Three Tick Bank Holiday

Thanks to the Coronation we got two Bank Holiday Mondays in a row. Although I had some family commitments, the 8th was free and Colin and I arranged a big trip to Fife, my first visit to Scotland for quite a while.

A few years ago, Colin had a very bad night, decided to drive up in the early hours  to Mussleburgh on the Forth and managed to see the drake American White Winged Scoter that had been wintering there in recent years, and was, presumably the bird that was first found in Aberdeenshire off Murcar 11 years ago. Since then every time it has been reported he has raised the possibility of me seeing it, but have been reluctant to commit to the long day needed. This year I had the time but little enthusiasm in the early part of the year. A complication arose when someone accidentally photographed a Stejnegers  Scoter (the Asian version of the American White Winged ) at Mussleburgh which was then rediscovered at Largo Bay in early May along with two or more American White Winged Scoters! We really had to go, and so headed up the A1 in the early hours of last Monday.

We arrived quite early at 0730, it was cold, windy overcast and wet but headed east along the beach for around a mile to reach the pillboxes that were the main viewpoint. I picked up a few year ticks on the way-Arctic Tern, Kittiwake and many hundreds of Common and Velvet Scoters (Largo being the scoter capital of the Uk in winter). When I arrived, the few present in the lee of the pillbox had not found anything unusual, but two guys the other side had seen two drake White Winged earlier. My bins were soaked, as were my glasses and the scope so I was not finding it easy to work through the huge flock of scoters. Early on I found an interesting duck with a large white spot behind the eye and a thicker bill which had pale edges with no obvious yellow-the drake Velvets yellow bills were impossible to miss at any distance as did  the immature males except those far out. I was reasonably confident that this was one of the White Winged, but lost it after a few minutes. I was then distracted by the drake Surf Scoter, the first for many years, and while studying it a slightly smaller preening 'Velvet" caught my eye and the two guys announced that they had the Stejnegers near the Surf at which point I realised it was the preening bird. I could see the distinctive prominent bump above the nasal opening, but needed Colin's larger (and drier) scope to see the pinkish bill. We watched it for a while until it drifted off and I continued searching the bay for more birds. We had a few Mergansers, Shag, Long tailed Duck one or more Red Throated and one Black Throated Divers, a few Gannets offshore and the occasional Sandwich Tern, so a decent bump up of the year list. The Red Necked Grebe that had been present on previous days was never found.

Over the course of three hours I had a few decent White Winged candidates, encountered the Surf Scoter a few times (there were three drakes present but I never saw more than one at any time) but eventually had to head back to the car. I stopped off a couple of times as there were a lot more scoters now, and the visibility had improved. I was hoping to find Purple Sandpipers on the rocks, but Sanderling and Oystercatchers were the only waders of note. A large flock of mainly female Velvet and Common Scoter had a very interesting bird-a scoter with a chunky thick bill and a significantly large pale patch behind the eye, and very different to the accompanying Velvets. This I took to be a female American White Winged Scoter which others had reported earlier in the week.

So five Scoter species in a day, all we needed to complete the set would have been a Black Scoter, but unfortunately one wintering earlier in the year off Northumberland had long since departed.

To add to the fun of the day, and a third lifer for the day, we stopped off on the way home to see the Grey Headed Lapwing that had appeared in a farm field near Beadnell in Northumberland. This is perhaps a bit suspect, but one or two have appeared in Europe over the last few years and there does seem to be an increase in vagrancy records so it stands a fair chance of being accepted. It was always distant, and like Largo there was no chance of any photographs.