A Grand Day Out

Today the plan was a bit bird watching in Dunbar, back in time for a bit socialising with Grant & Helen, then off to see the Perth 800 fireworks.

The alarm went off at six and by seven we were joining the commuter traffic from Perth to Edinburgh over the Forth Road Bridge. Had expected it to be a lot worse than it was, but by 8:30 we were on the outskirts of Dunbar.

The main reason for the trip was to explore the John Muir Country Park, but while we were in the area we'd heard of a couple of rareish birds that were around so took the opportunity to try and see them. The first was a Grey Phalarope on Dunbar east beach. A combination of luck and good judgement got us parked right by the beach. Out with the binoculars and there it was. There's no mistaking a phalarope, it's not like a normal wader wandering around in the mud, this guy swims more like a small gull. We had some great views and got some great photos, plus loads of other typical seaside birds too - magic.

Our next stop was at Barns Ness where there was meant to be a water pipit on the beach south of the lighthouse. Pipits are not that easy to identify, we get water pipits, rock pipits, meadow pipits and tree pipits and they all look pretty similar. There's been a water pipit at Wilstone Reservoir, Tring while we've been there on at least a couple of occasions, but we've never seen it and as the "beach south of the lighthouse" was in fact over a kilometre long we weren't very hopeful of finding and identifying this small bird, but it was a nice walk and once again there were lots of other typical seaside birds to enjoy. Got some great pictures of a pair of stonechats (Male & female)foraging in among the seaweed and then a distant view of a pipit. We moved closer and settled down but no luck. Then Mrs L spots it, not where we'd been looking, but right in front of us, less than ten metres away. It strutted its stuff, posing nicely for us for a couple of minutes before flying off. Quarter of an hour later it returned and put on another performance. Enough time for 250 pictures - that'll be fun whittling those down.

By now it was lunchtime and therefore a return to Dunbar and then off to the John Muir Country Park. Although we did get distant views of a flock of over a hundred Twite it was actually a bit of a disappointment, but that may have been more to do with the timing of our visit, there was little bird activity on the beach and with the tide being out Tyninghame Bay although full of ducks & waders they were all very distant spread across the mudflats - I think a return visit is required just before or just after high tide.

Back in Perth, showered, fed and a couple of bottles of wine with Grant and Helen we headed off to the fireworks which were the finale to the Perth 800 celebrations. Perth 800 was a yearlong celebration which marks the 800th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Burgh Charter to Perth by King William the Lion in 1210. It was also a suitable finale to our Grand Day Out, it must have been good 'cos I'm off to bed before blipping.

Well done to anyone who waded through that lot, more a journal entry than a blip and apologies for teasing you with all the good bird pictures and not showing them - I'll have to start using my blipfolio.

Edit: I've started my blipfolio and have now added the links for the birds

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