Cracking Birds

Heading down to Edinburgh today we stopped off at RSPB's Vane Farm reserve where we were fortunate enough to see a Ross's Goose, a Ring-necked Duck and a Garganey, the first two in particular being quite rare as they should be on the other side of the Atlantic.

Next stop Portobello where good views were had of a Surf Scoter, another rare American visitor then at Musselburgh Lagoons a Little Ringed Plover, which is relatively scarce in this area. Some really cracking birds there, but the best was saved for last when we met up with The Odey Bird.

The loss of Molly surprised me by how much a cyber friend actually meant to me, this evening surprised me again by how easy it was to translate a cyber friendship into the real world. A cracking evening, my only regret being my inability to take a good portrait - just look at the exif and it was handheld! Okay it's not that bad, but just like the Ring-necked Duck at Vane Farm that we've been returning to to try and get a better shot of we'll need to track this bird down again.

Thank you for a really lovely evening Odey, we both thoroughly enjoyed it, and you were definitely not as strange as we'd been expecting! xxx