Wknd 14-15 July

Shag ringers have been busy - 9 of 21+ mainly juv/imm birds at Wrecked Craigs rocks on Saturday morning were darvic ringed (imms blue-ZLP, red-CWE, green-ADN, AZL, KDD, JUT, TLA, USS, XLZ; ad green-SCZ?) - my second best haul here.

In evening single Red-necked Grebe, 2 RTD in Gosford Bay, diving flock of 130+ Common Scoter off Craigielaw Point, 156 Barwits on Gosford Sands.

Sunday - now 31 juv Sandwich Terns in only 80 birds on Seton shore, one catching its own fish but most waiting to be fed; this time 3+ juvs and some accompanying ads had metal rings only, suggesting they might be from the Farnes - some chicks were on the wing there by 10 July. Dave tells me that Sandwiches red-ENL and white-EAP were at Tyninghame on 12 July (more from Forvie). Some beautiful breeding plumage waders there too with 62 Barwit, 14 Golden Plover, 7 Dunlin (all ads) and 1 Knot, latter still reddish; even the Curlews have some nice rufous on them (pics above and below).

Breeding atlas - back to Seton golf course margins for Grasshopper Warbler, another half hour and this time neither sight nor sound of any of that species. Nice to see 4 Grey Partridge there, also to confirm Goldcrest with ad m FF in the pines around the caravan park (now 49 species confirmed NT47C, 4 more easy ones to go: Greenfinch, Mistle Thrush, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, plus Gropper!). Also got Swift entering a house on Castle Walk at junction of Fishers Road, a new site for me.

This view is the south end of Aberdour in a bright evening light, digiscoped from Gosford (17.5 miles ENE).

Wknd 7-8 July

A sentinel Oyc here with large chick being tended by mate just beyond on derelict car park at Oak Tree, Haddington (first spotted earlier in week by Abbie!); another Oyc on roof of Commerce Centre, perhaps that's were the nest was?

Siskins everywhere at present locally - seems wherever you stop one can be heard; saw 10+ at Letham Mains with juvs, most likely bred there but hard to prove now.

At Seton Chapel drew a blank yet again on Spot Fly so early June record perhaps just passing through? More positively in the remaining rough ground between Seton Chapel woods and Seton Sands caravan park singing Grasshopper Warbler, Reed Bunting and Skylark, also Sedge Warbler there and Goldcrest and Stock Dove in song nearby. Gropper song post just inside NT47C where not yet confirmed - last year's success was on same slope about 200m E. Did a stake-out but after half an hour had not even sighted the singing bird, never mind proof of breeding. In the interim very loud disco music had started booming out of the caravan park "...everybody look to the left, everybody look to the right...", Mr Gropper ignored it. A further compensation in finally locating the local Kestrel nest and seeing 4 well grown juvs begging as an adult came in with prey, one was out on a branch whilst another still had a couple of bits of down on back of the head - they will fledge very soon hopefully.

Deja vu with the disco music, Yellow Wag stake-out a couple of weeks ago was accompanied by a full pipe band which struck up in a shed in Macmerry industrial estate just near where I was standing. And before that going to remote tetrad NT45E in April and finding the whole area overrun by scrambler bikes!

Sunday - 355 Sandwich Terns on Gosford Sands were making a racket mid-afternoon, many still courtship feeding and now 19 juvs amongst them begging for food! Seems this is the highest first half of July count since 1992 (634 Aberlady 12/7/92, 1/3 juvs). An Ythan red darvic again and two banded light-green over red (2008 Forvie chicks). 3 ad RNG off Ferny Ness, also a raft of 55 Velvet Scoter there. Off Seton harbour 9 RTD together on sea and 25 Common Scoter flew past.

Atlas additions included Sedge Warbler confirmed at Longniddry c/p 2 bog - saw FF bird which came out to scold a Stoat which appeared on the path in front of me! Early morning also got a juv Tawny calling in Barebanes Wood, Whitekirk, also Crossbills and Jay there. The Peffer Burn was way higher and wider than I've ever seen it:

I usually leap over here, sometimes with a run up, or if I chicken out cross at a sluice where the level drops several feet. There was no sign of the sluice gate today, just a ripple on the surface:

Monday morning - back at Penston in the rain, Yellow Wag appeared in song flight as soon as I did my Quail whistle (hmmm, must be a poor impression, perhaps that's why no Quails ever respond?!) - flew a long way south dropping into sheep field towards Boggs (NT47K) presumably to feed there. From office window confirmed Goldcrest breeding in pines directly opposite, just 2nd confirmation in NT27 (Edinburgh).

Wknd 30 June - 1 July

Three red "alpha code" Sandwich Terns on Wrecked Craigs rocks on Saturday morning, the rising tide brought them in sufficiently to read and confirm by photos the codes EHD, ELK and EKL - a good job too as the latter pair might have gone down as a transcription error had the view been brief and fleeting! One previous record here was white-EVD at Ferny Ness in September 2010, c/o Abbie. EHD is a Farnes chick from 2005, this and the two others were caught on the Ythan 29 July, 30 July and 1 August last year, respectively. Per Grampian Ringing Group blog another of this batch was subsequently recorded in Namibia, a rather more exciting sighting! [PS - EHD subsequently recorded at Knott End, Lancs on 19/8/13]

Shags today were red-CWE, blue-ZLP and green-USS, all resident/returning.

Waders included a returning Common Sandpiper, 3 Golden Plover and just 5 Barwits, but a couple of those in breeding finery.

Quick WeBS circuit on Sunday, arriving at Chapel could hear a Quail calling from fields N, perhaps same as that reported by Jim earlier, then on S side had heard two more bursts of calls before pulling up at resr, then nothing. This has happened before, I suspect the car sets off calling. Very little on waterbodies, East Fortune Mutes had failed yet again (as every year since last success in 2006); Drem pair had 3 small young though. Moorhen chicks were in a deep concrete tank at Drem sewage works, did not try to rescue as per recent Mallard as they looked healthy and tank was swarming with insect life - they may be better in than out!

House Martins were occupying 2 nests at East Fenton workshop, a third nest nearly complete with a ring of wet mud at top - first time I have seen this species here in 8 years of visits; also used nest of this species at Fenton Barns.

As per garden log, was pleased to finally see an Osprey in Lothian in the morning, one right over the house; have spent countless hours on look-out for this species over last 8 years and had a couple of near misses, nevertheless the vast majority of sightings in Lothian seem to be concentrated at Musselburgh and the North Sea coast, also a good number Aberlady. As far as I know there have been 3 others seen over Longniddry since 1991 by other local birders. I'm sure the fact that visibility was poor this morning is no coincidence, any self-respecting Osprey never ventures near us otherwise!

Now on to my other Lothian bogey bird, Hen Harrier!

Wknd 23-24 June

Got behind with updating blog due to travelling, but last weekend had several darvic and colour rings in brief local excursions - red-CWE Shag at Seton harbour above, with green-AZL and blue-ZLP also there, all juv/imm.

On Seton/Gosford shore still 130+ Sandwich Term, many courtship feeding (these are not breeding at Aberlady or Isle of May, so why they are still here in unusually high numbers for June I'm not sure). Amongst them many ringed, c. 1 in 4 with metal, colour rings or darvics, the latter including red and white darvics from Forvie (two each, white-EDS and white-EVC) and "red over lime-right" apparently resident here since 18 May or earlier. EDS was ringed as an adult on the Ythan in August 2010; EVC was also ringed there in 2010 but was a recapture, ringed as a chick on the Farnes back in 1998, so now 14 years old. The longevity record is 30 yrs, 12 yrs is a typical life span.

Nice to have so many rings to read in mid-summer! Looking back to winter and Whooper darvics discussed here see also summary article just published in Scottish Birds 32(2) June 2012 pp. 164-167.

Wknd 16-17 June

Mainly atlassing at present trying to improve breeding evidence so not a great deal to post as "news"! The male Yellow Wagtail continues to hold territory at Penston, singing from the shed roof and in song flight over the field east. On Tuesday evening after watching the shed for a while I heard its song from the other direction and there it was on the fence at the east end of said field, off the bend in the road. Did not linger to have its picture taken, slightly better effort than last above. It seems clear now that this bird is not feeding young, so there is no active nest, at least not yet, and despite the extended residence in mid-June neither has there been any sign of a second bird so either its mate is very tied down on a nest (in which case would Mr not be providing her with food? - no, apparently this is exceptional, per BWP) or what seems more likely this an unpaired bird on the very edge of their range here. Also per BWP "unpaired ♂♂ may sing thus for lengthy periods (Dittberner, H. & W., 1984, in German)."

Also remarkable but in a negative sense is lack of local Quail so far - having now spent a fair amount of time round Falside Hill, Buxley, New Winton, Tranent, Macmerry, Penston, Elvingston, Redcoll and so on, all occupied at times in previous years, not a squeak! Also Grasshopper Warblers are very thin on the ground locally, nothing at all from Blindwells recently though it may be true that they are very quite when active with broods. But I suspect they are down. BirdTrack confirms down nationally to early June.

More breeding atlas

Now in fifth season of six, some may assume local atlas work is all done and dusted but far from it! Though we have reached reasonable coverage for the commonest species in the most well visited areas many others are still well down, e.g. the updated maps (30 May) show common species like Wren, Dunnock and Song Thrush with many "losses" even in Lothian, particularly the West, where all tetrads visits are now done. The suspicion is that these losses aren't simply declines in status, though there may be an element of that too. Things are even worse looking at nocturnals with drastic "losses" for Woodcock particularly in the west still a cause for concern, likewise Tawny Owl is still poorly represented even in Midlothian.

Does it really matter, can't we just plot the results and forget it? The problem is if we cannot achieve broadly similar coverage we end up not being able to make a great deal of sense of the comparisons with the previous atlas - whilst significant losses and gains may still shine through, for others there will be a lot of doubt and difficulty in interpreting the results. Plus there are very few active workers now so there's still a lot to do!

Not able to find time during exam season finally got back to Preston Hall (more nocturnals of early May) and pulled up at same layby opposite Fleming's Wood just after 22:00hrs on 7 May - remarkably a Woodcock went over in roding flight with 30 seconds, and on its second transit sparked off a calling Tawny. This is mildly encouraging, with only a few minutes spent at this spot in these two visits Woodcock easy to find, now converted to "T" for permanent territory, and logged on first visit for 3 new tetrads - hinting that many/most of the losses on our maps are just lack of coverage, as suspected. Also had success later that evening with Tawny at Dean Bridge by New Winton, but no Woodcock there.

With local reports of Quail on the increase suspected they must be back in numbers locally but actually have drawn a blank on several visits to regular haunts up to 12 June - in particular on still evening of 10 June went out after dusk round Redcoll, Cottyburn back-road, Seton Mains, Seton Chapel etc - despite some time listening remarkably also not one owl heard and just a very distant Grasshopper Warbler at Seton (the many territories of Sedge & Grasshopper Warbler, plus Reed Bunting, all eliminated by the new golf course - though the latter has brought some welcome new fresh water pools, already well used by gulls and also Mute Swan & Mallard).

Tried again for Quail on Tuesday 12 June in daytime, some time around Redcoll limekilns were some very nice habitat for them, cereal crop up to several inches on gentle slope overlooking the Forth, also Laverocklaw, Elvingston, Hoprig, Macmerry and Penston, all negative - found here in last Quail influx but perhaps they have not penetrated to these areas this year?

However at the last location some compensation by way of a Yellow Wagtail, singing from the eastern-most shed roof (top pic above) - quite a rarity in Lothian away from their stronghold around Torness/Dunbar, which itself is the most northerly location of confirmed breeding in the UK (per last BTO bird of the day map for 19/4/11). Indeed it is only the second Yellow Wag I've been lucky enough to see locally (first was in adjacent tetrads of NT47S/X, but seen only on 11 May 2008, though perhaps also a couple of days previously per Abbie) and we have only two more reports further west in the local atlas. The current date would suggest it could be a resident bird so I'll check again to see if there's a pair and/or breeding attempt there. Checking archives to 1991 there are very few potential breeders away from Torness, confirmed in last atlas for Drem (1993) and a previous July record from Coates (2006), also May records for Athelstaneford (1991, 1997) and Prora (2000), a final late August record at latter site in 2004 perhaps also a migrant. Bird still present Wednesday, per Abbie!

Jubilee wknd 2-3 June

Arrived at Seton late afternoon, first birds seen looking out were 3 Manx E, so they are still in the Forth. Not long afterwards spotted fins

protruding from water close in, proper fins, not porpoise, which is any case very rare here. After watching for 10 minutes had a view of side of a presumed Bottlenose Dolphin, 3 in total. Poor photo of fin right seems to match this species, some are catalogued for Aberdeenshire. There were a few in the Forth in 2009, they are apparently becoming more regular here.

Checked again later but no further sign, though two more Manx, also on the sea, 5 splendid summer plumage RTD, Puffins and lots of Gannets close inshore (count).

Coots' nest at Blindwells W has yielded two small young, also Mallard b7 but the colonising Stonechats of 2008-2010 are sadly lost.

Sunday visited Seton Chapel/House for atlas top up, pleased to find Spot Fly there, my fourth local record after one in neighbouring Seton Dean 6/6/04 and a couple in Gosford Estate 2009/10. Also there, GSW at occupied nest and family of fledged Blackcaps. At Blindwells, a male Wheatear at one of the settlement mounds qualifies as a potential breeder I think, new for tetrad as such though many occur on passage; presumably appreciates the new habitat of great earth banks, where migrants often seen. Several Skylark "FF", also Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting seen carrying food, taking confirmed breeders in NT47C to 47 (99 species in total); still at least 10 more which very likely do breed including Feral Pigeon, Pied Wag, Mistle Thrush and Greenfinch so more visits still needed!