The journey north to Nethy Bridge, Highland - April 27, 2018

I left home at 05:00 and picked Roger up around 05:30 after stopping for petrol on route.  Our plan was to head for Musselburgh where we were hoping to catch up with a long-staying White-winged Scoter, that was still present yesterday.  We made our way to the M1 motorway and headed north to the M18 and then north again on the A1.  As we were passing around Newcastle upon Tyne we ran into some heavy traffic, which was stationary at times and my satnav diverted us onto the A696 and then the A68 to Jedburgh.  We continued along the A68 almost to Musselburgh before entering the town and finding our way to the Musselburgh Lagoons.

We parked at Goose Green Place and made the short walk to the seawall.  A birder retuning said that the scoter was showing well but was at the far end, which was a fifteen-minute walk.  As we made our way along the seawall another birder was scoping the sea and said he had the Surf Scoter, with some Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Ducks.  We had a quick look at the Surf Scoter along with several Velvet Scoters before continuing to get the real target.  We eventually reached another five birders who indicated that they had been watching the White-winged Scoter just before we reached them, but that it had flown off and they were now unsure as to where it had gone.  We stated scanning through the numerous Velvet Scoters, finding four Long-tailed Ducks but after about ten minutes we were getting a little concerned that we were going to dip.  Two other birders then indicated that they might have it and it was back close to where it had been originally, and we had our first UK lifer of the year.  It was quite distant but the white crescent under the eye and different bill shape and colour made it quite easy to pick out.

White-winged Scoter

Drake Common Eider

Female Common Eider

There was very little wind during our visit and the viewing conditioned were excellent and as we walked back we re-found the Surf Scoter and six Red-breasted Merganser, a Black-legged Kittiwake and a Guillemot.

We decided to head north around Edinburgh before stopping for lunch but ran into some quite heavy traffic before reaching the new Forth Road Bridge and it turned out to be a late lunch at the service area near Kinross.  After lunch we made our way to Nethy Bridge without incident and arrived just after 17:00.

Dinner was booked for 18:30 and feeling quite tired after the drive we didn’t do any further birding but our guide for the week Mark Warren introduced himself at dinner and advised us we would need to be away by 07:30 tomorrow.