Redshanks and Mallards enjoying Musselburgh lagoons in Scotland

I went to Edinburgh in August in order to attend the Edinburgh Festival during it's second week, but took some time off from city life in order to do some bird-watching.  My Bass Rock (North Berwick) gannets and Musselburgh oystercatchers have had their photographs posted in two previous blogs and I am now trying to catch up with the other birds I saw while I was in Scotland.

I spent a pleasant afternoon in Musselburgh, at Levenhall Links nature reserve, after having trouble finding it - spending about half-an-hour longer than necessary during the walk from the centre of the town to the race-course and the reserve that was hidden behind it.  However, it was very rewarding, even though the birds were mainly in the distance at the other end of the lagoons.

The nearest birds were a few Redshanks, that were busy paddling and looking for food in the rather picturesque lagoons.  They, too, really were too far away for good photographs, but were a lot nearer than the hundreds of oystercatchers that were covering the lagoons

Two Redshanks are shown below, knee deep in the water, and one has it's back to me (as usual).

The Redshank below looks as though it is admiring the lovely grasses that are growing round the edge of the lagoon.

Here there are three Redshanks, all looking for food.  I love the pattern of grasses, algae and reflections in the water of the lagoon.

Two of the three Redshanks in the photograph below are exercising their wings.  Actually one of these Redshanks was limping and I hope it will be OK.

After the wing exercises, it's back to searching for food.

There were also a couple of Mallards who were enjoying scooping up algae, or whatever, from the surface of the water.

In this picture, I have my normal view of a duck's bum.

Later, it was back to the wading birds.  Here is a rather fat Redshank that is standing on one leg.

On leaving the Levenhall Links nature reserve, I had to walk near the edge of a lake - or loch, as it is called in Scotland - where I found a pretty Grey Wagtail hopping along the rocks at the edge of the water.  It kept trying to hide from me, but I managed to get a photograph of it anyway.

In order to get back to the centre of Musselburgh, I walked along the footpath by the River Esk where I encountered a very common sea-bird, a Herring Gull, that was standing on one leg on a wall near the river.  I have added it's photograph because I love it's yellow beak and beady eye.

Oystercatchers and other waders in Musselburgh lagoons

Whilst in Edinburgh last week, I took two days off from the Festival in order to go bird-watching.  One trip was to North Berwick in order to go on a boat trip round the Bass Rock and see the thousands of gannets that are on and around the rock at the moment - photographs of which are in one of my earlier posts.  The second was an afternoon adventure to Levenhall Links nature reserve in Musselborough, which is on the coast between Edinburgh and North Berwick and easily reached by bus.  In fact, I was going to see MacFloyd at an Edinburgh Fringe concert at Brunton Hall in Musselburgh in the evening, so that tied in nicely with a birding trip during the day.

The weather was a bit dull, but that did not stop me.  What nearly stopped me was that the nature reserve, if going on foot from Musselburgh, is not that easy to find.  It was easy to find the race-course, but the path to the reserve was at the back of the course and there were several dirt tracks and none of them were marked.  I asked directions from a lady with a toddler and she sent me in completely the wrong direction.  Then a very kind man who was walking his dog around the area, put me right and almost escorted me to the unmarked path through a field full of weeds and wild flowers that led to a lake and then the reserve.

After I had walked around part of the lake, I came to the entrance to the reserve - which was still unmarked.  How you find it, if walking there, without the help of strangers, I do not know.  Everyone I met in Scotland was very friendly and helpful, thank goodness.

There was a path that led to a concrete hide without a roof.  There were several bird-watchers in the hide and I asked one of them if he could tell me what was on the site.  Basically, it ended up that there was a path to the left that led to a second hide.  This was at a dead-end, so you had to turn round and retrace your steps.  There was also a path to the right that led to a third hide.  This was also at a dead-end and you had to turn round and retrace your steps back to the centre hide.  In front of the three hides, there were several lagoons.

According to Wikipedia, this is land reclaimed from the sea by building a sea wall and pumping large amounts of pulverised fuel ash into a number of ash lagoons.  This infill site for fly ash from the coal-fired Cockenzie Power Station has been partially restored and landscaped.  Shallow pools for wading birds have been created and the area has become a popular site for bird-watchers.

There were certainly a lot of wading birds in and around the lagoons - mainly hundreds of Oystercatchers, which I love.  Unfortunately they were a long way away from the hide, so impossible to get good photographs of them.  The photo below was at maximum zoom.  There are also brown waders in the lagoon, which are probably Redshanks.  I was told by the other bird-watchers in the hide that Curlew Sandpipers and Greenshanks were also there - but I do not have a scope and, as I was really in Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival and not bird-watching, I had only a small pair of binoculars with me.  One man very kindly let me look through his scope, which he set up to let me look at a Redshank and a rarer Ruff, and seeing both birds together was great.

In the photo below, the hill that is called Berwick Law is in the background.  This is located in North Berwick and can be clearly seen from many places around Edinburgh.

At least I managed to take photographs of some of the huge number of Oystercatchers that were hanging around the lagoons and, of course, it was much easier to find my way out of the nature reserve than it had been to find my way in.  Also, going to the MacFloyd concert afterwards was so mind-blowing after the peace-and-quiet in the reserve!