Wknd 14-15 December

Mainly white and black birds again this week! Bugged by this puzzling 46* Whooper ring, called in at Drem and found it amongst 92 in cereal immediately west of the B1345, no doubt about it yellow-46I. The source of the confusion is this bird's ring has moved up its leg from tarsus to tibia, in fact this seemed to have happened when it was at Prora last winter between Jan & Feb - which I did not notice at the time and has since made me think one of them was a mis-read (=an error!).

Moreover have never previously seen a bird with ring on tibia, and surprising how it could have moved up, but possibly this occurred when landing on water? This same bird is the one which wintered on the Blackwater estuary in southern Ireland for 3 winters from 08/09 and now back with us for the third subsequent winter, an interesting switch in habits. Originally ringed as a female cygnet at Jokuldalsheidi on Iceland in August 2003, and also there in August 2006. [All rings]

Also did a bit more roaming around checking the rookeries and logging nests. Recounted the rookery at Chalkierigg, by Cousland, nests now very obvious with 20W+19E (cf. 35 found in March), so not far off. At Ford 20 apparent (cf. 9 in March). Also rechecked Humbie (NT46L), no sign of any nests there this year. Some nests now beginning to disintegrate with strong winds, perhaps some have already disappeared? Other atlas additions were Buzzard NT46B, Crow NT46C and Woodpigeons NT46H, NT46S, NT56C & NT56D. On Sunday at Hailes castle added Jackdaw (below) and another Woodpigeon for NT57S. There were also 10 Swallow nests in the roof of the brewery/bakehouse, 8+ had been used this summer, and a used Song Thrush nest right next to the road (second below).

It should be noted that after the atlas data entry cut-off of end of October we now have the final download from BTO, so there is also no point in editing any records via the online system, e.g. in response to validation queries. All such corrections or additional records will now have to be made on our local database, anything for Lothian can be sent to me. We wanted to keep the door open for late records to catch any additions via annual records submitted at the year end, early submission of such will be helpful in allowing us to finally close the archive.