W/c 19 November 18

Slamannan

36 Taiga Bean geese at Slamannan

W/c 12 November 2018

Bishopton

Cattle Egret - only my second British record

Musselburgh

1 Great Northern Diver
2 Red Throated Diver
c20 Slavonian Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Long Tailed Duck
Velvet Scoter
RB Merganser

Lots of Waders on the scrapes:

W/c 29 October 18

Cambuslang

Brambling flyover

Torness

2 Purple Sandpiper

W/c 22 October 2018

Kinghorn Harbour

2 Hour Seawatch:

1 Arctic Skua
No Poms
5 Long Tailed Duck
Common Scoter
Guillemot
1 Common or Arctic Tern

W/c 15 October 2018

Crawford - South Lanarkshire

Bee Eater

Wanlockhead

Failed to see any Red Grouse from the Road
2 Ravens
2 Buzzard
Stonechat

Skinflats

Feruginous Duck
2 Scaup
Pochard
95 Whooper Swan
Fieldfare
Redwing
15 Tree Sparrow
Black Tailed Godwit
2 juv Gannets
Lots of Pink Feet flying over

Feruginous Duck 

W/c 8 October 2018

Heritage Loch Run

1 Kingfisher
8 Lapwing
At least 7 Little Grebe
Tufted Duck

Cambuslang

1st Redwings
Increase in Song Thrushes

East Lothian

2 Yellow Browed - Torness
2 Yellow Browed - Skateraw
2 Brambling - Torness
2 Brambling & 1 Snow Bunting - between Skateraw & Barns Ness
1 probable Lesser Whitethroat - Skateraw

Snow Bunting from an earlier visit to Skateraw

Slamannan

No sign of any Bean Geese
Greylag Geese
Canada Geese
Buzzard

Garnqueen Loch

Again no sign of Ruddy Duck

W/c 1 October 2018

Heritage Loch Run

Little Grebe
Grey Wagtail
Siskin

Hogganfield Loch

Juv Black Tern - still present
4 Whooper Swans now back
1 Goldeneye
Gadwall
Great Crested Grebe
Little Grebe

Frankfield Loch

Still some Lapwing & Snipe present - water level now much higher

Garnqueen Loch

No sign of any Ruddy Duck

1 of 4 = now back for the winter

W/c 24 September 18

Heritage Loch Runs

Little Grebe
Canada Goose
Grey Lag Goose
Grey Wagtail
Siskin

Kinghorn Harbour

1 Arctic Skua
1 Bonxie
Many Gannets
Wigeon
Eider
Turnstone
At least 5 Dolphins

Kinneil

Greenshank
Many roosting Black Tailed Godwit
7 Golden Plover
Dunlin
Knot
Lapwing
Shelduck
Teal
7 Juv Gannets - do they normally get this far up ?

Part of large numbers of roosting Blackwits at Kinneil

Grangemouth Refinery

W/c 17 September 18

Balgray Reservoir

Grey Phalarope
Black Tailed Godwit
Dunlin
Ringed Plover
Great Crested Grebe

Stevenston Point

Sanderling
Ringed Plover
Dunlin
Sandwich Tern
Red Throated Diver
Harbour Porpoise

Irvine Harbour

Wigeon
Lapwing
Turnstone

Frankfield Loch

Still several hundred Lapwing
Snipe
Teal
Gadwall
Shoveler

Hogganfield Loch

Black Tern juvenile
Great Crested Grebe

Juvenile Black Tern

Great Crested Grebe - Hogganfield

Barns Ness

Woodchat Shrike
Rose Coloured Starling - Juvenile
Wheatear

Torness

Purple Sandpiper
Red Throated Diver
Guillemot

W/C 10 September 18

Musselburgh

Pectoral Sandpiper
c6 Ruff
White Winged Scoter
Slav Grebe
Red Throated Diver
2 Stock Dove

Aberlady

Short Eared Owl
Peregrine
2 Greenshank
c15 GoldenPlover
2 Pintail
2 Little Egret
500 Pink Feet

Frankfield Loch

Garganey
500 Lapwing
c15 Snipe
Gadwall
Shoveler
Kingfisher

Garganey - Frankfield Loch

Lapwing - Frankfield Loch 1 of over 500 present

Hogganfield

Saw my 1st Sand Martin of the year in with Swallows that were obviously flying through. 2 Wheatears, Sedge Warbler in the scrubby areas around the pond.

At least 3 Great Crested Grebe nests now occupied.

A fly over Raven was a bit of a surprise.

Aberlady

Quick walk out to the sand dunes produced singing Sedge Warbler at the Marl Loch, 1 Wheatear and quite a few singing Willow Warblers.

Skateraw to Barns Ness

By far the warmest day of the year so far provided the perfect setting.

The first bird I saw at Skateraw was a Wheatear. This is a bird I incredibly failed to see at all last year.

Wheatear

My first Sandwich Terns of the year were offshore & I my first Whitethroat was in sub song in the dry burn area. A Whimbrel called from the shoreline.

The seaweed area was positively full of Wagtails. Mainly White Wagtails, some Pied & 1 Yellow.

This Meadow Pipit also posed nicely:

I finished the day at Musselburgh failing to see any of the rare Scoters. 4 Long Tailed Duck, 1 Common Scoter, several Razorbills & Kittiwake were about the best.

Hogganfield March 2018

About 8 pairs of Great Crested Grebe on the loch at the moment

Little Grebe - their trilling calls are a feature at the moment

Slavonian Grebe - was present for about a week. This taken just before it departed.

1st Winter Glaucous Gull

American White Winged Scoter - ~Musselburgh

Despite the choppy sea conditions & the rain, this was a far better view of a White Winged Scoter than the one I 'saw' at Murcar in 2011. Also the added bonus of a drake Surf Scoter too.

What wasn't such a bonus was the car breaking down and a new clutch & gear box required.

Fife

Started at Ruddons Point on a bright but very cold & breezy morning. Sanderlings & Barwits at the Cocklemill burn were nice but the sea was very choppy and made the sea duck difficult although even at range I still managed to get on a drake Surf Scoter. There were also Velvet Scoter & Long Tailed Duck present.

Kilconquhar Loch was next up. I could not see all of the north side of the loch &  I think that was where the drake Red Crested Pochard was so I did not see it. However, there was a nice selection on the loch including Pochard & Shoveler.

Lochore Meadows was similarly disappointing as I could not locate the female Smew. Finished at Vane Farm which was pretty quiet.

Goldfinch at Vane Farm

Hogganfield & Strathclyde Park

Hogganfield in the morning had lying snow from the past few days snow fall but otherwise was bright & crisp. Unfortunately, I could not find anything out of the ordinary.

After lunch I went to Strathclyde Park by 3pm and found a 1st winter Iceland Gull in the roost.

South Ayrshire

Started at Dipple Shore about 8:30 am. Had 2 Purple Sandpiper with a small Turnstone flock, Rock Pipit, Stonechat & Eider. No sign of any Wigeon and so no sign of the American Wigeon.

I moved up to Balkenna and had 6 Wigeon, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone and c30 Linnet.

At South Girvan I had both Red & Black Throated Diver and Razorbill and at Girvan Mains a Great Northern Diver another Red Throat & about 30 Twite. I could not find the reported Black Redstart.

The wind was increasing as the morning progressed & by the time I got to Troon in the afternoon it was pretty strong. I managed a Med Gull at Meikle Crags but no Iceland Gull at Troon Harbour.

Musselburgh & Aberlady

Minus 5 on the way through this morning & still below zero when I arrived at Musselburgh at 08:30. The light was good but disappointingly the sea was pretty empty with only small numbers of Velvet Scoter, Merganser, Goldeneye & Long Tailed Duck and no sign of the Surf Scoter. A few Great Crested Grebes and 1 Red Throated Diver were present.

At the Esk Mouth the tide was going out & despite sifting through the Gulls I couldn't find anything interesting.

Bar Tailed Godwit

Grey Plover

Next stop was Aberlady. A roosting Long Eared Owl roosting in the Buckthorn at the Marl Loch was by far the best. Also loads of Fieldfare feeding on the berries. A tramp over the salt marsh got me c40 Twite & proved that my boots are far from waterproof.