandpipers were present, including one colour ringed bird, presumably local, as was the sumplum Dunlin. Around 50 Common Terns were on the rocks here amongst a few Arctic Terns and around 20 Sandwich Terns (including a couple of colour ringed ones), but this dwindled later. I became intrigued by a noticeably dark billed tern which was most likely an abnormally dark billed Common but is continuing to nag me a little as a possible Roseate on feature such as uniform paleness of the upperparts and underparts and bill length/colour which were all striking in the field. It is rubbishly pictured below. Later checks did not reveal the bird in question.
Overall a really pleasant day's birding at the Ness and thank you Mark for the company, it was a pleasure to bird with you this evening.
Joseph
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