Foot It in Edinburgh: 76 miles without a Collared Dove

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...

The now customary hybrid along with a more regular Carrion Crow

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?

Pink-footed Goose on Duddingston Loch - feral or wild?

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.

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...

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!

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?...

I hit 100% of 75 species with this handsome drake Shoveler

Gadwall and Shoveler

I popped into Figgate Park this morning en route to the coast. It is one of those sites where good views of ducks and gulls are guaranteed, so given enough visits something unusual will presumably turn up sooner or later. Well, today it was Gadwall, with three males sailing around, one of which was quite tame and displaying. I am not sure I have heard its grunting quack before. Male Gadwall are subtly gorgeous birds with their fine vermiculations on their breast feathers.

There was also a Goosander in with the bunch, and I was delighted to bump into Anthony (aka blackpuddingonabike) at what must be his local patch. Apparently he has had a Pintail and a Water Rail at Figgate Pond in the last few days.

The Gadwall was a Lothian year tick for me, as was a Red-necked Grebe off the seawall at Musselburgh later in the morning. I have not been trying very hard at listing this year given the amount of time I have been out of the country, but still nice to inch the list up a little higher...

I had been hoping to see the Shoveler that had been hanging around the Figgy in previous winters, but there was no sign of that until I popped into Duddingston Loch shortly before sundown. Also there, a Daubenton's bat foraging low over the water giving great in-flight scope views.

So, it turned out that today's two little birding trips around Edinburgh produced sightings of 13 species of ducks: Mallard, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Wigeon, Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Goosander, Tufted Duck, Eider. Conspicuous by their absence perhaps were Pochard and Scaup both of which were once common in the area but now increasingly difficult to see.

Life through a new lens

My new lens arrived today to replace the well-worn Sigma 70-300 that had gone a tad soft to say the least... Well, the Canon prime or 100-400 zoom are firmly out of my budget so I have picked up a second hand Sigma 120-400 instead. Compared to the 70-300 it is a big lens and I daresay it will take some getting used to. Despite the poor weather conditions I was pleased with its performance on a brief outing today. I think that the image stabilisation function is going to be a real boon... it certainly managed to pick up some feather detail on this Blue Tit in the garden. So maybe, if the weather improves again, there might be some decent images on this blog in future?...

Down at Musselburgh, I pointed it out to sea and was pleased that this crop shows it can resolve some detail on these distant Long-tailed Ducks. I normally have more requirement to make record shots of distant birds than compose frame fillers, after all. While more reach would always be nice I think that I would struggle to go birding with a bigger lens - after all I don't want to leave my scope behind!

And its first use in anger... this yellowish-legged 4CY Herring Gull at the Esk mouth was just begging to be photographed.

This male Shoveler, in the sea with the Wigeon and Goldeneye at the Esk mouth was a year tick. I notice that the AF has not picked up the bird, but hopefully I'll improve?

Finally, this nice pair of Red-breasted Mergansers decided to pose for the new lens!