Bird Watching - keep it clean!

Hell's Cat · Post by **Hell's Cat** » 13 Sep 2004, 21:57

The feathered kind iI mean. How many kinds have you spotted on the beach. I'll start. I think these are cormorants and the other some kind of wader - does any bird fancier out there know which one?

Haven't managed to snap the Heron yet!

Post by **wangi** » 13 Sep 2004, 22:36

I must have heaps of Terns in my shots.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 14 Sep 2004, 06:07

Those long billed ones in your photo are curlews. You can also see oyster catchers at the waters edge poking about in the sand - black & white, red legs and have shorter bill.

cornerboy · Post by **cornerboy** » 14 Sep 2004, 09:56

I don't think that's a curlew - more likely a redshank.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 14 Sep 2004, 10:00

Must look up my bird books when I get home! I also get mixed up with black headed gulls and terns.

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 14 Sep 2004, 11:01

Actually, I think it's a godwit, a smaller, shore-wading member of the curlew family. Redshanks don't have that beak. I've noticed these birds since I first moved to Portobello. They only arrive about this time of year - a sure sign that summer is over - and when they go, round about May, summer is supposed to be 'a cumin in' etc.

When I first came here, there were no eiders off Portobello, they were up at the Joppa rocks, but they have gradually moved down and we have quite a lot now. There was a family in the summer, with about seven or eight little pieces of fluff scooting around, now semi-adults. We also seem to have acquired a resident family of swans. We often used to get them visiting in the past, but these seem to have stayed. It would be lovely if you ever got a shot of them, Hell's Cat.

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 14 Sep 2004, 11:05

PS I love the photo - you've got a classic of the cormorant drying his wings, plus the silhouettes of the other two, and the godwit (or whatever) in the foreground for good measure.

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 14 Sep 2004, 11:49

My vote is for the godwit too. The curlew's beak curves down at the tip.....not that I'm any expert on this but the http://www.rspb.org.uk site is quite useful.

cornerboy · Post by **cornerboy** » 14 Sep 2004, 15:42

Yes, I think you're right. That's the bar-tailed godwit in its winter plumage. It has a longer bill than the redshank, and a less marked breast. Like Jay I love seeing them feeding along the tide, and they are a definite marker in the turning of the seasons.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 14 Sep 2004, 18:58

I took some photos of the "swan-gangs" on their majestic way to/from the Esk/Figgate, but on an old-fashioned camera with a 36 exposure film which I've not quite finished yet. Hope they come out OK - esp the ones of the super-gangs of 30 or more!! And if OK I'll see about getting them on here using Alex's masterclass!

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 15 Sep 2004, 09:16

Poppy, that would be wonderful. I saw one flotilla of 30 (I counted 'em) go past my window in line astern, and could not quite believe my eyes! To my dismay, when I grabbed my camera, it had no film in ! - most unusual for me. I'm glad someone got photos.

Post by **wangi** » 21 Sep 2004, 09:11

Well, it's not 30+ - but here are 25 (!) swans on the sea behind Eastfield yesterday evening:

http://www.pbase.com/wangi/image/34052110

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 21 Sep 2004, 11:37

Thanks for that, Wangi - that's a lovely picture.

Hell's Cat · Post by **Hell's Cat** » 21 Sep 2004, 21:22

You know I always thought swans were fresh water birds! You learn something new every day!

Brenda · Post by **Brenda** » 22 Sep 2004, 15:31

When we came to live here in 1976 (!) we were amazed at the number of different species of seabird we saw during a year. We got out the binoculars and the bird book and made a list:

Gannet, terns,cormorants.

Great crested grebe, goldeneye, guillemot, eider, mallard, merganser, tufted duck, shelduck, scaup, long-tailed duck.

Oyster catcher, little ringed plover, turnstone, bar-tailed godwit, curlew, sandpiper, sanderling, redshank, greenshank (the last 4 are hardly seen now since the pumping station cleaned up the water and changed the tidal flow). And now, swans.

And last, but by no means least - the pied wagtails that bob about on the seawall and beach.

Another reason why Portobello is such a great place to live, even if we are undervalued and underfunded by them up there!

Hope I won't be castigated for bringing a serious note to the forum - It could be painful!

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 23 Sep 2004, 10:27

I agree, Brenda, the variety of bird-life here is superb. I was brought up by the sea, and have mostly lived beside it, but Portobello and Joppa are the places richest in seabirds of my experience. My only complaint is that I haven't a camera with a long lens to take pictures of what I see! I do have a monocular however - wouldn't be without it.

When I lived in Joppa, about ten years ago, there was a solitary seal who used to bob up just off the beach, just as I was walking to the bus stop every morning. A lovely start to a work morning!

Post by **wangi** » 28 Sep 2004, 15:28

Right, who are these five bad boys!?

Larger: http://www.pbase.com/wangi/image/34369683/original

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 28 Sep 2004, 15:37

Lady Mallard, Eider Duck, Teenage Herring Gull, Cormorant and a Common Tern would be my guess?

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 28 Sep 2004, 15:57

I would agree with Poppy, except that the Lady Mallard, might possibly be Mrs. Eider. (strictly speaking the black and white fellow is an eider drake) I'm not sure whether they (the female eider) have the flash on the wings, and the 'scoop' on the forhead

Lovely picture Wangi.

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 28 Sep 2004, 15:59

Been out and about playing with your new camera then Wangi?

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 30 Sep 2004, 14:00

Here's a good link for fellow birdy-types

www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/birds/webcams/

It goes to the BBC's 'Britain Goes Wild' website, where you can download their live cam. and watch birds in a combe 'somewhere in Somerset'. This is real-time live - not updated every 5 mins. I switched in this morning and immediately saw a large pheasant. I've seen jays, woodpeckers, a variety of small birds, and the odd squirrel. Great for someone who has a totally enclosed office, like me.

Maybe we could set one up on Porty beach ..... link it into the site?

Jay · Post by **Jay** » 30 Sep 2004, 18:13

Sorry - should have mentioned for everyone who is on-line in the evenings - the cam. is only on-line between 9.00 am. and 8.00pm.

Skeely · Post by **Skeely** » 01 Oct 2004, 12:10

I've seen a kingfisher twice now, at the Figgate by the recycling centre. I first saw it on Wednesday when walking about getting pics for the photo competition. Unfortunately I wasn't nearly quick enough to bag it!

Yesterday I returned to the same place in the afternoon with my camera at the ready, and saw it dash under the bridge, too fast for me again though.

I spoke to Bob Saville at the SWT wildlife recording unit in Leith today, who reassured me that posting the sighting here won't instantly have the place overrun by twitchers. It's not something you see every day though.

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 01 Oct 2004, 17:27

Skeely wrote:I've seen a kingfisher twice now, at the Figgate by the recycling centre. I first saw it on Wednesday when walking about getting pics for the photo competition. Unfortunately I wasn't nearly quick enough to bag it!

It's not something you see every day though.

We spotted one darting in and out of the reeds and overhanging trees along the banks of a canal we were sailing along whilst on hols in Belgium.

Like you Skeeley, we weren't quick enough to catch it on camera. It was the first time I'd seen one and I thought it looked amazing.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 01 Oct 2004, 18:52

ecm wrote: Like you Skeeley, we weren't quick enough to catch it on camera. It was the first time I'd seen one and I thought it looked amazing.

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 01 Oct 2004, 22:45

Porty wrote:
ecm wrote: Like you Skeeley, we weren't quick enough to catch it on camera. It was the first time I'd seen one and I thought it looked amazing.

It was the vibrant colours that really struck me.

Skeely · Post by **Skeely** » 02 Oct 2004, 10:01

ecm wrote:It was the vibrant colours that really struck me.

Yes, it was a really vivid, luminous stripe of blue that caught my eye.

Post by **wangi** » 03 Oct 2004, 19:54

Black-headed Gull:

http://www.pbase.com/image/34577895

Talk Porty ~ Portobello

Bird Watching - keep it clean!

Bird Watching - keep it clean!

Birdwatching

Kingfisher

Re: Kingfisher

Re: Kingfisher

Re: Kingfisher

Re: Kingfisher