Musselburgh Lagoons - American White-winged Scoter

Rewind back to a dismal July day in 2016 when I opted to head up to Aberdeen to twitch a rare bird.

I was hungover, tired, but the flight was booked.  Unfortunately the bird went missing for a day which was just a little inconvenient.

This perennial American visitor was back, returning to the place where it had initially been identified in 2014.  I decided to head for Musselburgh Lagoons for another crack at this yank seafarer.

A 4.15am alarm call, 5am taxi ride, 5.50am coach ride, and an 8.55am plane ride from Stansted, had me at the car hire office by 11am,  By 11.50am I was on-site, firstly walking the wrong way, and then hacking back to the sea-wall away from the town.

At 1.30pm, the american-white-winged scoter was picked up associating with a small group of pristine Velvet Scoter.  The open water was at times back-lit on a mild and breezy afternoon.

It roosted for a while, preened for a while, swam up and down for a while, flicked its head back for a while.  It was all rather entertaining and not to mention the relief after the aforementioned failed attempt.

This was a great site.  Lots of waders out on the exposed mud of the receded tide that was starting to surge its way back in.  There were hundreds of oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, and curlew, with smaller numbers of knot and dunlin flying close past the seawall.

On the sea, two slavonian grebe were bobbing about as were small groups of red-breasted merganser, common eider, and the odd guillemot and razorbill.

Four sandwich tern flew through, and a few 1st winter gannet were present offshore.

The sight of hundreds of yapping formation flying pink-footed goose passing high overhead on inward migration was magical.

With no further incidents, I finally returned home at 11.50pm.  It is amazing what you can do in a day.