IN the last fortnight I have visited the east coast, firstly to Eyemouth and secondly to Spittal. On the first visit I scanned both Eyemouth Bay and the sea of Spittal.

At Eyemouth there were the usual gulls but nothing unusual amongst them. A few Cormorants passed the mouth of the harbour and I could hear some Redshank calling from the rocks and a couple of Rock Pipits flew past. Off Spittal there were three Red-throated Divers, three Common Scoter and a group of Eider Duck. Near Tweedmouth Dock, on the grassed area beside the road, around 30 Oystercatcher probed the ground for worms sinking their orange beaks into the ground.

The second visit was a week later and the picture at Spittal was completely different with few birds on the sea. The sky was dark and heavy and soon there was heavy driving rain and sleet. After a while this gave way to bright sunshine and managed to set up my telescope for a closer look at the sea. Scanning right to left produced a couple of Cormorant and a female Eider Duck. The sea was distinctly brown from the mouth of the Tweed and south towards Holy Island as the Tweed was now in spate and heavily coloured from overnight rain. Just as I completed the scan there was some activity on the sea and it turned out to be at least three porpoise jumping out of the water and splashing back down again.

On the way back home I had the intention of stopping and looking at some swans I had noted on the way down. However, the heavy driving rain and sleet accompanied by poor visibility prevented this. Near the Twizel road end I had seen a couple of Mute Swans on the way down but they had gone by the time I returned. Turning off at Cornhill I headed for Wark and near the road were a couple of Grey Herons sitting rather forlornly in a field of cereal. I stopped at Learmouth road end a caught sight of a Cormorant in mid stream with its dark plumage standing out against the brown coloured water.

The swans I had hoped to view were all on my left hand side and visibility was so poor it was not worthwhile stopping. A good bit of the road between Cornhill and Kelso has hawthorn hedge rows and a several places Blackbirds broke from the hedge and were obviously picking up the remaining berries. A Redwing also made an appearance and a few Dunnock dived from the roadside to the cover of the hedges. At Birgham Haugh a flock of around 200 Pinkfeet grazed in one of the fields. By the time I reached Kelso the rain and sleet had stopped and in the sky over Mayfield was a hunting Sparrowhawk. I watched it glide over the garden centre then it closed its wings and dived.

On the 9th December it was a shopping trip to Ocean Terminal. The car park was quite full at lower levels but further up there was plenty room with a good clear view of the large harbour basin. One of the supply ships, the Seven Pacific, had propellers going at the side of the vessel creating some turbulence and this had attracted a large raft of gulls but as far as I could see they were mainly Herring and Black-headed Gulls... 12 adult and four juvenile Mute Swans were feeding along the harbour edge accompanied by twenty Mallard and after a while were joined by a Cormorant. A Pied Wagtail was trotting along the quayside carefully picking up insects and a Great Black-backed Gull sat nearby.

In the hour before I settled down to write this article it was dog walking time. Maisie is always excited to be out and about despite the inclement weather. There was a Goldfinch and a Robin in my garden but the nearby park was empty everything was hiding from the driving sleet. At Lochend a party of Woodpigeon burst out to the larch trees and below a Grey Squirrel scuttled for cover. By the time I reached the riverside the sleet had stopped.

The Tweed was still running high but a couple of Grey Heron was fishing at the edge. A couple of Goosander flew upstream and a Dipper sang from the edge. 11 Mallard also fed along the edge but the most interesting sighting was that of an Otter that surfaced mid-stream and swam to the edge. It dived a couple of times before surfacing about two metres from me. Good to see that they are still around on this section of the river.

The Borders Bird Report Number 30 copies are now available from Malcolm Ross at Westfield Cottage, Smailhom price £7 plus postage. Malcolm can be contacted 01573 460699 if anyone is interested in purchasing one. As well as the usual reports of what was seen in 2013 in the Borders it also has an article on satellite tagged Pink footed Geese, Taiga Bean Geese in Berwickshire and a full report on ringed birds. It runs to 119 pages and packed full of interesting observations.