It’s that time of year when there is always a chance, if you are very lucky, of coming across a short eared owl.  So my walks  at this time of year do tend to concentrate on likely spots – namely, Aberlady and Levenhall Links at Musselburgh.

The good thing about both these places is that even if you don’t come across an owl or two, there is usually something worth photographing.

This day I chose Musselburgh.  I parked as usual at the first car park at Levenhall and headed straight down to the sea wall.  On the way I spotted a Kestrel sitting high in the trees surrounding the nature reserve, so I took some shots before carrying on.  

Looking over the sea wall, there wasn’t much happening, but I did get some shots of a razorbill close in before  a red throated diver started leading me up and down the shore trying to guess where it would surface next.  In its winter plumage of course, so no red throat!

I carried on up to the nature reserve – commonly known as “the scrapes”.

All the usual suspects were there – oyster catchers, curlews, redshanks and wigeon, all looking good in the low winter sun.

Headed back the way I came, and this time at the sea wall watched a female eider duck dealing with a crab – in the end, once she had smashed the legs off, the crab was swallowed whole – with some difficulty!

So an interesting enough walk, but no owls.  There have been reports of owls however, so it’s just a matter of keeping going and trying to be in the right place at the right time.