Four-hour twitch: River Tweed footpath walk from Melrose to Abbotsford and back

Idyllic - the River Tweed and surrounding countryside 

    

Date: August 27, 2025

Time: 9.30am - 1.30 pm

Weather: Sunny and warm

Target species: Common Sandpiper

Star species seen: Osprey

Other species seen/ heard:

* Wood Pigeon

* Cormorant

* Mallard

* Goosander

* Heron

* Black-headed Gull

* Lesser Black-backed Gull

* Herring Gull

* Nuthatch

* Treecreeper

* Nuthatch

* Great Spotted Woodpecker

* Swallow

* Housemartin

* Willow Warbler

* Blue Tit

* Great Tit

* Coal Tit

* Blackbird

* Carrion Crow

* Grey Wagtail

* Buzzard

* Kingfisher

* Robin

* Chaffinch

The enchanting town of Melrose - starting point for the walk

Black-headed Gull in non-breeding plumage

                                                          

Abbotsford - home to Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe and other great novels 

Herring Gull

Treecreeper on silver birch tree

An Osprey passes overhead

Grey Wagtail - plentiful and conspicuous

Great Spotted Woodpecker on lookout perch

Speckled Wood butterfly

Family of Goosander

                                                              

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Flypast of two Herons - a common species on this stretch of the Tweed and not much loved by anglers

Shall I go or shall I stay? Kingfisher ponders its next move