Hit the 100% mark on Saturday during a 14-miler. Started at around
8:00 am - nice and calm with fresh snow underfoot. One of the
hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crows
from last weekend was on the same rooftop so I fired off some better
record shots. As I did so a passerine flew over silently - almost
certainly a
Meadow Pipit - galling that it wasn't calling as it would have been a Foot It tick...
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| The now customary hybrid along with a more regular Carrion Crow |
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| All I could think was "flush a Bittern"! One of 3 Fox sightings on Saturday. |
Into Craiglockhart Castle Park for nice views of
Great Spotted Woodpecker and
Kestrel, and then on to Duddingston where I tried in vain to will a
Bittern to
emerge from the reedbed. Only ever seen 2 here but... A Fox trotting
along the edge of the ice and as it could do no better than me I decided
to head around to view the open water. A single
Pink-footed Goose in amongst the
Greylags was unexpected - nice close views, so presumably feral, but could just be lost and disorientated and tagging along with the
Greylags?
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| Pink-footed Goose on Duddingston Loch - feral or wild? |
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| My first Foot It tick of the day - a GBBG in the middle of the ice |
Scanning the gulls on the frozen loch I noted a single
Great Black-backed Gull
(species 72 after my mid-week Little Grebe). After drawing a blank on
this species until now, I ended up with 3 sightings before the end of
the weekend. As I was watching the gull some calls overhead revealed 2
Skylark heading towards the coast. Soon after 2
Meadow Pipits (73) passed over
calling making up for the earlier dip. Satisfied that two glaring holes
in my list had been plugged, I decided to go and twitch something
unexpected and headed up Arthur's Seat to look for the
Snow Buntings
that had been reported earlier in the week. After an hour or so combing
the various tops I conceded defeat and headed to check the wildfowl on
St Margaret's Loch. Nothing new to add here but an impressive
concentration of hungry birds and a few handfuls of birdseed were soon
hoovered up.
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| Hungry Mute Swans on St Margaret's Loch |
Heading for the Figgy I bumped into yet another
hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow, my sixth while Footing It and my ninth different bird in Edinburgh this winter. There are obviously a few around...
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| My sixth different hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow whilst Footing It - this one at Mount Castle |
At Figgate Park I was glad to see that my two target species were still on the pond and so
Gadwall (74) and
Shoveler (75)
brought me up to 100% of my target. That said, I have walked a bit
further than I initially planned to and roamed a little further afield
so maybe my target of 75 was too low. In fact, there are three species
that I have yet to see on my initial list (Collared Dove, Tawny Owl,
Lesser Redpoll). Yes you read that right - 76 miles without a Collared
Dove!
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| One of four Gadwall on Figgate Pond |
I
know of three other species that have been reported in the area so far
during the month (Crossbill, Fulmar, Snow Bunting). In addition, the
following are possible, though unlikely perhaps: Grey Partridge,
Bittern, Mediterranean Gull, Long-eared Owl, Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch
and Mealy Redpoll. With one weekend remaining I don't see myself adding
much more than Tawny Owl and Lesser Redpoll, but who knows?...
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| I hit 100% of 75 species with this handsome drake Shoveler |
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