Way back in September last year Martin and I decided that a late winter break in the Highlands would be an ideal tonic to lift both the birding and photographic soul. So on Friday the 6th of March we set forth, towards Scotland via New Brighton on the Wirral Peninsula. We both agreed that the journey would be better split and of course that would give opportunities for some rarity twitching on the way. Our overnight stay was planned for Lancaster so a detour over to the coast was no great problem, most of the route being motorway.
As we left the outskirts of Worthing we commenced our holiday list, well both of us have vestigial "train spotting" genes and lists are a must. Highlight of the journey up was a count of 37 Red Kites in the environs of Stokenchurch on the M40, just three short of my record, if I had gone a tad slower we may have exceeded it but there was a gull waiting.
We arrived at the Marine Lake in New Brighton in the early afternoon and as we parked the idea that this was going to be a simple twitch disappeared. The preferred position of the gull was on the pontoon during the high tide, at the moment there was large expanse of sand showing, obviously low water. We decided to split up, Martin walking along the promenade towards the model boating lake and I hung around the lake keeping an eye on the car as it was filled with our holiday kit. Chatting to the locals raised my spirits they said it was a cert that it would show. Given the amount of chips that were being fed to the Black-headed Gulls that were numerous on the railings bordering the lake, I thought that it could only be a matter of time. Martin called me to say that he had located the bird which had just departed the boating lake and was flying my way. On his way back Martin spotted the bird on the beach and he waited for me to get my bins on it, I didn't quite run round the marina. So having seen it we had to record it on pixels, the bird obligingly hung around while we got the camera gear from the car, the gull being encouraged to stay by another birder who was supplying it with large amounts of bread. Odd that a loaf of bread should be the best tool in a gull spotters armoury.
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| Gulls love bread. |
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| Marine Lake - not many gulls about. |
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| New Brighton Lighthouse. |
Having recorded what is not the most inspiring of birds we returned down the peninsula to Burton Mere, an excellent RSPB reserve that puts a lot of effort into getting the birder close to the birds, with proper cover I hasten to add. An example that our local reserves cannot match. As time was limited before the car park closed Martin went hotfoot to record the Long-eared Owl that has been about for some time, whilst I stayed in the visitor centre to count as many birds as possible for the list.
Day 2 Musselburgh
After a comfortable overnight stay we made our way north east in a howling gale and driving rain to Musselburgh, just to the east of Edinburgh. Home of the perennial Surf Scoter, which we located on the promenade at Eastfield. In the North Esk river mouth were all the usual suspects. We managed to record Long-tailed Duck, Velvet and Common Scoter along with Eiders. Several Goldeneye were in the river, two obliging birds posing for a photograph.
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| A long way off - just like the Gosport bird! |
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