Purps

I have had my nose well and truly to the grindstone with heavy work commitments for the last week and little chance to look out of the window. Changed that today with a half term day out with the family. We were going to climb the Pentland Hills, but with a low cloud cover in the morning they didn't look particularly inviting, so we headed coastwards for a wee jaunt up Berwick Law and a bit of a potter down North Berwick's High Street.

Not a birding trip, but great fun and good views from the summit. Nontheless, did manage three Waxwings at the centre of the Tranent roundabout as we came off the A1 and en route managed to spy a Raven and a Peregrine bombing over.

North Berwick shore is, of course, a reliable site for Purple Sandpiper on the rocks below the Seabird Centre, so I couldn't leave without a wee squint in their direction. Here are three of them with a couple of Ruddy Turnstone. The birds in this area seem to be fairly habituated and within a few seconds of me sitting on the rocks the Common Redshanks were soon feeding away close by. I didn't have long, but even a few minutes of watching these fantastic birds at close quarters felt refreshing...