Aberlady Bay near Edinburgh, saw huge flocks of golden plovers, teal, shelduck, little grebe, goosander, pink-footed geese, curlew, godwit, and even some stonechats. Amazing place, amazing birds. 

It's not everyday you get to see a seal colony with around 500 seals! Grey seals with their pups, some suckling, some snoozing. Low howling sounds reaching me as well as the sounds of the surf. Adults on the beach and others just offshore but always with one eye open.  From a distance it looks like nothing much is happening but when you look at a timelapse video the opposite is seen to be the case, see below.

 I had a high vantage point well away from the beach and used a long telephoto lens for this shot as well as taking some wideangle shots to get the whole beach in context, maybe half a mile long. 

 I also wanted to analyse the movements and behaviours so I shot a timelapse video, using my DSLR camera and shooting one picture every five seconds for about 500 shots, then used Quicktime Pro to make the movie. If you do this then make sure you shoot the photos at fairly low JPEG resolution or you will have big files to deal with.  Also lock the exposure on manual to avoid fluctuations in light levels. You can see one version of mine here.

A pair of young black headed gulls having a little practice aerial dogfight. 

Another trailcamera shot, this time we have a tawny owl sitting on our outside light watching for voles presumably, it's around midnight.  On the right the light area is the wing of a kestrel roosting on the camera itself! This tells us that they don't mind the camera, in fact they like it, and that owls and kestrels will happily sit close to each other. See below for more.

It's not everyday we can be cunning enough to photograph a kestrel roosting, actually it's not so difficult when it's on your house! I used a trailcam strapped to a ladder to get these shots, it is automatic and can be left all night to take photos whenever infra red is detected by the body heat of an animal. The flash it uses is also infra red so is invisible and doesn't disturb the animals. Surprisingly the kestrel is hanging on to the wall itself when there is a light beside it which it could and often does sit on. The camera is a Moultrie trail camera, it shoots in colour when there is enough light. The kestrels were also quite happy to roost on top of the camera itself for most of the night as the next photo shows.

I spent the last couple of days in south west Scotland at the WWT Caerlaverock centre and also at Mersehead RSPB reserve, as well as visiting the red kite feeding station.  If you want to see several images then click the link on the home page "Impressions of Dumfries " etc.

This photograph was taken using a Nikon DSLR, 300mm f4 lens, at f4, 1/1250 seconds, ISO 400, handheld.  It's "just" a blue tit but I liked the diagonal reed and the unusual setting for the bird.  This was taken in Caerlaverock Nature Reserve, I'd recommend you pay a visit for varied wildlife.

Two cock pheasants having a good little fight... 

Pheasant using its "camo" to hide. 

I haven't seen these geese before so this was exciting. Walked across the heather moor to a large pond and there they were. 

I have to admit to not having photographed crossbills in Scotland before, but today I resolved that with a good sighting of a big group and some nice individual shots.