East Coast Magic!

On Tuesday 14th October I travelled through to East Lothian with a friend.  My first ever birding trip with the RSPB Glasgow group was to East Lothian and it sticks in my mind as being memorable.  It was the first time I saw whooper swans, turnstones, curlews, bramblings etc.  Therefore I was excited to return to the scene of such an exciting trip. 

We started off at Torness Power Station, where a small group of birdwatchers had gathered looking for the very rare Booted Warbler.  It wasn't long before it made an appearance in the field next to the visitor car park, along with a Siberian Stonechat.  A record shot of the Stonechat is provided below.

From here we headed to Barns Ness, where we got great views of a kestrel hunting.

The weather had now turned very wet and windy which clearly had an impact on the birds.  However we did get good views of this stonechat.

Other sightings at Barns Ness included cormorant, shag, dozens of gannets feeding out at sea, curlew, oystercatcher, raven, buzzard, rock pipit, tree sparrow, and grey heron. 

We finished the day with a lovely fish tea in Dunbar.  East coast magic!