4th and 5th February

Left Spurn mid-morning, arriving up in Scotland by mid-afternoon just in time for a little walk around the beach at Skateraw on the East Lothian coast; there wasn’t too much there but a nice roost of 32 Yellowhammers came into a long-weedy field by the car park where there was also a single Grey Partridge – an overdue Scottish tick for me!   

The following morning I was looking off Fisherrow Harbour early doors and soon found the drake WHITE-WINGED SCOTER showing distantly straight out in the overcast and calm conditions; I then drove round to the seafront on the other side of the River Esk for a short look hoping the Scoter would come in closer as the tide came in where birds included the drake Surf Scoter, a Red-necked Grebe, 4 Slavonian Grebes, c60 Goldeneye and a few Velvet Scoter but nothing was really close.   Another look off the harbour an hour later produced the White-winged Scoter a bit closer in, showing better but hardly great views.   

A little look at Crammond by the river mouth (still high tide) then produced a few roosting waders including 6 Greenshank, 80 Bar-tailed Godwits and 30 Knot in with Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Dunlin.   I then drove north to have a quick look at the Tay Reedbeds near Errol but again, no Bearded Tits – the second time I’ve failed to see them there but a flock of c25 Tree Sparrows were nice; I then finished the day at Lunan Bay where I couldn’t find the Black Scoter in amongst the hundreds of Common Scoter but it hasn’t been reported recently.

Goldeneye on the River Esk in Musselburgh - note all the different eye colours in relation to age and sex.

Curlew

Carrion Crow

Eider

Stonechat somewhat unusually feeding out in the rocks on the tide line like a Rock Pipit