28th October. Mary suggested we drive to Gullane and have a walk there. Her priority was getting the car out and warmed up after an extended period of damp weather. My feelings were we might bump into some waxwings and other jollies along the coast. And the weather was promising. And sure enough there were glimpses of sun between the overcast dull greys. Although when people post photos of their European holidays where the Summer is slowly fading into a sunkissed Autumn I do wonder why I live in windswept rainy Scotland. To be fair there has been some crappy weather in Europe recently as well.
chaffinch
goldfinch
We started by hitting the dunes and tree scrubby areas East of the car park. I thought this the most likely area for gangs of marauding waxwings. However there were no sign of them. Or redwings. Or fieldfares. It became very evident very quickly that the only things to point a camera at were robins and chaffinches which with all due respect was not good enough!
crows
dunnock?
while it was nice to see a pair of bullfinches
it did not make up for a complete absence of everything else
it did not make up for a complete absence of everything else
We then headed along to Aberlady. After a quick rerouting strategy we thought that through the golf course and over to the shoreline might find us some stonchats and sanderlings, in the absence of anything more exotic. While pleasant enough it was still pretty unrewarding.
Hang on that's not a pair of stonechats, that is a meadow pipit or similar on the left and stonechat on the right. There were a pair of stonechats but they were keeping a distance away and the light wasn't great.
nicely choppy water across the bay
not a day for hanging about (or swimming.)
not a day for hanging about (or swimming.)
When we got out to the shoreline the tide was coming in fast, pushing the shoreline birds up the beach, which was pretty good for photos. And my mood improved greatly! The sanderlings move so fast it can be nearly impossible to get decent photos. I was pleased they weren't too bothered by our presence as we stuck to the other side of the spit of sand they were beachcombing on. They are very funny to watch, running in and out with the waves.
ringed plovers
It looked to me like there were dunlin (and maybe knot) about as well as the oystercatchers and larger birds. Once they start flying I haven't a scoobie which are what and honestly I don't really mind - it doesn't take away from the spectacle. We avoided chasing them up the spit of sand. However it was comical watching the sanderlings hopping on one leg to put another few inches of distance away from our approach. They would bounce a little further up the sand and then tuck their beaks under their wings again and return to sleeping.
sanderlings video
Deciding against disturbing the waders any further we headed back towards Gullane along the beach. The waves were as far up the beach as we'd ever seen them and we had to climb the dunes halfway along to avoid wet feet. The recent storms had made some large waves which rolled in smoothly. This had not gone unnoticed by the surfers, several of whom were out catching waves. They were unusually competent but it was too cold to hang about and take photos of them. We also planned to do a second sweep for waxwings near the car park.
cormorant
So no waxwings on this occasion. A few days later Richard posted photos of waxwings (Tuesday 31st) in Gullane. He reported about 50 and that they were in the old Kirkyard beside the main road rather than along the coast. There is another week of poor weather so it could be a while before I plan a rematch.
12+miles, 4hrs30m
