LittleBitOfBreadNoCheese
Well-known member
Spent three days on the East Lothian coast mainly to get away and play with my new camera. Day one was deliberately low-key walking the beach in both directions from my base at North Berwick. This section of the coast is so full of dog-walkers I didn't get much out of it except fresh air with a species count in the low 20s. Distance walked was 18km. For day two I got up in the dark and caught the 124 bus to the entrance to Aberlady NR where by contrast there was full compliance with the 'No Dogs' notices. I got some excellent close up shots of a Little Egret and what I later confirmed were Whooper Swans which I've put in the Gallery. By late morning and many geese later I turned back and walked the other way through Aberlady and along the coast the other way. Even here I only encountered one or two dogs and owners and probably the close encounters with golf balls were more of a worry. I birded 7.30 to 14.30 with just a coffee/cake break late morning by which time I'd clocked up 46 species which is one of the best days I've had in the UK. Walked 15km. My final day consisted of breaking the home journey at Musselburgh, this time I walked from the train station which wasn't nearly as long a drag as I'd previously thought except again it was still dark at the start and the early bit along the river path was a bit dodgy. The main downer was the state of the path by the sea wall which was essentially one giant puddle and I only had trainers on so there was little to do except plunge in. The river mouth was full of flotsam and jetsum from the recent rain which made picking out which were birds and which were bits of wood quite hard. Unlike my previous visit I didn't see any Red-throated Divers and there wasn't a great deal at the hides either which I at least had completely to myself - I just passed one trio of hardy birdwatchers with scopes on the sea wall. So overall pretty much as expected as the forecast had not been that good anyway, and clearly Aberlady was the highlight (and I did pop in to the SOC HQ on the walk and picked up Tree Sparrows in the car park). The camera performed quite well considering how strong the wind was and that most shots I took were standing up without support.
