American Herring Gull

I think one could safely say that only a birder could travel 140 miles to see this:

American Herring Gull

Nice also to see lots of Greenland Whitefronts in the Campbeltown area and a brief look at a Snow Goose just north of Tayinloan.

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Can't find my old field notebooks but I'm pretty sure I saw YRW in the States. I certainly hadn't seen one in Britain up until today when I twitched the wintering one near Durham.

Initially found during the recent RSPB Big Garden birdwatch it was skillfully enticed out of its garden and on to feeders in an adjacent strip of woodland & thus allowing many very silly people such as myself to travel hundreds of miles to see it. A collection bucket was part of the 'deal' and with #indyref in full swing I resisted, but only just, the temptation of saying to the man "I'm Scottish I don't have any currency". Instead I dutifully threw my £2 into his bucket.

After all this excitement it was forward to Saltholme which was really pretty boring and then a brief stop near Heddon for a Tundra Bean Goose.

Iceland Gull at Strathclyde Loch

Following up on a report from yesterday, the first bird I saw at the mouth of the Calder was a Juvenile Iceland Gull. I got distracted by the Goose flock and never saw it again during the 2 hours I was there.

There was a drake Scaup on the loch. It appeared to be more mature than the 1st winter that was present in late December, so could be a different bird.

There is a nice drinking and bathing area at the mouth of the Calder due to the water level being low. I presume it is some kind of maintenance there doing but whatever it is really good at present. The number of Goldeneye have dropped a bit possibly because the water level is lower.

I relocated what I know now to be a juvenile White Fronted Goose that I saw at the end of the year in with the Greylags.

Juvenile White Fronted Goose

Spent lots of time sifting through the large numbers of Black Headed Gulls for yesterdays reported Med without success.

American Coot

An American Coot, the 7th record for Britain, was found at Loch Flemington near Ardersier last weekend but it conveniently stayed around long enough for me to twitch it today.

A long boring drive north up the A9 and the first snow of the winter on what was a very cold day.

Three Otters on Loch Flemington were also of interest as was a Little Egret that flew over. Pretty scarce this far north I would think.

Stopped at Arturlie where there were plenty of Hooded Crows on the foreshore and a sizeable Scaup flock was present but far too far to make out the reported Lesser Scaup.

Moved on to Garten Wood in Speyside but that was very quiet. Managed to hear a Crested Tit but that was about it.

Local Birding

Part of the 150 strong Goldeneye flock at Strathclyde Park at present:

Musselburgh & Aberlady

After all the recent wind & rain, today was finally reasonable for some birding.

The light was awful at Musselburgh when I arrived but it was entirely windless & this was favourable for scanning the sea. There was the expected scatterings of Velvet Scoter, Long Tailed Duck and Slav Grebes however, a Black Throated Diver was excellent particularly since I failed to see any at all in 2013.

At the River Esk Mouth waders included Knot, Grey Plover & Bar Tailed Godwit.

Aberlady was much brighter and although there was no sign of the Queen Eider there was Common Scoter and 3 Red Throated Divers. The sea buckthorn was full of Fieldfare and I got lucky with a female Blackcap.

Sunset over Aberlady

Finished 2013 on 233 BOU

Patricia, me & the girls spent Hogmanay at my cousin's caravan near Stranraer & this finally allowed me to hear Tawny Owl and finish on 233 bird species for the year. This total represents my best return for quite some years.

I was out  first thing on the 1st of January and among some common birds I saw Brambling & Jay. On the way home on the 2nd had a quick stop in at the Bishopburn and picked up Scaup.