Harried Harris Hawk

Carrion Crows and CarrionxHooded hybrids hassling the Harris Hawk

A couple of brief trips to Seafield so far this weekend have produced a couple of interesting sightings. Yesterday an adult Mediterranean Gull was offshore with the Common Gulls at the outfall. Only a brief and distant sighting sadly. Today's unexpected bird was another view of the falconer's Harris Hawk on top of one of the buildings. The gulls seemed to be slightly worried. The corvids on the other hand were flocking in droves to get a good look at this tropical species.

CarrionxHooded Crow hybrid showing off its giveaway darker scapular and vent feathering. Taken on the 4 Nov - which clearly was a sunny day!

There were a couple of regular hybrid crows joining in this attempt at mass bullying. Earlier I had seen what could have been a pure hoodie over Duddingston but of course it is far more likely to have been a hybrid. Here is a nearly-pure Hooded Crow hybrid on Seafield shore earlier in the month.

Mediterranean Gulls in Edinburgh and Lisbon

Unringed adult Mediterranean Gull at Seafield, Edinburgh, 2 Aug 2013

Well, I hadn't seen a Mediterranean Gull this year so was pleased that a few were loafing on the sloping front at the Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon earlier in the week. Just like buses, of course, as soon as I am back in Edinburgh another one pops up with this nice adult at Seafield today. That's my ninth species of gull at the site this year (GBBG, LBBG, HG, CommonG, BhG, Glauc, Kittiwake, Little Gull & Med) – here's to the tenth, whatever it may be!

Today's Med Gull (centre) enjoying the delights of the Seafield shoreline

Juvenile Mediterranean Gull in Lisbon on 28 July 2013 - not a Portuguese breeding species as far as I know... I wonder how far this one has travelled since fledging...

First summer (2CY) Mediterranean Gull in Lisbon on 28 July 2012

Mediterranean and Black-headed Gull comparison

Lothian year list hits 100 with Water Rail

I have been lucky to manage some great birding over the last couple of weekends, and as a result my yearlist topped 100 today. I started the day on 98 and headed first for Duddingston to listen for Water Rail and maybe fluke a Bittern. No luck on either so I nipped into Figgate Park. Four Goosander and a singing Dipper were nice, but no sign of the Kingfishers or Shoveler, my two target species, so no additions to the year list there.

En route to Aberlady Bay, I had a quick seawatch from Ferny Ness. Some Long-tailed Ducks were showing well, but the water was a little choppy and four kite surfers were doing their wildlife-scaring best to reduce our local biodiversity. A quick stop at Seton failed to produce any Mediterranean Gulls but a group of about 25 Golden Plovers were whizzing around - a nice surprise 99th Lothian species for the year.

As I pulled into Aberlady Bay, I felt sure that I would soon hit the 100 mark. The tide was extremely far out so I decided to leave scanning the estuary for another time. Instead I thought I could head towards the dunes. As I hit the sea buckthorn tunnel I thought about the number of times I had walked through it always in the hope of stumbling upon some unusual avian waif. Well I wasn't expecting a Water Rail but there it was in the middle of the path as I rounded a corner. It scuttled into the buckthorn and I assumed that was it, but in fact it seemed quite happy for a few minutes as it wended its way deeper and deeper into the tangle. Not great views, and certainly not great shots, but a great bird to hit the hundred with!

Well, that's what the slog is for, eh?, views like that!...

There were three more year ticks ahead today. The trek out to the dunes was rewarded with several Sanderling on the beach, a family walk later in the day added a Lesser Redpoll at the Union Canal, and finally at dusk a cracking winter adult Mediterranean Gull heading East past Seafield Road. It was not quite the white-winger that I was hoping for (a Glaucous Gull had been reported earlier) but I was certainly not complaining!

White Christmas: adult Med Gull at Alnwickhill

Another quick trip up to Alnwickhill pays off with an unringed adult winter Mediterranean Gull dropping in to bathe and loaf around with around 100 Black-headed Gulls. Fantastically white winged in flight, the Med Gull has to rank as one of my favourite species; watching it float around in the blustery wind after bathing was particularly enjoyable - particularly as this was the trip to try out the Opticron HDF eyepiece with the Kowa TSN4 scope body. A stunning optical improvement just in time for a stunning gull.

Other Alnwickhill news is that the 5 Canada Geese and 1 hybrid Canada x Greylag Goose have been replaced overnight by 7 Greylag Geese!

Med Gull returns to Alnwickhill

One of the mega (for Liberton...) Mediterranean Gulls returned to Alnwickhill for its second day. I was passing at midday and sure enough the first bird found yesterday was back on the left-hand side of the water works. It had not been there earlier in the morning. Once again it indulged in some highly active bathing including some fairly energetic nosedives into the water. A few more record shots below.

Great stuff - easily made up for the lack of White-fronted or Bean Geese while on a family trip out to East Lothian this afternoon.

Mediterranean Gulls at Alnwickhill: patch tick!

Alnwickhill will soon by drained, and the plans are to turn the area into housing. Someday soon I'll peer over the wall and the filter beds will be dry and my local gull and wildfowl watching will be over. Surely I can't be the only one to think that it would have potential as an urban nature reserve...

Opportunities to keep watch have been limited recently but today I managed a quick visit in the morning and then decided to stop by on my way to the coast in the afternoon. Well, I never made the coast as one of the first birds that I saw was a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull over on the far left of the filter beds. Viewing was distant but the bird obliged with a mixture of loafing, bathing and brief aerial sorties. Excellent patch tick as far as I am concerned - I was beginning to wonder why this species seemed to be so regular along the coast (albeit in small numbers) yet absent here despite a year or so of watching.

After 40 minutes of watching the bird, I decided to quickly check through the remaining gulls and then head for the coast. Turning to the filter bed in front of me I was delighted to find another 1st winter Mediterranean Gull in amongst one of the nearest groups of birds. A quick double check confirmed it was a second bird and the next 40 minutes were suddenly accounted for!

Notice that this second bird has a more extensive subterminal tail band than the first.

After filling my boots with these birds I decided to head for home on the off-chance of a flypast as the birds headed back for the coast for the evening. It turned out that this tactic was as unsuccessful as with the Iceland Gull earlier in the year. Ah well, maybe going for the garden tick was pushing my luck a little...

Musselburgh Pom and Med Gull

Bookended the day with a seawatch off Musselburgh morning and evening. Good numbers of gulls around, particularly Kittiwakes moving west in the evening. Stephen W watching further along the coast at Ferny Ness scored with a Sabine's Gull just after I headed for home - don't quite know whether or when it would have passed Musselburgh but it was one of the species that I was looking out for today.

My main targets were skuas and although I was pretty certain that I saw three species today, only a couple of Pomarine Skuas in the morning and a single Arctic in the evening were clinched. It might well have been a good day to be watching from Hound Point. It is a few years ago now, but I've had all four species from there in the space of a few hours.

Best bird of the day however goes to a winter adult Mediterranean Gull seen feeding among a group of Black-headed and Common Gulls. While Mediterranean Gulls are no longer unusual at Musselburgh, this is the first I have seen here this year and also the first that I have picked up in the scope while seawatching - normally I have seen them loafing or at most coasting. Hopefully it will be a more frequent sight as numbers continue to build year on year it seems. Not the plumage of today's bird, here is a pic taken in the South of France this summer.

Unlike this bird photographed on a hot summer evening in the Med, today's birding was decidedly Arctic, both in temperature and supporting cast - Long-tailed Duck, Goldeneye, Slavonian Grebe as well as the Velvet Scoters, Goosander and Red-breasted Mergansers... Brrr...