June 7th
Dumfries and Galloway

I was surprised to have a Hawfinch fly over calling  while doing a dawn VP. Wasn't aware of a resident population in this part of the world, and the fact the species is listed as a local rarity in the D and G bird report suggests this is a good record. Apart from the Scone Palace birds this is a difficult one to get in Scotland.
Summer has certainly arrived this week and there was a cracking dawn chorus, starting at first light with roding woodcock, followed by a good variety of summer migrants including Tree Pipit, Gropper and Whinchat. The only drawback is the midge season is well underway, it is a real act of will power to sit still for 3 hours while a cloud of these surrounds you. At least it means there is finally plenty of prey for the birds and for other insects; I saw my first dragons of the year-four spotted chaser.

June 8th
Aberlady Bay

Walking towards the dunes I saw an eared owl hunting in the distance. It would be reasonable to assume at 09.45 in the morning that an eared owl hunting over rough grassland is going to be a Shortie, but this birds rather uniform dark upperparts were already ringing alarm bells. I closed the gap and sure enough, finely barred tail, uniform streaked underbody etc. If I needed any more convincing, the bird perched up for a bit on a bush, staring me down with bright orange eyes and massive tufts.
Eventually it did the decent thing and went off to roost in some sea buckthorn where it was quickly surrounded by a group of mobbing passerines.
First LEO I've seen for a long time. They are listed as uncommon in the Lothian bird report, although probably overlooked and they have bred.