Wknd 10-11 September

Gulls at Seton on Saturday - Great Blackbacks on harbour wall (above), a 1st-win Med came to drink at the Seton Burn (below), and a red-ringed adult, presumably 7P8, feeding on the mud at dusk. No comparison with the report of 8 ads + 4 juv from Buckhaven last week, doubling the Scottish record established last year at Seton, congrats to them! Indeed it was odd to find only one adult amongst a large number of small gulls this evening, looks like they have nicked some of ours :( This all follows the huge total of 59 at Newbiggin, Northumbs, on 20 August - significant increase there, so we might have expected some sort of influx too.

At Wrecked Craigs had a quick look at the moulting Eiders and was surprised (again) to see two different birds with obvious "sails", a required feature of northern (borealis) Eider (see previous record here). Thereafter distracted by the Shags colour rings, 35+ there included red-CFZ, red-EPD, red-PLZ (seen last year), red-TJI, green-UBU, green-UBZ, green-USS, a good start to new ring-reading season.

Another second record was the Red Arrows, bit of a surprise when scanning the Forth!

Sunday - minimum 10 Eiders with obvious sails off Wrecked Craigs rocks at Seton, amongst 50 odd checked (>200 present including females), a few pics below:

Offshore a continuous passage of Kittiwakes in a decent breeze, a feeding flock of 30+ well offshore held an ad/sub-ad Little Gull; a dark-phase Arctic also had a go at a tern with same gathering before proceeding W; Shags included green-AZT & green-UBZ; gulls on shore included Med red-7P8; and 19 Pinks came in off from north, tracked over Longniddry (below with Gosford/Berwick Law beyond) continuing S over Setonhill. Lots to see!


Monday morning as the wind cranked up another dark Arctic Skua off Cockenzie, also a sailed Eider sailing past in the evening but not much moving in blustery WSW6 wind.