Rainy Lady

One of the places that showed up in my search of birding locations near Edinburgh was a place on the coast called Aberlady. Sam and I had the morning free before our colleague arrived from San Francisco. And remember, the UK is 5 hours ahead of US time, so we couldn't even do our regular work in the morning so we decided to go.  We figured out how to get there by city bus and away we went.  Of course, it was pouring rain!

The bus driver was kind enough to drop us off at the Scottish Ornithology Club (SOC) headquarters so that we could get some information. The lady that worked there kept trying to talk us into birding sites that had nearby cafes or the seabird research center where we could sit inside and watch seabirds on video. No way. We came to Scotland to see real live birds not videos or cafes so off we went trudging through the marsh.

Here I am in my fashion poncho. It worked pretty well to keep the rain off of the camera but it was definitely not pretty.

Poncho Lady

Here is Sam. We bought a cheap umbrella that he used. Pity we didn't think to buy galoshes too. He feet were cold and soaked for the rest of the day.

Umbrella Man

Tidal Marsh

We did see some really good birds on the trip. Of course, almost everything is new to us here.  Remember the Northern Lapwings that showed up in NJ last year?  Well, this is where they are supposed to be. We saw several along the coast here and more in the cow pastures near Manchester.

Northern Lapwing

It doesn't take long to see a Meadow Pipit in the UK. They are probably the most common bird in the field. This one was trying to feed babies in the bush along the path.

The 2 best birds of the outing for me were Sedge Warbler and Skylark. Here is the best shot that I could get of Sedge Warbler in the rain. All of the warblers look alike in Britain. You will see that in upcoming posts.

Here is Skylark. Not much to look at. Frankly, none of the British birds are very colourful (see how I did that "ou" thing?). However, Skylark has been on my "must see" list for a long time.

Skylark

This is the full frame of the Skylark photo to show you how obscure it is on the path. I mean, you really have to look for these birds. Also note how similar the Skylark is to the Meadow Pipit. Geez.

Skylark on path

It was so rainy and wet that the path was lined with slimy things - black slugs and snails. The slugs were huge.

Slimy slug

 The snails all had these psychedelic shells.

Snail

Big Year Coming Up

Birders are nuts. You already know that because you read this blog and/or you are a nutty birder.  Us birders can be loosely labeled as "Listers", "Birdwatchers", "Photographers", a combination, or none of the above.  For a long time, I referred to myself as a "birdwatcher" since I would go out birding but also look at other things and not obsessively chase after stuff.  I would refer to myself as a "photographer" since I usually carry the camera and try to photo document our sightings.  I would consider myself a casual "lister" since I enter my sightings into eBird and I like to keep a tally of the total number of birds that I have seen (732, by the way). 

This year, I am taking it to a whole new level - "Nut Job".  This year, I am doing a "Big Year" by taking part in the DVOC Billings Big Year contest.  To win the contest, you need to see more birds than anyone else in the contest.  You can only count birds seen in the DVOC area which is basically the Delaware Valley.  All birds must be seen in 2013.  The prize is a whopping $200, but it also gives the winner bragging rights.  I do not foresee winning the contest but I think it will be fun to see if I can stay in the ballpark with the other contestants.  To give you an idea of the challenge, the 2011 winner was Mike Fritz (super birder) with 363 species. 2012's winner has not been announced yet. 

I had a total of 245 last year which included Arizona and California.  I have a long way to go for sure but I already have 84 species in January which includes the Northern Shrike that I posted last time and the 3 Northern Lapwings which I got to see yesterday in a muddy cow pasture in Jersey. 

Northern Lapwings are rare birds that are usually found in Europe. When they do show up in the U.S. they are almost always found north of Massachusetts which makes it even rarer that they would be in Jersey.  In addition to that, finding 3 together is unheard of!  Here is a photo of the nasty cow field taken with my iPhone.  The birds are in the photo but they are waaaay in the back. 

Cow Pasture with Lapwings

Here is a terrible photo of 2 Lapwings taken with my iPhone through Marty's scope.  Thank goodness Marty from the DVOC showed up with his scope or I would not have gotten to see the birds very well.

Northern Lapwings

Click Here to see a better image of Northern Lapwing and learn more about the bird.

I could kick myself for not shooting video of Roxy and her cow friend. The cow practically sprinted over to the fence when it saw Roxy and then stuck his head through the barbed wire to sniff her. It was pretty adorable. I also didn't have my camera with me since I dashed out of work early to get there. 

Anyway, I'll be counting on some of you to help me organize my craziness this year and go after birds that I need for my Big Year List.  I'll be counting on others for encouragement. But most of all, I hope that we can all have fun with it.  I'm off in search of weird geese and winter finches this weekend. Wish me luck.