MALE VELVET SCOTER, MUSSELBURGH, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, 7/17/2024 - NEW LIFE SPECIES

   We can ID this duck as a male Velvet Scoter as follows:

• Overall black
• White patch on face
• Large white wing patch.  You can see this best in the second photo.
• Orange bill with pinkish tip (see second photo) and black knob
• Reddish-orange legs (see first and third photos where part of leg is showing)

   The Velvet Scoter is a new species to our ebird Photographic Life List.

NORTHERN GANNET IN FLIGHT, MUSSELBURGH, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, 7/17/2024

 

EURASIAN MAGPIES, MUSSELBURGH, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, 7/17/2024

 

EURASIAN OYSTERCATCHERS, MUSSELBURGH, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, 7/17/2024

 

EUROPEAN STARLINGS, MUSSELMAN, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, 7/17/2024

 

JUVENILE EURASIAN CURLEW, MUSSELBURGH, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, 7/17/2024 - NEW LIFE SPECIES

   We can ID the large wader in the first two photos as a juvenile Eurasian Curlew as follows:

• Upperparts are brown with whitish streaking
• What we can see of the underparts is white with dark streaking
• Long, downcurved, dark bill with pinkish base of the lower mandible
• Dark eye with whitish eyering
• Indistinct whitish supercillium 

   The Eurasian Curlew is a new species to our ebird Photographic Life List.

 

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, MUSSELBURGH, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, 7/17/2024