This weekend..
 The birding Bro was visiting from the Isle of Wight http://jonsbirding.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2017-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50


So a busy weekend for birding as I showed him round some of my Fife haunts. He timed his visit well with easterlies resulting in a small fall of drift migrants and a good arrival of waders. Of course I had to include my patch at Ferryhills on the itinerary and events on Saturday have made me even more obsessed with the place. This followed a night of easterlies and rain, but I wasn't expecting anything in terms of drift and was thinking more in terms of Skuas being pushed up the Forth. The perceived wisdom is that drifting Scandinavian passerines generally don't make it this far up the Forth.
Well clearly some birds hadn't read the script, not long after walking through the gate the Bro causally mentions he's on to a Spotted Flycatcher (A common migrant where he is from) and is no doubt slightly puzzled by my frantic response-where?! But this is actually a first for the site for me since starting proper coverage in 2015. Perhaps in a questionable piece of decision making I'm thinking that we have used up our luck with grounded birds and head to the visible migration watch point. Not much happening here although we had a few Tree Pipits through.
So we head back to the area where we had the Spot Fly and there is a real hive of activity in the trees and scrub bordering the site and end up with 3 Spotted Fly, 1 Redstart, 1 Garden Warbler and 10+ Willow Warbler. This might not sound like much but the first three species were all site ticks. Given the fact that these birds arrived on easterlies and rain and coincided with a small arrival further east in Fife in the Kilminning area which included a Greenish Warbler, it seems logical that they had a Scandinavian origin. This proved to be a real eye opener to me and adds another dimension to watching here.
Later in the day we headed up to Kilminning to try for the Greenish Warbler and have a look round for our own migrants too. The Greenish had been seen prior to our arrival but was proving very elusive and with time pressing on we had to admit defeat. Generally there was less activity in the bushes than we had at Ferryhills in the morning but with perseverance we dug out single Pied and Spotted Flycatchers.
Sunday saw us back at Ferryhills early. The wind had switched round to the west but this had got the Tree Pipits moving and my bro was able to enjoy the full Tree Pipit experience. We ended up with 36 over in 2.5 hours. Other highlights were a flock of 18 Black-tailed Godwits and the first skua of the autumn, a Bonxie which came in high and looked as though it might head inland but then turned back. Later in the day Letham produced an excellent variety of waders with single Wood Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, 5 Ruff, 2 Greenhank as well as Dunlin, Snipe and Lapwing. Water Rails continue to show well here.