It has been a while since I got up to Scotland to see my parents. Booked the family into the Seamill Hydro 
but for the first three days it rained. From the hotel room it was possible to watch the shoreline and soon I had added red-breasted merganser to the year list.
Thursday was forecast to be set fair so I got up early and was on the beach before 7.00am. Initially no sign of the pair of mergansers but a photo of a bird flying over the waves turned out to be the male. Small flocks of rock pipit teased in the half light and skylark and meadow pipits regularly rose in song and dropped back to earth.
Before heading off to my parents house 
I got another view of the female merganser, in the water and on the wing.
The work on the retaining wall between the hotel and the burn is now complete but there was no sign of the dippers. Sand martins through and the year list progressed to 98 - I wonder what will take me to 100?
Sightings (42) included: black-headed gull, blackbird, blue tit, carrion crow, chaffinch, collared dove, common gull, cormorant, curlew, dunnock, eider, gannet, goldfinch, great black-backed gull, great tit, greenfinch, grey heron, herring gull, hooded crow, house sparrow, jackdaw, lesser black-backed gull, magpie, meadow pipit, mute swan, oystercatcher, pied wagtail, red-breasted merganser, redshank, robin, rock dove / feral pigeon, rock pipit, rook, sand martin, shag, shelduck, skylark, song thrush, starling, teal, wigeon and wren.
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