Trip reports
Local outing to John Muir Country Park
Saturday, 13 December 2008
I wonder if it was the conjunction of 13 people turning out on the 13th day of the month that caused the weather to be so wet? It was still dry as we left Edinburgh, but a steady light rain was falling by the time we arrived at the Park just to the west of Dunbar. Yet the other 12 eschewed my suggestion that we should repair to the local farm cafe to let the rain pass (according to the forecast it was due to clear around 11am) - but they were wise, we could have drunk a lot of coffee as it never did clear!
The field by the car park was full of molehills - and of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes: there were about 10 of the latter, an uncommon sight nowadays. But we moved on to the seashore, where we were lucky enough to find Long-tailed Ducks, Common and Velvet Scoter all close together and seemingly ignoring the local surfers. A walk along the shore produced nothing more than a few gulls, Shags and Eiders, and we failed to find any Snow Buntings amongst the tide-line litter, we were perhaps just a little too early in the winter. A male Stonechat showed well on the long grass.
Within the estuary were a number of Red-breasted Mergansers, the males already becoming competitive, whilst a single Slavonian Grebe dived amongst more Shags, Eiders and a pair of Goldeneyes. We picked up Bar-tailed Godwits, and a number of Sanderlings busily rushing around in a sandy area , not a species we had normally associated with that location. Grey Plovers rather disdainfully surveyed all this frantic activity! A busily-feeding flock of some 90 finches on the marsh intrigued us, but after much study and discussion (it was far too wet to take out our field guides!) we concluded that they were Linnets.
Returning through the woods, we found a small flock of feeding tits, with a couple of Treecreepers and a Goldcrest amongst them - we felt unable to add the captive ostriches in the next field to our day's list! But we were not dissatisfied, we had seen about 35 native ones in quite difficult conditions.
With the rain continuing steadily, we all decided that a visit after lunch to Seafield Pond would be overenthusiastic, but we did decide instead to try to find Waxwings on our way back to Edinburgh. We were very fortunate, and the occupants of the five cars who went to Joppa were rewarded with extensive views of a flock of about 200 of these stunning winter visitors. A pretty good way to end the day, and the year's outings.