A visit to Seamill that I hadn't planned to make and there for the worst reason. Having packed up for the journey home we decided to have a walk on the beach outside the Seamill Hydro for some fresh air. The sea was calm and the temperature cool but not cold.
We had five red-breasted mergansers off-shore with groups of seals bobbing beyond. One male cruised close enough for decent photos.
There were numbers of herring, common and great black-backed and a couple of black-headed gulls. A handful of redshank and turnstone fed in the rocks by the gulls. Oystercatchers were mobile.
Crossing the burn we found a single dipper feeding. We watched for a couple of minutes before it flew back up the burn and out of sight. We continued on an down to the point. I'd hoped to see purple sandpiper but it turned out that this wasn't going to happen today.
First a single curlew then a small flock of seven in the next bay. A gannet hunted at a very large distance, only really visible with bins. A few more redshank scattered along the shore.
Soon we had to turn back and as we reached the bench a small bird flew passed, flushed from below by a dog. I scanned across the rocks where it had landed and noticed it was pale and not just a meadow pipit, but a water pipit.
Crossing back across the burn we found that there were now two dippers - they fed under the flowing burn.
Back to the car and off to say goodbye to the family before the drive home.
Species (34): black-headed gull, blackbird, carrion crow, chaffinch, collared dove, common gull, cormorant, curlew, dipper, dunlin, eider, gannet, goldfinch, great black-backed gull, herring gull, house sparrow, jackdaw, mallard, meadow pipit, oystercatcher, pied wagtail, red-breasted merganser, redshank, robin, rock dove / feral pigeon, rook, starling, stonechat, teal, turnstone, water pipit, wigeon, woodpigeon and wren.
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