After Dum&Gallow I came to my Grandma's at Perth with my parents. Dad kindly said he would take me to Aberlady Bay to see the Lesser Yellowlegs. So today Dad suggested we go to Aberlady Bay. When I arrived the bird was there and I saw it fairly quickly. It wasn't really that hard to ID and was fairly distinctive when with the Redshanks and easy to seperate from the Greenshank that was present. Other notable birds seen include: Whimbrel, Grey Plover, Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Curlew, and Greenshank. Here's some poor shots although they do show the size of the bird compared with commoner species and also the distinctive yellow legs.
.JPG)
Surrounding Area I met a nice man whilst looking at and photographing the Lesser Yellowlegs and he said that I should go to the bird centre close by. It was a SOC centre which is Scotland's Bird Club, it was a fantastic place and everyone was very freindly and helpful. The fellow told me that Red-necked Grebe and Velvet scoter where near by and those are 2 life ticks I need! So we went to where the fellow told us and I bumped back into the nice man I met whilst at the Lesser Yellowlegs site. He pointed me in the direction of a very distant flock of Velvet Scoters and Red-Necked Grebes. I couldn't tell they were Velvet Scoters but the man said they where and he was local and knew the area and the birds that are there. He was saying that there was some Common Scoters amongst the flock so I looked at the flock and although I couldn'y positivly ID a Velvet Scoter for myself I saw the flock of birds and one bird sat up flapped it's wings and I didn't see it do a headbob so I think that it was a Velvet Scoter I was looking at. Even if it wasn't I saw the flock so I must have seen one regardless. The reason I say this is that there where more Velvet Scoters than Common Scoters in the flock. The bird that I saw that sat up looked like a Velvet Scoter when it flapped its wings. I think I saw the white wing bar on the secondaries. Although the Red-Necked Grebes where distant it didn't matter as later on we went to a diferent part of the area and whilst I was busy looking in the distance for the Red-Necked Grebes my Dad spooted them not far out and asked me what they where. I looked out and there was 2 cracking Red-Necked Grebes one still in part summer plumage (see photo) all in all a great day with 3 life ticks.
(1 0f 2 Red-Necked Grebe's spotted by Dad)
Life List updates:
199 -Lesser Yellowlegs
200 -Red-Necked Grebe
201 -Velvet Scoter
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