It was a nice day .... felt compelled to go somewhere

Unlike the grey & cloud of yesterday, today dawned bright & sunny & it seemed a shame to stay indoors. I spent about half an hour down at West Ferry on the Clyde estuary. I had spent some time down there last week at low tide and had seen little more than Curlew & Oystercatcher. Today I had some Lapwing & a Guillemot!

Demolition Job

Over the years I have been at Musselburgh Lagoons many times. I remember my first trip there with the YOC when I was about 14. It was a combined visit with Aberlady Bay. My friend & I got separated from the main group at Aberlady, got lost and caused the bus to be 2 hours late back into Glasgow. Suffice to say we were not popular.

Anyway, on that particular spring day I reckon I saw over 20 new birds and many of them were seen at Musselburgh. The site itself has changed much over the years, and not always for the better, For years Cockenzie pumped tons of ash into the lagoons, not particularly environmentally friendly I'm sure but the birds didn't seem to mind too much. Cockenzie has been closed for many years now and today its chimneys were demolished. I for one will miss their indomitable presence on the horizon :

Going

Going

Gone

I hadn't gone through there to see the demolition, indeed I had no idea it was happening. However, the hides overlooking the scrapes provided a good vantage point. The explosion coincided with high tide and had a significant effect on the roosting birds:

Mayhem

The birds circled around for several minutes

Beginning to settle again

Back to normal

The bang caused disturbance, but this fellow was an even greater threat:

Peregrine off with a Godwit

One of the features of today was the arrival of skeins of Pink Footed Geese. Most flew high over but a few choose to rest on the scrapes:

Harbingers of winter

Unfortunately, the light was poor today and despite some of the waders coming quite close colours were a bit drab:

Black Tailed Godwit

Curlew

Redshank

After lunch I walked out to the sea wall. There had been a lot of boats in the Forth to see the earlier demolition & so this probably affected bird numbers. Nonetheless there were at least 8 Red Necked Grebes and c25 Great Crested Grebes present. Both Common & Velvet Scoter were also seen together with a single Goldeneye and 12 Wigeon.

Barassie & Troon

I started at Barassie at high tide. There is unfortunately much disturbance on this beach from dog walkers but nonetheless there were still several hundred Oystercatchers and maybe 30 Curlew. I also picked out 2 Knot & 1 Bar Tailed Godwit. I was hoping to pick out a Med Gull or two but was unsuccessful.

Curlew

Moving round to Troon the rocks below the harbour held some roosting Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Knot & Turnstone.

Ringed Plover

Knot & Dunlin

 Troon Harbour had a large gathering of Eider :

Edinburgh Zoo

Patricia & myself spent today at Edinburgh Zoo. First time we had been there since primary school !

.... and a Panda:

Clyde Coast

I dropped Louise at Ib**x at 10:30 and headed along the M8 to West Ferry near Bishopton in the hope of seeing some waders. West Ferry is essentially a lay-by accessed immediately off the motorway & looks across the mudflats to Dumbarton:

West Ferry at low tide

I have commented before that I find this layby sleazy.Today was no exception. Gay joint !

Bird wise there were plenty of waders on the estuary but I could not find anything other than Curlew & Oystercatcher.

After leaving West Fairy I continued west and had a look at Cloch Point. I have seen Shearwaters & Skuas reported from here but the stillness of today did not lend itself.

I headed on to Fairlie in North Ayrshire again not seeing a lot other than common species.

Black Headed Gull

Black Headed Gull

Mute Swan

Red Breasted Merganser

Red Breasted Mergansers

Common Gull

Fairlie looking towards Largs

St Abbs & Skateraw

With winds from the east over the past few days I was keen to do a day over on the east cost. My appetite had been whetted by the finding of an Arctic Warbler at Skateraw on Friday but which wasn't seen after 9am on Saturday.

I decided to go first to St Abbs. I couldn't get into the space at the boathouse end so parked at the north end and worked my way back south. Initial indications were good with Wheatear, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff quickly seen. Soon I was seeing both Stonechat & 2 Whinchat.

Whinchat

Further along the Mire Loch I heard a Yellow Browed which called loudly and frequently but still took a bit of seeing since all the trees are still in full leaf. Around the boat house there were 2 Pied Flycatcher.

The Mire Loch in the Autumn sunshine

I went back along the east side of the loch seeing another Whinchat & back up on to the cliffs for a bit of sea watching. There were hundreds of Kittiwakes off shore and 2 flocks of maybe 20 Brent Geese going south suggested that winter was not too far away. I was now back in pager range, the Mire Loch is a complete 'not spot' and noticed that the Arctic Warbler had been refound at Skateraw. Its amazing hat a bit of sun can do.

St Abbs Bay

Skateraw is less than half an hour away, but it was a full 2 hours before the Arctic Warbler showed. The long thin supercilium flaring behind the eye. I have seen two before, both on Scilly, so this was a Scottish tick :).

My Walk Home from Work

A local landmark

A Bridge Too Far

Further down the Clyde

A friendly Glasgow citizen

This used to be "a hole in the ground" but transformed for the Commonwealth Games last year

Should I go in for a pint ?

Glasgow Cross

A busy Argyll Street

The train home