Lesser Yellowlegs and a Smew

   
It's been a busy few days this week with a Cattle Egret and surveying at Lunan Bay, and to finish off before the rain on Friday, I had another good day at Montrose Basin on Thursday. First I found a Smew Redhead at Maryton Ditch, followed quickly by a juvenile Scaup, then Graham found what normally would have been the bird of the month, a Lesser Yellowlegs, but for the Cattle Egret. Finally the Great Egret appeared as the tide ebbed with a nearby Little Egret.

Due to the lack of light early on I was using the P1000 and continued throughout the day, so most records are dodgy photos but some of the videos make up for it. You decide, there are many and most in UHD! Click on the blue links below.

Lesser Yellowlegs video 1      Lesser Yellowlegs, maybe the best one      Or is this one?      Smew (Redhead)      

Velvet and Common Scoters      Common Scoters      Crab eating Sanderling      Long-tailed Ducks (drakes)   

Scaup juvenile/1st winter      Eider drake      Eider duck      Red-throated Diver      Ringed Plover

What's happening in Scotland during COP26?  you'll hardly believe it   

Lesser Yellowlegs with a Redshank and Curlew for comparison

Always too far away in the gloom

We were puzzled a bit at this duck which turned out to be Scaup juvenile/1st winter, it's the first one I've seen and shows no white about the bill base and is just beginning to form the next stage of moult. The original photos were all too dark and it looked somewhat different in the field!

Grey Seal from under the railway bridge over the South Esk in Montrose

Velvet Scoter drake at Lunan Bay

Three Velvet and three Common Scoters

Common Scoter female

Common Scoter drakes

Black-headed Gull Yellow ring 2CXO and a Common Gull, Lunan Bay

I haven't been able to age the large Herring Gull with another and some Common Gulls, part of the roost at Lunan Bay

Sanderling, also at Lunan Bay

There were two Shags at Boddin, just offshore on a large rock, both had rings, this one Green XLX

and this one White CXW

Careful if you go wild swimming at high tide and these are hidden!

Harebells I presume, and surely very late to be flowering?

Grey Plover from my East Haven Webs count

Another but different Grey Plover