Home and away, and Isabelline 'blocker'

I had a nice time photographing Fieldfare and Redwing at my local patch on the Saturday before heading north on the Sunday, into the advancing wintery front, and got lucky with a bird I've only seen abroad - Isabelline Wheatear. Unable to locate it at first light, as the sole twitcher at East Linton, I headed down the track and found the bird on the deck just in front of me, and then perched nicely on a stone wall - far better than I had imagined. It could have all gone badly wrong, this trip, but I was delighted to be the first to locate the rarity today, and got some of the best shots anyone has of this bird.

There were about 20 Yellowhammers here too - looking wonderful against the snowy background - and over at Musselburgh I eventually caught up with one of the Surf Scoters, and got distant views of Velvet Scoter and plenty of Long-tailed Duck. Annoyingly, the tide was out and the all the birds were too distant to photograph. A couple of Twite were glimpsed by the footpath.