Musselburgh

A spectacular day at Musselburgh in glorious weather, just a pity about the photos! I started off at Esk Mouth and very quickly managed to pick up the 1st winter king eider that has been around since before my last visit but which keeps going missing for a week or more at a time. 

Velvet scoter are always offshore in good numbers here, with around 50 present in small flocks, whilst there seemed to be more common scoter than usual, with about 40 seen. The surf scoter were easy enough to pick out, two males and a female, though thank goodness for the males because a female on her own would no doubt present a few problems.

The white-winged scoter had been seen early morning at Esk Mouth but I couldn't find it and many velvets seemed to have moved further west. This was confirmed early afternoon when news came through that the white-winged scoter had been seen off Joppa so I relocated there. Eventually I managed to find the American rarity, it really does have a distinctive jizz, quite different to the velvets once you have your eye in for it.

King eider, 1st winter.

Three surf scoter.

The velvet scoter at Musselburgh are just wonderful, but it's a pity that the American bird never seems to be as close as these, at least not while I'm there.