Foot It: Wagtail, Waxwings and more Stock Doves

Only two additions over the last two days. A Pied Wagtail at long last on Monday after a couple of hours scouring both suburbia and farmland.

Today a flock of 17 Waxwings heading west over the Hermitage of Braid at dusk. They came right over my head and looked as if they might be heading into the scrub to roost but they continued on towards Morningside. The shot of them below would make a pretty difficult mystery bird pic but it does allow the flock to be counted. A real relief to jam in on these birds - in my experience January is not necessarily an easy month to see them in Edinburgh.

17 Waxwing (honest!) over Hermitage of Braid, Edinburgh this afternoon. Don't think they are ID-able in this shot... but thought I'd post the worst Waxwing shot on the internet! Like many, I have had the opportunity to take better shots this winter, such as here.

There were other quality birds in the area as well, with the Water Rail scampering hurriedly away into cover again and 4 sightings of Dippers. And just after posting my first decent picture of a Stock Dove, look what were parading around outside the Hermitage of Braid Visitor Centre today. Looking forward to Footing It again at the weekend.

Stock Doves up close and personal for the second time this Foot It. Considerably smaller than the Woodpigeon - which is presumably why they would be used for stock?...

Foot It Day 2: More hybrid crows

Spent the morning and early afternoon Footing It by following the Braid Burn downstream rather than upstream. Immediate success in the form of Grey Heron (species 50) and Grey Wagtail (51), with 3 or 4 of the latter. Another two Dippers added excitement along the river.

Grey Wagtail in the Braid Burn at Cameron Toll shopping centre car park. No Pied Wagtails yet though...

Into Inch Park and another hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow had me thinking that this was a different bird to either of yesterday's. Then a pair of Stock Doves put on a nice show of bowing and strutting and posed for photos - this species normally seems to be very shy - maybe with the nice weather they were thinking about other things.

Stock Dove posing in Inch Park

At Duddingston Loch, Teal, Goldeneye, Canada Goose and Cormorant provided easy pickings but the unexpected absence of Little Grebe stalled me temporarily on 55 species. I scanned the margins repeatedly and wished that I had shouldered my scope but instead accepted a salmon-pink fly-by Goosander (56) as compensation. With Raven (57) and Great Spotted Woodpecker (58) also appearing at this site I returned home. No new species to come I did see Sparrowhawk number three and hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow number four in Craigmillar.

My fourth Foot It hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow - how many until I can tick Hoodie!...

While I always keep an eye out for these hybrids to see 4 in 2 days is a little surprising. I think that I have now seen enough Hooded Crow genes while Footing It to make a whole - just unfortunately not all in the same individual bird!

So with 58 species already recorded (89% of original target of 65), I have decided to revise my target upwards by adding all of my possibles to my probables to my new target of 75...