First time I went on my own here. Almost never made it due to a closed road and being stuck behind two slow moving vehicles from farms. Arrived with 10 minutes to spare.
They have started accepting credit cards at the booth in Anstruther and rushing to get there on time was wasted on students , one by one, using their CC's. Couldn't one have paid for all and everyone give the one person money to pay back?
Boat was late leaving but still got our three hours on the island so no matter....

Was really looking forward to Spring this year as last year I went on an early weeks holiday and had started a job as well so missed out on a lot of days birding. So I was hoping to start off this with concentrating more getting about more. January started off well then February was just a lost month weather wise.
March was a bit quiet as March tends to be so with April now I was thinking ok, the migrants are coming and things will look up. But the weather is just being nasty again.
...

We took advantage of a Saturday without football to make a visit to the RSPB at Arne on Poole Harbour with high hopes of finally seeing a Dartford warbler, which have eluded me on every single attempt to see them I have ever made.

Unfortunately, as I spent rather longer in the pub on Friday evening than was strictly sensible, we were a little late in leaving. On the way down we saw our first partridges of the year from the car; I’m not certain as to the species of the first one but...

Not the best day for a walk in the local park, with cold toes and noses we ventured to the local park as a break from staying indoors (cabin fever sets in very quickly lately!).

This is a park on the edge of the 'burbs' that we have visited over the last 30+ years. I've made a little mental list of the species we've seen and was pretty pleased to spot a half dozen Bullfinches recently for the first time in the park.

My wife was hoping to see Bullfinches again and...

March 14th 2011:

Set off in the hope of seeing a Smew and the sun coming out.

The Smew was there with a juvenile Smew so knocked it off seeing two.
Pity my camera lens can't take good pics when they are at the centre of the loch or the other side of it for that matter.
I set off on one trail only for the Drake Smew to be on the other side. This was after treking through mud and freezing cold water and falling down 3 times. They really need to do something...