Hound Point

I was at a bit of a loss today for what to do birding wise. I had done most of my ironing chores yesterday but could only really afford the morning for birding. Having left the pager on overnight I noticed that Hound Point had some Poms & Black Terns yesterday so seeing that it is only about an hour away I plumped for that.

Did the touristy bit first

In truth the touristy bit was about as good as it got. In an hour and a half I saw one Skua (about a million miles away).

Otherwise there were a few Sandwich & Common Terns, a big passage of Gannets, 1 Kittiewake and 2 Fulmar. A Nuthatch was calling in the adjoining woodland.

With regard to the woodland, a couple of ladies enquired of me what the 50 or so birds they had seen flying into the trees might have been. They thought they might have been "Sand Martins". For Sand Martins read Goldfinches.

Of course looking at the pager this evening I am seeing reports of "... 7 Poms & 32 Arctics between 2pm & 5pm". Bugger !!!!!!1

Troon

Spent the morning down at Troon doing some sea watching. It was however pretty poor with only Manxies going past.

I soon got bored and went for a look for the Glaucous Gull in the harbour, which I quickly found:

2nd Winter bird - asleep most of the time

From there I headed round to Barassie and spent about 45mins scanning the beach. Small numbers of Dunlin and a Bar Tailed Godwit was about the best.

Rosy for Hosie

With Rachel away for the weekend & Patricia on nightshift, I escaped over to the far East this morning in the hope of catching up with a few things including Roseate Tern that has been seen on and off over there for a week or so now.

Arrived at Aberlady for 8:30 am and parked up at Kilspindie waiting for the tide to push the birds towards me. A calling Greenshank was a good start but despite the high tide there wasn't a great deal & certainly not a Little Stint. 3 Knot and some Grey Plover were about the best so I kept myself interested by trying to digiscope:

Sandwich Tern

A few Lapwing were present

I got bored by c10 am and so moved round to Longniddry where I quickly picked up 1 measly Red Necked Grebe amonst the throngs of Guillemots and Razorbills. As per normal Velvet Scoters were present but I could not turn any of them into Common for a year tick.

I walked East along the shore in the hope of seeing the Roseate Terns that were reported yesterday. There was no sign but there were plenty of Gulls and Terns again including Sandwich:

Adult Sarnie Tern - going bald

A good selection of waders also:

Curlew with Redshanks

Bar Tailed Godwits

Back at the car park I noticed Kris Gibb scoping the Gulls and Terns on the West side of the Ness. He got me on to the Roseates. Not sure I would have found them by myself. He also told me what the diagnostic features were (and they checked out) so I'm confident they're genuine despite the rubbishy photographs coming up :



Right hand bird in the foreground. You can just see the metal ring on one of the legs. That's all you can see !



Roseate Tern - and if you really concentrate you can see imagine a pink flush

 

The top one is the juvenile with an all black bill and a dark forehead, Common Terns have a whitish forehead. Very cold grey mantle "no warm tones". Metal ring on each leg. The adult is the bottom one and is still showing a slight pinky wash on the breast and really pale mantle and wings.

 

2 sleeping Med Gulls were also present in the Gull roost making them almost inpossible (for me anyway) to find. 7 Red Necked Grebe in the West side of the bay and a Sparrowhawk completed the day before I headed home to face the dreaded ironing.

Wader Fest

Conditions of late have been very good for Waders at Baron's Haugh, so went along this morning to get some images. In total there were 5 Black Tailed Godwit, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank, c30 Snipe and C150 Lapwing. The light wasn't great however:

Black Tailed Godwit

Lapwing

Snipe

Spotshank -never close !

Spotshanks at Baron's Haugh

Went to Baron's Haugh after tea tonight to twitch the 2 Spotted Redshanks. Both showing really well from Causeway hide. Didn't take the camera because I thought they would be miles away. Tried to phonescope with the Blackberry to no avail. Ipod wouldn't do the business either.

Also 3 Green Sands, c200 Lapwing and lots of Snipe in what looks ideal conditions with the water level lowered and lots of wet mud.

View from Causeway Hide this Evening

On Twitching a Chiff !!!!

I haven't had a lifer yet in 2012. Not that  I'm desperate, but news of a possible Eastern Ollie in Fife yesterday evening had me through at Kilminning for 8:30am. The bird in question showed well on an off & indeed very well between 12 and 1pm.

My view was that it was an interesting bird. Very scabby, particularly around the head. Did it remind me of the birds I saw in Greece last year ? Maybe the head shape was not flat enough. Basically, I am no where near competent enough to comment. The experts present were obviously not sure either, although the id as Eastern Olivaceous Warbler seemed favourite. I am however gobsmacked this evening that it has been 'formally' identified as a Chiffchaff!!!!!!???????? I thought they had dark legs. On reviewing some of my photographs there are some yellowish tones which I don't think are good news for Eastern Ollie. Head shape looks wrong too.

Eastern Ollie Chiffchaff

Eastern Ollie Chiffchaff

A lot of the feathering has been lost around the face which probably makes the bill look long. It looks quite grey. Tail pumping was a noticeable feature. Legs are pale, unlike Chiffchaff, but some individuals Chiffchaffs do apparently show this feature.

So I suppose I still haven't had a tick in 2012 & it was a wasted day ? From the point of adding species to a list yes. But overall I enjoyed the day out and at least 3 Whimbrel off Fife Ness in the afternoon was good. Other birds of interest in a 2 hour sea watch were Gannet, Sandwich Tern, Guillemot, Razorbill & Knot. There was no sign of the reported Barred Warbler at Fife Ness Muir so I wasted some time trying to photographing a Small Tort on Buddlia.

Small Tortoiseshell

Hogganfield

A short visit at lunchtime today was pretty unremarkable. However there were a fair number of moulting Tufted & Pochard and I counted in excess of 80 Mute Swan.

Also good to see that both Great Crested & Little Grebe had had some breeding success despite the very wet summer.

Little Grebe

Great Crested Grebe