Just in from Fife

Just home from Balcomie and British bird number 415.

Distant Brown Shrike. One of four in Scotland today!!!

Holy Island and Another Tilt at the Sardinian Warbler

Was on Holy Island for 06:30 am this morning. The causeway closed at 07:10 and so I had the island more or less to myself for about 4 hours. Despite this it was disappointingly pretty dead. 3 or 4 lingering Yellow Browed, 1 Wheatear & a single Pale Bellied Brent Goose was about it.

By 11am the causeway was open again and the bloody tourists arrived en mass. Time for a sharp exit.

Lindisfarne Castle on a murky Friday morning

News was positive on the Sardinian Warbler at St Abbs and since I was passing, I decided to give it another go. The sun was out and it was singing and contact calling almost constantly but despite this is was still being an elusive wee blighter. I did however manage to at least see it fairly well albeit briefly this time. However, despite chasing it around with the camera for about an hour I completely failed to get even the hint of a record shot.

Right Place at the Right Time

With a big dumping of Yellow Browed  Warblers on the east coast and conditions continuing to look good I decided to head for St Abbs on Wednesday morning to find one for myself. After dropping Rachel at school I arrived at St Abbs at 10:45 and in the rain was soon hearing my first Redwings of the Autumn.

I searched around the boathouse and thought I heard a Yellow Browed but with not having heard any for nearly a year one always doubts one self. As I headed north towards the reedbed end I continued to hear them and it was obvious that there were several. Indeed during the day I must have seen at least 6. Goodness knows how many there were probably double figures.

I met a birder who casually told me that there was a Sardinian Warbler calling and singing further along the track. He hadn't seen it but it was calling regularly and he had been told that it was bearing a ring. Could this be the same bird that was trapped ringed and released at the same site and not seen again back in June?

I was quickly hearing a bird that I was familiar with from Greece, Turkey & Spain. Same sound that I had been hearing in Crete 2 months ago. Hearing was one thing, seeing was another and in the next 3 hours I followed it around seeing it briefly once maybe twice in flight. By 3pm it had stopped calling altogether and there was no further sign by the time I left. Travelling home I began to doubt myself. Could I have been listening to a Lesser Whitethroat ? A quick check on the songs and calls when I got home proved to me beyond doubt that I had been listening to contact calls of a Sardinian Warbler.

Catching Up with the Blue Winged Teal

A quick trip up to Frankfield Loch on Saturday morning for the BWT I had missed last Sunday. 2 birders were already on it, so all the hard work was done for me!

Unfortunately, it was asleep all of the time and this was the best digiscoped image I could come up with:

You can just about see the crescent on the face

The Pec Sand had departed, but there were still 2-3 Dunlin and a Ruff :

Ruff

Barred Warbler secured but no Yank Ducks

With the winds in the east I thought it would be worth doing a day out in East Lothian. First stop was the Musselburgh wader scrapes which were quiet apart from a single Black Tailed Godwit.

Quickly onwards to Barns Ness where it was quickly obvious that there had been a fall with several Whitethroat and a Garden Warbler seen in quick succession. After a bit of searching I had a reasonable view of a Barred Warbler.

There's a Barred in there somewhere

Barns Ness

I spent about 50 mins doing a seawatch but there was nothing other than Gannets & Fulmars going past.

Despite searching I could not locate the eclipse drake Ring Necked Duck in Dunbar quarry.

Came home via the Pec Sand at Frankfield Loch where there was also 3 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plover, Snipe and 1 Ruff. Could not locate the eclipse drake Blue Winged Teal.