Scotland again! Yipee! I did not seem to have suffered after a day's gruelling drive up from the Midlands, including 45 minutes waiting for the police to clear a horse-box from the M80. God, I hate horse-boxes -- even more now. I was up at seven and on the beach at Auchmithie with the Yellowhammers, Stonechats and Rock Pipits. A visit to Montrose Basin later in the day produced Pink-footed Geese and a couple of Barnacles.
But all of this, no matter how unusual further south, was more or less expected. The highlight of the day belonged to Fishtown of Usan, a scrubby, maltreated place at the end of a road from Montrose. I had parked the car and started on the mud track down to the little bay. Immediately small birds flew across my path into bushes. What where they? A little searching produced House Sparrows, then Yellowhammers. Still I was hopeful of more.
Finally a different sparrow revealed itself -- a Tree Sparrow, then one more and another. I had only seen them once this year on the feeders at Rutland Water. The colony at Upton Warren seemed to have gone. So, this was a welcome surprise.