Scotland holiday break

Visited Scotland August 19th - August 22nd
My brother took me to his local patch Ferryhills near the Forth bridge, which has been found to be an all rounder in terms of the varying migrants that pass over or nearby. On the Friday when I arrived it was raining and interestingly the winds were coming from the east, a combination that usually results in a fall of migrants along the east coast. So we headed to Ferryhills early Sat morning.

Sat 20th Aug:
As soon as we arrived it seemed busy in and around the bushes along the track leading up to the watch point. We soon spotted a spotted flycatcher - a species down on the IOW that's almost expected to be seen at this time of year but not so in this area - a patch tick and indicative of the conditions. We then planned to scrutinise the area more on the way back and continued on to the high ground to catch the vis mig.
It was fairly quiet in terms of vis mig. What has been really notable for my brother has been the passage of tree pipits this autumn with record numbers passing over. At least ten did pass over us but they are more plentiful with westerly winds.
Things got really interesting as we were making our way back to the car. We picked up the spotted flycatcher again but then found two more with it. A redstart seemingly out of nowhere bombed low over the undulating ground away from us and disappeared into a neighboring garden. A garden warbler suddenly appeared whilst scanning the garden bushes. Plus with the several active phyloscs we both had to agree that it really felt like anything was possible and could emerge from the trees and bushes. At some point we had to call it a day though. Definitely a memorable one.

A view from the lodge we were staying at - Loch Leven

 Ferryhills - my bro's patch near the Forth - record tree pipit passage and a potential migrant trap? with spot fc, redstart and garden warbler now added as patch ticks. With its height and surrounding scrub it kind of reminded me of west high down but on a smaller scale. 

Said tree pipits - some alighted the wires; most 'buzzed' over.