Bed and breakfast

There was an unexpected visitor camping out in our front doorway last night sheltering from the heavy rain. It is definitely a racing or homing pigeon going by the rings on it's legs and it appeared to be a little distressed when it first appeared. I fed it on some wild bird food but it ignored the bread which I also put out. I attempted to catch it this morning to get the full registration number in order that I could report it as a stray. However it flew off but it has reappeared again this evening. Let's see if it is still here tomorrow.

We had a good day out this week at the Seabird Centre, North Berwick. As there were no boats operating to the Bass Rock we finished up visiting Dunbar Harbour to see Kittiwakes nesting followed by Musselburgh lagoons where there were a large number of birds including Curlews, Cormorants, Eiders and Oyster Catchers. We also caught sight of a Godwit and a Whimbrel.

Meanwhile, back at the riverside.

After the excitement of last week's Osprey chick ringing it was going to be hard to follow that up but I think I managed to do it despite not having the photographic evidence to prove it.

While walking the dog by the river one morning I found myself looking at a Kingfisher perched on a branch just above the water level, about 10 yards in front of me. It quickly cottoned on to the fact that it was being observed and flew off within a matter of seconds, it's bright blue body flashing across the water. I also saw it the following morning but from a much greater distance and it will be quite a challenge to get some photos of it.

Another bird which has proved elusive for the last couple of years is the Barn Owl but we saw one of these in the distance whilst walking round farmland adjacent to our house one evening last week. I am also fairly certain that I saw an Osprey flying over the garden one afternoon.

Although I failed to capture the Kingfisher on film I saw this dipper on the opposite bank and grabbed a few shots. The bird wasn't as close as I would have liked it to be so the pictures are not as clear as they could have been.

Osprey chick ringing-4th July 2007

This day will stay in my memory for a long time to come. In the morning I was on duty at Ospreywatch and was able to watch the ringing at the televised nest on CCTV. A film crew from Border Television were in attendance and the event was covered on the local evening news the following night. In the afternoon another volunteer and I attended a ringing at a different nest.

When we arrived at the nest the parent birds could be seen circling the nest at a distance and in fact a third Osprey also appeared briefly and all three could be seen in the sky at one time.

When the chicks were lowered to the ground each was taken from the bag in turn and weighed and measured before being ringed. A vet was also in attendance and she checked each bird thoroughly before taking a blood sample. After the formalities were over there was time for us to be photographed with the chicks before they were returned to the nest.

Although a licence is required to photograph at an Osprey nest I was covered by the fact that the party of ringers was licenced.

This was indeed a once in a lifetime experience which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The photographs shown are a very small sample from the 140 shots which I took on the day!