Future Cheer & Musselburgh

Rachel's cheerleading competition at Ingliston on 28 th March meant a 6:30 am start and with the clocks going forward that effectively meant 5:30 am.

Unless you are part of the competition you basically sit around watching cheerleaders for 12 hours. Now that's not really my cup of tea so I hatched a plan to 'escape' and spend an hour or so walking round the sea wall at Musselburgh.

The tide was high at the river Esk mouth and a strong north westerly wind meant that the sea was choppy. Small rafts of Velvet Scoter were present along with Goldeneye and Eider. A single Red Breasted Merganser and a partial summer Slavonian Grebe were also present. Interestingly, there were no Long Tailed Ducks !

Waders seen included c30 Grey Plover, 2 or 3 Bar Tailed Godwit and a Dunlin.

'The Bug' at Future Cheer:

Rachel's group got a 2nd prize for stunt and a 3rd prize for dance in their category. Well done Bug !

27 Mar 10 Teeside

Iain Clark was at my house at 6am and we were soon on our way down the M74. After a coffee refuelling stop at Washington Services we were at Saltholme Pools RSPB for 9:45 am. The weather was bright with a blustery wind coming from a north westerly direction.

The 1st Sand Martins of the year were over the pool adjacient to the visitor's centre and the feeders area held both Goldfinch and Reed Bunting.

The 1st winter drake Hooded Merganser was very close in to the Saltholme Pool hide looking anything but wild:

"Plastic" on his plastic float:

Other birds of interest from the hide included at least 1 Little Egret, 6 Barnacle Geese and 4 Pintail. There were small numbers of both Wigeon and Gadwall.

We made out way round to Paddy's Pool which contained 2 Great Crested Grebe and c6 Shoveler. Other wildfowl of interest were 2 Little Grebe and several Shelduck. Small numbers of Curlew, Redshank and Lapwing were present.

The pager had reported a Great White Egret from Dormans Pool and after getting directions from reception we saw it well in flight with a Little Egret for comparison and then again partially obscured in the reeds. We moved round to the Reclamation Pond where a Black Necked Grebe had been getting reported and after a short search it showed well quite close to the car.

A Cetti's Warbler sang briefly and a Kestrel was hunting over the rough grassy areas. A Water Rail was also heard.

Later we moved round to Greatham Creek, but the only birds of note were 14 Avocet and 2 Stock Dove.

It had been another enjoyable days birding !

21 Mar 10 Hogganfield

A mid afternoon visit. The temperature was c10 degrees it was fairly bright with light winds.

I was hoping that there might have been some Sand  Martins around, several have been reported in Lanarkshire in the past couple of days, but there were none.

The drake Lesser Scaup was still present and a single drake Ruddy Duck was there. Hopefully it will continue to avoid the cull. 2 Whooper Swans remained and there was also a scattering of Goldeneye. Other wildfowl included 2 Teal and Pochard. There were up to 7 Great Crested Grebe present:

Feral Greylag Geese were also present:

2 Buzzards flew over.

Blackcap in full song

I opened the front door at 8am on 20 March and a Blackcap was in full song in one of the adjacient gardens. Presumably an overwintering bird as opposed to a migrant.

18 March 10 Barons Haugh

A dull windy day temperature 10 degrees at 9.30 am.

Mid March can be a 'nothing' time with winter visitors having departed and summer visitors yet to arrive. There was little of interest at Baron's Haugh today with the exception of a pair of Pintail, this being the male:

13 Mar 10 Gigrin Farm, Powys, Wales

A 5am start saw me, Patricia and the girls in Rhayader, mid Wales by just after midday. The initial plan had been to drop them in Shrewsbury, where we were staying the night, and carry on down to Gigrin to hopefully see the Black Kite that had spent most of the winter there. However, Patricia and the girls decided that the better option was to accompany me to Wales and leave the shopping to the Sunday.

The weather conditions were good, with double figure temperatures, light winds and fairly bright. We got into the hide just after 1pm and already there were at least 20 Red Kites flying around with several Buzzard and Ravens. The latters "cronking" calls very much in evidence.

As 2pm approached the number of Kites increased steadily and after much scanning I picked a likely candidate for the Black Kite but I quickly lost it amongst all the other Kites. However, just after 2pm the tractor arrived with the meat and the driver quickly scattered it and departed leaving the feast to by now up to 100 Red Kites. The food enticed the Kites closer still and I soon picked out the Black Kite in the throng. It was obviously darker, smaller with only a very shallow fork in the tail. The dark mask indicated that it was a juvenile bird. It all made the 322 miles worth it, bird 387 for Britain !

From a digiscoping point of view none of the Kites land, they merely swoop down and snatch food and are off again. They don't even perch in any of the adjacient trees ! Also slightly disapppointing was the Ravens that appear very shy and did not give me any opportunity for photography. Yes, digiscoping is all well and good, but to capture the Kites I really need a DLSR. Well its my birthday in May, so we'll see ! Anyway some of the Buzzards definitely do land and allowed me to get the following shots:

07 March 10 Ardmore Point

Another very spring like day with little or now wind bright, but with a bit of a haze.

The North Bay held at least 50 Shelduck and other wildfowl of interest included 14 Pintail, 50 Teal & 30 Wigeon. A single Bar Tailed Godwit was with the Curlews and other waders included Redshank:

From the point there was a single flock of 60 Great Crested Grebe together with a single Slavonian Grebe. There was also 20 plus Red Throated Diver and a scattering of Red Breasted Merganser and Goldeneye. A single Black Guillemot flew past offshore.

A female Eider was on the rocks at the point:

A Raven was heard and c60 Pink Footed Geese flew north.

06 March 10 Hogganfield

A spring like afternoon with little or no wind and quite bright.

The drake Lesser Scaup was still present at the north end of the loch and quite close to the bank. Unfortunately, the light was in the wrong place but nonetheless the following shots were obtained:

The above shot shows the diagnostic white secondary band on the 'arm' only. It does not extending on to the 'hand' as in Greater Scaup.

Other wildfowl of interest included a single drake Shoveler and c10 Teal. At least 4 Great Crested Grebes had returned:

There were perhaps 15 Pochard and many Tufted Ducks:

One of the features of Hogganfield is the very close approach available to wild Swans. There were 7 Whooper Swans close in to the car park today:

There was no sign of the 2nd Winter Med Gull that has been getting reported over the last week to 10 days.