After the news that the Stejneger's Scoter was still present at Largo Bay in Fife and after a very kind offer from Tim to go up and twitch the bird,Tim,myself and Mark all headed up north of the border and into Scotland.
A long journey which we broke up with a couple of stops,saw us arriving at our destination of Largo Bay on the banks of the Firth of Forth just as the first flickerings of dawn began to break.
After getting the gear together we made our way down to where the bird had been seen from the previous day,opposite the Crusoe Hotel.
We began scanning the sea,but it was far too dark to pick any detail out on the Scoter's yet,but 2 distant Long-tailed Duck flew west along the Forth and were my first for the year.
Finally there was sufficient light as the sun rose above the horizon and we started to scan through the scattered flocks of Velvet Scoters.
It was just amazing to see just how many Velvets were present,probably as many as 500 birds,the most I've ever seen.
Someone then called out that they thought they were onto the Stejneger's Scoter and sure enough,though distant,we all managed to get onto the bird.
The views were not ideal,but at least we had seen the bird and the different shaped bill to White-winged Scoter was certainly apparent.
We carried on scanning from our position,when i managed to get onto a drake White-winged Scoter and then there were 2 drakes!.
We watched as they gave pretty good views,albeit at 60x on the big Swaro to get the bill detail,with the profile being noticeably different between the Stejneger's and these White-winged Scoters.
Mark and myself were sure we got onto a Female Surf Scoter and then lost it before we saw an adult drake Surf Scoter further out,followed by an immature Drake a little while later.
This was just amazing viewing and we found a small flock of Common Scoter's to complete 5 species of Scoter for the visit,something i didn't think I would ever see.
There was a message that the Stejneger's was again showing,so we walked over and sure enough we got onto the bird again and gained some really good views on this occasion,with the bird even giving us a flyby with 2 Velvet's,just superb stuff.
This species has travelled a long way to arrive on this coastline,breeding in the east of russia and wintering in asia as far south as China,an incredible journey.
Other birds seen while we looked out over the Firth,were our first Sandwich Terns of the year and 2 Black-throated Divers,the latter a proper added bonus.
By this time it was mid-morning and we wandered back towards where the car was parked,to look for a couple of Red-necked Grebes which had been seen......this was soon abandoned as the incredible news broke of a Grey-headed Lapwing which had been found in Northumberland and it thankfully was on our way home.
To go for this bird was a no brainer,as it was a first for britain,so we had to go for it.
We quickly said goodbye to Fife seeing the very impressive Forth road bridge as we headed south in the pursuit of the next biggie.
After a very frantic drive,we eventually arrived at Low Newton on the Northumberland coast,an area i know very well from mine and Tracey's holidays up here.
I quickly paid for our parking and we were off and after a quick power walk/run we were watching our second first for Britain of the day.
We then settled down to watch this stonking looking bird as it fed around the flooded field next to Low Newton nature reserve.
I managed to get some pleasing video clips and phone-scoped shots of the bird and we also saw it in flight on a couple of occasions too.
The grey head and yellow bill with a black tip and striking red eye and subtle yellow eye ring making for a very handsome looking bird.
The long yellow legs made me think of White-tailed Lapwing,a species I'm very familiar with now,after the bird which spent 66 days on my local patch last year at East Halton.
Grey-headed Lapwing breeds in north eastern China and winters in south east asia from north eastern India to Cambodia,so,as the Scoter,it is a long,long way from home.
Also around the flooded field were 3 White Wagtails and a flock of Dunlin,with a small flock of Sand Martins overhead.
After enjoying some amazing views of this beautiful wader,we headed south again.
A big,big,thank you must go to Tim,for his expert driving again and to both Tim and Mark for the great company,there are not many days you can say you have been out and seen 2 first records for Britain in a day!.
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| Dawn At Largo Bay. |
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| Part Of The Crowd Watching The Stejneger's Scoter. |
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| The Stunning Grey-headed Lapwing From Low Newton. |
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