First day of Foot It

Being away for New Year I had been vicariously enjoying the Foot It blog but frustrated not to be able to join in until today. So, feeling that I was playing catch-up, I set off from home this morning at first light and was glad that the weather was calm. The common corvids, gulls and finches started appearing as I headed into the Hermitage of Braid and with over 20 species by 9:00am I started to relax. I was glad to get both winter thrushes early as I hadn't noticed many of either species around this year. The first real goodie was a Water Rail streaking away like some sort of two-legged rat deep into a thick tangled patch upstream of Howe Dean bridge. I have only seen this species in this area on three previous occasions and was delighted to see it on my first attempt this year. A Dipper zipped past - it is regular here and is always a pleasure to see.

Next a couple of stake-outs. Tower Farm area for Tree Sparrow but not the 'dead-cert' Yellowhammers. Back home to check the back garden feeder for Brambling, which obliged - fortunate that one of the ones that arrived in December is still hanging on to the free hand-outs. A male Sparrowhawk then put in an appearance and flushed the finch flock so I was glad to have headed home when I did.

After a restorative coffee I was quickly back out and back up towards Alnwickhill. Yellowhammers put in an appearance and the Stock Doves were in their usual fields around Mortonhall. Mistle Thrush and Treecreeper were handy additions in this area as they have taken a few days in the past to find them around here in January. A bite to eat at Klondyke and Linnets and Reed Buntings were in their usual areas at Broomhills and Liberton Kennels. The fields did not yield partridges or snipe despite a couple of hours of effort - snow, please... Best bird in this area was a smart hybrid Crow and then another different bird a few fields away an hour later.

Hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow at Alnwickhill, 5 Jan 2013

Second hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crow, Tower Farm, 5 Jan 2013

Only dip of the day was a skein of grey geese that I didn't get on to quickly enough, so I had to content myself with some Greylags and other assorted wildfowl at Blackford Pond. Before heading back home over Blackford Hill. Highlight here was my fourth raptor of the day - a nice Peregrine Falcon flypast.

So, since the hybrid doesn't really add a 0.5 the tally ended up at 49 which is 75% of my target. Not bad for a 9 mile walk... More tomorrow hopefully.

Birding while gardening: Crossbills and hunting Peregrine!

Yesterday's clear skies tempted me out into the garden and I spent the day rejuvenating various raised beds for this year's growing season. I was trimming back leggy herbs when I was startled to hear the explosive 'jip' call of Crossbills. An almost daily experience on my North Wales patch but only the second time I've seen them from the garden here in Edinburgh (single bird 5 July 2010) - another real garden rarity hot on the heels of yesterday's Snow Bunting and Fulmar! As I stood up the flock of 9 Crossbills passed low over the houses and then headed off down the hill giving me a nice view of a selection of red, green and yellowish rumps bobbing away into the distance. The Hermitage of Braid looked like a possible destination, although of course they may not have stopped...

For much of the day my head was down as I worked on the soil, but in general the sky seemed lacking in birdlife. With the wind direction slowly swinging to northerly, the clear blue skies, cold air and warm sun seemed an odd combination for this time of year. It was not until late afternoon that raptor activity hotted up. Several Common Buzzards in the air included some hanging fairly low over the garden and a couple in the distance indulging in aerial display. A single Sparrowhawk sighting over the course of the day must rank as one of the lowest hawk-per-minute sighting ratios from the garden. Best of all was something that I have never seen before from here - a Peregrine at full speed hunting pace directly overhead, and then just failing to hit a feral pigeon. Half an hour later it was overhead lugging prey - clearly persistence pays off (see top photo).

Tynninghame ticks

Decided to check the north side of Tynninghame bay this morning, so arrived just after dawn. This area is pretty scenic - here is the view across the bay towards Dunbar - and the birdlife is pretty rich and varied.

I thought an early walk would beat the crowds, and in general this was true with the joggers, dog walkers and ramblers arriving an hour or so after me. I had not reckoned on the wildfowlers, however, who were in situ long before me I would imagine and were clearing off - at least one with a bag full of Wigeon (?). How depressing - just can't understand the desire to use precision firearms on ducks...


Birdwise, I was hoping for migrant raptors, but no obvious candidates materialised, although I did get views of Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and this juvenile Peregrine.

The passerines stole the show, however. The finch list was burgeoning (Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin, Linnet, Twite, Redpoll sp. and Crossbill) and the bunting haul was not bad either (Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer and 3 flyover Snow Buntings). Best of all though, a couple of Lothian year ticks: a handful of Jays ferrying acorns and 5 Greenshanks. The latter are in the shot below.

Sunrise over Barns Ness Lighthouse

Headed out to the east coast before dawn arriving just in time to see this fantastic view of the sunrise over Barns Ness Lighthouse.

As I was travelling east along the A1, I had a good view of the cement factory 'windsock'. Sadly the plume was heading rapidly out to sea rather than in the other direction. Of course, an even better sign for grounded migrants is the plume heading westwards and also rendered invisible by low cloud and light rain...

Birdwise, I was pleased to stumble into another (or the same) Short-eared Owl a little bit further NW along the coast from yesterday's sighting. Today's bird rose up from rough grass and then gained height over the sea before drifting inland to allow the mobbing gulls to be replaced by corvids (fuzzy pic below...).

More exciting was a brief sparring encounter with a Peregrine. The latter then buzzed a curlew that was feeding on the shore before reappearing close by for a rapid flypast.

Migrants were few and far apart with a few small skeins of Pink-footed Geese, a total of 6 Lapland Buntings, 3 Redpoll sp., 5 Blackcap and a probable Yellow-browed Warbler which allowed a few silent glimpses as it flitted in the canopy. Fingers crossed that the wind heads east sometime soon...

More skywatching...

I opened the curtains to a Chiffchaff in the front garden, which was pretty surprising as there are never any birds in the front garden... A Stock Dove overhead at lunchtime was a garden rarity and a thirty-minute watch at 5:00pm revealed the first Common Buzzard sighting for a week or so as well as a low pass from a Grey Heron into the sun presumably making its way from Duddingstone to Alnwickhill.

I found another shot of this weekend's Osprey on the camera, which I thought I should post...

... as well as a Raven passing over Alnwickhill...

 

...and a very distant Peregrine (at an undisclosed site) trying to make a meal out of Feral Pigeons.