Scozmo's Photery

Sunday morning bird walk

July 26th – I know, bass ackward! It has taken a while to work through all the images I grabbed whilst away, those have already shared are mainly phone pics so easier to check and share, now on to the serious stuff 🙂

Coffee and toast first, of course, a quick look out that window …. check the weather

I loved the band of cloud spreading West towards Edinburgh and the sky to the left, East-ish, looked clear enough so, of I went. (I got dressed first of course)

I absolutely love strolling along this coast, the land is mostly flat with a clear path and fields one side, rocks and sea on t’other, perfect birding location and from time to time, the odd migrant drops in to this area. A few days back a Long-tailed Shrike was spotted just up the road, I didn’t make the trip, maybe I should’ve?

Today i was accompanied by the screech of Sandwich Terns just offshore, near enough to see and ID, too far for decent images but ….

I did manage to grab a couple of this younger bird out on some rocks. I love photographing Terns, amazing flyers and if I can track them can provide great shots but not this week, sadly.

We’ve never spent time here during holiday season before so it was a bit busier than my usual walks but so much as to scare off all the wildlife. I was looking forward to getting to a favourite spot where I have sat before and allowed the birds to come to me. The area has changed a little, it is sea shore after all but, the rock pools are still there and, there were a couple of birds poking around in the nearest one.

Dunlin – I don’t think I’ve encountered them this close before, they’re always distant when I’m up at Ardersier so I started grabbing shots and working my way slowly closer.

I got pretty close, as you can see and eventually I found a decent rock to sit on while I watched and caught some nice shots.

It felt like I spent quite a long time there, it turned out to be around 10 minutes but I felt I ought to leave them to their foraging and walk on.

I was pretty chuffed with that bird. Apologies in advance for the impending Dunlin-fest, it really felt great to be allowed to sit with these birds in such close proximity.

I don’t know if this is a pair or young birds with adult, there turned out to be five of them and I hadn’t noticed the others, I was concentrating on these two.

I’ll stop there, there are a few more 🙂 and I was trying to get nice reflections …

Up and onwards, I carried on along the track, scanning the fields and the shore.

There are a few stiles and gates along the path, at the first one there is usually a pair of Stonechats. Not today.

There was a meeting on the dry stone wall though.

On through / around the second stile and there they were, well, one of them.

The first young Stonechat, you can almost feel the strong breeze that it was fighting.

One bird that there is definitely no shortage of along this trail is Linnet, there must be hundreds of them, every time you see a bird, it’s probably a Linnet.

One camera shy and a male more happy to be photographed. From here on, the path gets a bit more rugged and rocky so scanning all around, carrying a camera with long lens isn’t advisable but, I never learn. I didn’t fall although I did trip over rocks now and again but, spotted a lone Eider female sitting on some rocks.

The entire path is surrounded by either rocks and weed or weeds / wildflowers.

I didn’t see much from that point on so I turned and headed back for our stroll into town later, it’s around 1.25 miles to the second stile and houses, still a decent morning wander.

I spotted another Sandwich Tern with a Common Gull and a Turnstone among dozing Black-headed Gulls

As I was approaching the mobile sauna and coffee shack area, I spotted a group of gulls on the rocks and one of them definitely had delusions!

I dropped into the flat, dropped off the camera and changed for the walk into town.

In that article I finished off with a couple of shots of dark sky moving in from the East.

That’s how it looked just after 16:15

What I saw from the sofa as we watched TV, the second with a bit more drama and in my mind, more how it actually looked! I did run outside to try for more shots but it was fast moving and I was getting soaked so, that was it.

No complaints, I love a good dramatic sky and that’s one of the best I’ve seen for a good while now.

So that was Sunday, we watched some TV, relaxed and grabbed an early night, we were planning to walk to Crail tomorrow, its around 3.5 miles and hopefully the weather forecast would stay good.

Stay safe and well all and thanks for joining me in Cellardyke.

wanderings

Cellardyke again . . Sunday afternoon stroll