Scotland

Well Keith and i decided to go Twitching today so he picked me up at 6-30, really 5-30 but the clocks went forward. Firstly we stopped at Threave to try to see this long staying Bloody Blue-winged teal but once again we failed, not a good start, did manage a couple of Shots of a Red Fox.

But onwards and upwards. We saw a few kites on the way to Stranraer and stopped just before Newton Stewart to check a lot of Pink footed geese with a small number of Barnacles. i picked up an Orange legged Pink Footed goose first then bingo a Tundra Bean Goose. So i went for my scope out the back and as i was setting up my camera they all flushed, could have been me but i was trying to be extremely careful so managed these take off shots.

 

Now we moved onto Stranraer for a Drake Surf Scoter, luckily we had good directions of where to view the sea from and so found the bird pretty much straight away although miles and miles away. 2 Summer plumage Slav Grebes were nice and the Surf Scoter was with 3 Velvets.
Could only manage these crappy record shots as i say literally miles away. (Remember click pics to Enlarge)

So onwards to Ayr, i needed Iceland Gull for a year tick and the 12-15 year old Iceland Gull had returned again to the city centre, this was gonna be my best bet but on arriving there was no sign, oh bugger!!! so we walked up the river and on the return the bird was back... Brilliant, a cracking bird too.

So now it was the long drive to Clyde and Auchendores Reservoir for a Drake Lesser Scaup, again we weren't to be disappointed with the bird showing nicely through the scope although distant. What a great day this had been.

Now we were feeling so lucky we decided to make the detour back to Threave for a second attempt of the Blue winged teal, we added more Red Kites to our day making double figures. On our return to the hide at Threave some one had set up a fishing rod in its favorite spot, so that was that, no birds left. So time for home, a great day and thanks to Keith for driving all those miles..