Wknd 1-2 February

These dusk Whoopers at an unexpected location, at Whitelaw Farm on the north side of Whitelaw Hill north of Garvald (NT57R), not a place we found any during atlas, none really wintering south of the Tyne here. Five adults in oilseed rape, did not have time to see where they went to roost, nowhere obvious near there.

Otherwise mainly back on nests - a trip to the far west on Saturday morning added 30 breeding confirms, half Woodpigeon, also 7 crow, 7 Magpie and a Buzzard (NS96B). Pic above of a crow nest in NS86V, the only tiny bit of Lothian in NS86, c. 5 hectares of fields, Falkirk district (Upper Forth) beyond; the only confirmed breeder here, last atlas this was wooded and the only confirmation was Woodpigeon. Woodpigeon now pretty much complete even in the West, end of previous season and current maps (toggle):

Sunday went up to Mike's near Gifford and en route added another 6 crow tetrad breeding confirmations and found 3 Buzzard nests, also all breeding confirms and the one below indeed a tetrad tick for NT57W, won't get many more of those now! Also found another new rookery, 10 nests at Birks Plantation in NT57V, can't count these for our rookery survey as they could be from earlier years. Final shot is a crow nest in a huge beech also in NT57V north of Newmains, some of these need care to distinguish from Buzzard but a bit of wool is always a give-away.