Male Grey-headed Wagtail at Whitesands

A sprinkling of goodies from the Northern Isles to Northumberland yesterday had me itching to get to the coast so I set my alarm and was up and out early. Whitesands Bay was my first stop and after checking the triangle and bushes down towards Vaults without success I decided to head towards Barns Ness. I hadn't got very far when on a whim I decided to pull over and check the Bay. As I got out of the car a neon bird caught my eye close by on the close cropped turf path running through the marram grass - a cracking male Grey-headed Wagtail (thunbergi) only 10 metres away. We both froze and I slowly tried to extricate my camera from my shoulder bag. That was enough for it and it flew towards the parking area giving the typical flava-like call.

Before I could relocate the bird it was in flight again and moving towards the beach. It fed along the upper shore for 20 minutes or so before being disturbed by a dog walker and heading for the golf course. Hopefully it will hang around longer for someone to get some better pictures than I managed! Its active feeding behaviour made phonescoping difficult and after the initial sighting its range was a little to great for the SLR. Through the scope the grey cap, darker ear coverts, lack of pale supercilium and bright yellow extending from chin to vent made this a very smart looking bird - features sadly not abundantly clear here...

Also in the bay this flock of 43 Canada Geese - could they be on their way north to moult already?

 

Northern Marsh Orchid

April round-up: ticks all round

April seems to have flown by, which is exactly what most of the best birds I have seen this month have done. My Lothian yearlist has remained in the doldrums with an accumulated total of only 119 species, which is way off Mike H's 159 species and the combined total of 164 species recorded in the county so far this year on Bubo listing. However, I have had an excellent month bird wise with self-found patch-ticks in both Edinburgh (Osprey, plus second record of Merlin) and Nercwys Mountain (Hobby) as well as a self-found lifer in Highland (White-billed Diver). Plenty of other interesting birds were seen in the Outer Hebrides (divers, waders, raptors, buntings). Even if I did fail to connect with either the big white falcon or the big white owl, I did manage to find a big sandy hawker dragonfly while on North Uist - a Vagrant Emperor - more later.

The Hobby provided an interesting diversion shortly after the royal wedding on Friday as it raced over fairly high on a north easterly bearing. As I haven't managed much birding at my Welsh patch in recent years I decided to ask Peter R about its recent local status when I saw him later in the day. "Ahh... it's funny you should ask", he commented "I just saw one today during the royal wedding." Since Peter's sighting was in the next valley it is highly likely that we saw the same bird!

A quick walk this morning before heading back to Scotland up to the Bryn Alyn SSSI limestone pavement revealed a lovely showing of Early Purple Orchids including the magnificent specimen above.