A Lidl bit of twitching

I haven't seen Black Guillemot in Lothian for a few years so it would have been churlish not to stop off at the Prestonpans Lidl carpark when passing on Sunday. It took 10 minutes or so to find it as it was pretty far offshore, but the sea was flat and the light good. Not sure that it is quite identifiable in the photo, but that is what it is.

Meanwhile, hats off the Stephen W for finding a new species for Lothian round about the same time - managing to pick up an Egyptian Goose in a field near Haddington. With only a very small number of recent records in Scotland of individuals (presumably) dispersing from the feral population in East Anglia, I was keen to add this species to my county list. With work and home commitments I arrived at the site today at about 6:00pm when I suppose it would be officially dark. Luckily the bird was showing at the same spot and could easily be identified even in the gloomy views through the scope. Neither my phone or camera could manage any decent images, so these shots are all from Malawi in October.

Egyptian Geese with Spur-winged Plover, Spur-winged Geese, African Openbill Stork, Nile Crocodile and Hippoptamus at Liwonde National Park in Malawi.

So, did anyone have a bet on Egyptian Goose being the next addition to the Lothian list? In a word, No!

First migrants return

I managed a brief trip out yesterday to check a couple of local spots - Duddingston, Figgate Park and Seafield. At each site a small number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls were in evidence - almost all new arrivals I am sure, back from their wintering grounds further south and west. Most that were close enough for scrutiny looked to be large enough and heavy billed enough to be males, though that is a difficult call with isolated individuals. Two LBBGs from both my office window in Merchiston and over the back garden earlier in the week also indicate that the arrival of these smart gulls has begun. Other changes include Collared Doves back in Liberton and Figgate Park, a Pochard and pair of Gadwall on Duddingston. Bring on the spring!

Hybrid/yellow-legged gull primary pattern

Here are some slightly better (!) pics of the primary pattern of Saturday's hybrid/YLG candidate. Note the extent of the band on P5 ... What is not obvious from the pics is that the mantle shade intermediate between HG and LBBG and that the legs are bright yellow.

(Un)Common Crane, East Lothian

Twitched the Common Crane at Knowes Farm in East Lothian today that has been present for the last few days. Great to get such useful help from the farmer and landowner who gave advice on best route and filled us in on the latest sightings. He was spot on about the bird's location. We kept to the John Muir Way as advised and were treated to good but distant views of the bird feeding. A little later the bird flew towards us and over the river to feed in another recently ploughed field. Superb flight views, and a species that I haven't seen since visiting southern Spain in winter 1989... So, in short, a Scottish and Lothian tick!

Great to see a bird that can be easily placed in a specific category - the last couple of trips have been dominated by hybrid gulls...

Yellow-legged Gull at Seafield?

This is the best candidate I have had yet. Looks good to me, though a slightly broader band on P5 and a heavier head would be nice... Call seemed spot on for YLG as it came over my head. Refound it on filter beds, luckily - very yellow legs. What do you think?

Stringy Rook and another hybrid Herring x LBB Gull?

I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of gulling today. As the tide was in I checked the loafing area beside the pipe-pile at Seafield but found it almost deserted. After twenty minutes the best I could do was a handful of BhGs, Herring Gulls and a single Lesser Black-backed Gull. Scanning the corvids revealed two hybrid Hooded x Carrion Crows on a roof and a distant static Rook on a pole atop a portacabin. Switching to my scope the 'Rook' morphed into a falconer's Harris's Hawk (!) tethered to the spot. Ha! I wonder whether that is the first time that particular misidentification has been made? The bare skin around the bill and dark plumage had been massaged by my brain into the most-likely candidate... So, my second exotic raptor of the year, and the reason why the gulls were largely absent. Deterred, I headed around to the sewage works where it turned out there was lots of gull activity.

I was hoping for a white-winger of some sort but the best I could do was this possible hybrid Herring x LBB Gull. Possible argentatus Herring Gull given the wingtip pattern and pinkish leg colour (with only a hint of yellow). Characteristics favouring hybrid are the slight build - much more like a LBBG than a Herring Gull and the mantle shade that seems to me to be too dark to be an argentatus Herring Gull. Any ideas?...

The same bird was easily picked up when it moved to the sea. Unfortunately the light was poor...

Soggy Sparrow

This male sparrow stopped me in my tracks today until I raised my bins - a soggy House Sparrow rather than the Spanish Sparrow that it was impersonating... Ah well, next time maybe...

Last Foot It walk brings 2 pairs of partridges

Well, the weather forecast for Sunday was not good, but it was my only real chance for Footing It in this the last weekend of the competition. I dragged myself out of bed convinced I was heading out into the rain for a day where the only target met would be the mileage under the belt. As it turned out there were plenty of breaks both in the weather and the birding and I got three Foot It ticks, finishing the day on 79 species in 97 miles.

Waxwings - just the birds to revive spirits after 10 miles of Foot It...

I started the day experiencing exactly the same situation as Andy just blogged - a fly-over Redpoll that sounded more like a Mealy than a Lesser. I hung around for half an hour or so but it was not for returning... So, either way a Foot It tick but not countable on the views... Heavy rain almost had me turning on my heels after this disappointment but I spotted a loafing flock of gulls on a playing field up ahead and as I watched them padding for worms the skies lifted. Refreshed by a spot of gulling I set off along a stretch of river that has yet to ever provide a Kingfisher and today was no different.

I have walked miles along the burns and checked about a dozen Dippers - all chestnut bellied although this one is taking it to an extreme

But I was re-energised and decided to make a second Foot It ascent of Arthur's Seat in search of the Snow Buntings that had evaded me last weekend. Once again they had been reported mid week and once again they were to prove too elusive for the weekend watcher. It did not turn out to be a wasted journey with a pair of Grey Partridges (species 77) exploding out of a patch of gorse at my feet and disappearing in flight over a ridge. This was a definite bonus species as I had convinced myself that they were no longer present within my walking radius. The lack of buntings was no issue now as I felt I had made up for the redpoll failure.

Arthur's Seat - only have to ascend about 200m from my side - although it is 4 miles away from this part of my patch

I turned and headed a few miles to my newly located gull loafing patch at Little France. In doing so I headed through a urban Craigmillar - an unlikely birding venue although the school pitch there had previously come up trumps with Curlew. This time I had just got beyond the housing when I noticed a movement in a weedy area of ground - a pair of nowhere-near-expected Red-legged Partridges (78). Local mega for me, with only one previous record in the area, and Foot It gold!

Red-letter Partridges - after Jack Snipe (and, err... Redshank) my top Foot It find

I spent an hour chilling (literally) with the gulls, but despite the weather could find nothing unusual. As I left Little France a small group of 4 Waxwings added to the mix. Actually, the first one I saw nearly gave me heart failure as it looked like a Hawfinch out of the corner of my eye. Now that really would be a good patch bird up here.

Waxwing doing Hawfinch impression - well that's what I thought it was out of the corner of my eye!

The Waxwings had done their trick and I felt that I should push on - the next tick might just be round the corner. Well, it was quite a few corners to be honest but at last, in Ellen's Glen, a single Collared Dove popped out of an ivy festooned hiding place and at last joined my last. So after 95 miles or so I finally grip back the Collared Dove to get me onto 79 species.

At last a bl**dy Collared Dove! Looks like this (young male?) is an autumn hatched bird as it still has some unmoulted coverts with pale tips. Maybe that's how it resisted the urge to disappear out of my patch for January...

Presumably that's my last addition, it looks like 75 was too low a target as I have added neither Redpoll, nor Kingfisher (which should be on my list since I managed to walk to the Figgate), I didn't see the Snow Buntings, Fulmars or Merlin reported on Arthur's Seat or the Crossbills reported over the Hermitage, or the Nuthatch that spent some of 2012 in the Hermitage or Green Woodpecker or Mediterranean Gull, both of which should be possible in theory. And with the slim possibility of Bittern at Duddingston then the list extends to 90 species. That of course would be a near impossible target, but I think 80 will be my starting target for 2014!

Post-Foot It? Well back to the corvids and gulls for me... now, is that a nordic jackdaw?

Foot It: heard only quandry...

With the snow I kept an eye on the garden on Sunday hoping that a Redpoll might drop in. No luck there, but a Tree Sparrow briefly at one of the feeders was a real garden mega. Eight Brambling and Siskin brightened things up nicely as well.

I have been popping out to the garden after dark on as many spurious pretexts as I could manage this month - never before has the kitchen waste been taken out so frequently... Eventually the strategy paid off on Tuesday night with a calling Tawny Owl (species 76) while snipping 'just a few more' bay leaves for extra flavour in a casserole. This, of course, is a 'heard only' addition to the list, which I generally have no real issue with especially for such distinctively sounding species.

Today's 'heard only' is slightly less straightforward... In Foot It spirit I have decided to Walk on Wednesdays so far this year. It takes about an hour for me to get to work on foot but despite the route being within Edinburgh I can cut through the Hermitage of Braid which has some decent birding. For example, today I managed Water Rail (both there and back!), Dipper, Grey Wagtail, Buzzard, Waxwings and Roe Deer. The species that is giving me a quandry is White-fronted Goose.

A skein of grey geese came overhead just after I exited the Hermitage and as they called I immediately thought WfG. I made a field note on my phone "Skein geese over hermitage call wfg? Not greylag, not pfg." (pretty familiar with these two as they are both regular here) and I transcribed the call of a single individual as "fi-nuh, vi-nuh". Here is what I'd say is a recording on Xeno Canto that sounds like what I am trying to transcribe.

So, I have two questions - firstly, for those more up on grey goose ID by call than me, is that a diagnostic call of White-fronted Goose?

Secondly given that this would be a patch tick as well as a Foot It tick, would you tick them off given on call only? I did see them, but I'd just put my optics into my bag as I'd come back onto urban streets and by the time I had them through the bins they were definitely ... err.. geese ... and that's about it...

Waxwings in Morningside, Edinburgh, today. Not sure pointing a 400mm lens at someone's front door in the fading light was such a good idea in retrospect!

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