Wknd 11-12 June

At Duddingston on Saturday, swans LAY x LSD with b7 cygnets, and Canada Geese also with b2 scruffy young (not a common breeder in Lothian, only here and Musselburgh confirmed so far). A very pink-billed hybrid Greylag x Canada was also present and the Great Crested Grebes were tending at least two stripey young.

Earlier a TTV in NT47U took me back to Maggie's Waas Wood by Aberlady; best birds were encountered just after getting out of the car with a family of Garden Warblers in snowberry bushes; also there, Tawny betrayed in yew trees by Blackbird alarm, a rufous individual. Others confirmed breeding included Blackcap (FF), Chiffchaff (FL) and Lotti (FF), total 19 now confirmed in 60 species. 13 singing Wren, which together with 18 on early visit to different part of tetrad, gave me a current TPE (tetrad population estimate = guess) of a healthy 70 adults, i.e. don't seem too badly affected by the winter, unlike on higher ground were most have apparently been eliminated. Also good to hear Nuthatches, still present after detecting them on winter visits, but a key target, Jay, eluded me.

Sunday did some atlas roving around Macmerry and added a few including Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat both FF in scrub by entrance to industrial estate. Oystercatcher alarm suggested chick on a roof.