Rediscovering the Joys of Birding
• Sunday, April 20, 2008 - Learning the Art of Sea Watching
We (the family) have just come back from a very nice family holiday that we spent up in Crail in Fife in Scotland with some friends of ours. This provided the perfect opportunity to do some sea watching and to catch up on some sea birds for my year list. In addition it provided quite a few life ticks as in my previous birding incarnation as a boy I never got much of an opportunity to do sea birding.
We decided to stop off at relatives in Cumbria on the way up and in fact managed to be organised enough that we left pretty early and so arrived in the Lakes with an afternoon free to do something. I'd been monitoring (www.ospreywatch.co.uk) the ospreys that nest at Bassenthwaite lake each year though when we'd set off that morning they had still not arrived back. When we arrived I just thought that I would check on the off-chance and low and behold they'd turned up about an hour ago. Such a coincidence was not to be ignored so I suggested that we went to look at them in the afternoon. There is an osprey view point on the far side of the lake where you can go so we duly headed off. There was quite a steep path up to the view point and it was the perfect opportunity to try out our new all-terrain push chair for our 21 month old son L. I'd suggested that we get this so that when I go out birding I don't have to struggle with our present one. The push chair performed admirably and we got to the view point easily enough. I'd informed our children that it might not be there but the female was present, hanging around waiting for the male who'd been temporarily scared away by a passing helicopter. We all got to see the osprey through the swarovski scopes that they provide there. In addition they had a bird feeding station out in case there were no ospreys to see and we got rather nice views of a red squirrel there as well as lots of coal tits (which I'd still not managed to see this year so far).
We arrived in Crail the next day rather late as we'd stopped off at friends in Edinburgh on the way over. After a fish supper at the local chippy we wandered down to the harbour for a quick look. There in the harbour were a flock of eider duck (who are around everywhere on the sea in this area). There were also fulmars nesting on the small cliffs behind the harbour and a rock pipit was hopping around on the harbour wall. There were oystercatchers and redshank on the beach and a sparrow hawk flew over in the dusk. A very nice set of birds to whet the appetite for the holiday.
The rest of the holiday settled into a daily routine of my taking L out for a morning walk in the new super buggy and then once the rest of the people were up we went off to do our holiday things.
Saturday 12th
The first day I thought that I would go back to Crail harbour to see what I could see in the morning light. As well as the usual eider and fulmars there were 3 comic terns which passed by (apparently they are more likely to be artics which breed on nearby Isle of May) and a distant flock of common scoter went by with their distinctive straggly flock formation. There were passing gannets and shags and close in a rather nice red-throated diver still in winter plumage. A smart grey wagtail graced the harbour wall briefly.
Once the kids were up the men folk took them down to a nearby beach for some rock pooling whilst the women went off to do the shopping for the week. There was some sand on this beach so there were a few waders around: curlew, turnstone, redshank, oystercatchers and some purple sandpipers. There were also some golden eye ducks hanging around.
That afternoon as Scottish heritage were having an open day and all their attractions were free, we went to St. Andrews to check out the cathedral and castle. St. Andrews has two beaches and a rather large bay. It is well know for over-wintering velvet scoter though they usually leave at the end of march. Whilst admiring the heritage I managed to keep an eye on the sea (with my bins) and saw some common scoter amongst the eider and also what looked to me like long-tailed ducks. I hoped that I would get a better opportunity to look at these later on in the holiday.
Sunday 13th
For the morning walk with L I went south of the harbour where as well as the usual sea birds I got a good view of a razorbill, loafing around quite close in. I'd been seeing plenty of auks flying past in the distance but had not been able to ID them at that distance. Once everyone was up we went to Shell Bay and Ruddon's Point, a well-known scoter watch point and about the only place where one might see a surf scoter around here. The various members of the party settled down to do their own thing (shell collecting, football on the beach, chatting in the warmth of the car etc.) whilst I took my eldest daughter K around to the Ruddon's point peninsula. It was rather a long walk and we didn't see much apart from 3 little ringed plovers and a couple of shelduck. By the time we arrived K was keen to get back so I didn't actually have very long to scan for scoters. I had some good views of some commons close up but no sign of any velvets or surfs
Monday 14th
For the morning trip with L I went down to Fife Ness, an easterly peninsula and well-known birding spot. There you could do proper sea watching with something coming past every minute or so. There were lots of gannets going by and some rather nice kittiwakes. Also some razorbills went past as well as a couple of unidentified divers. There were turnstone, curlew, oystercatchers, shags and cormorants resting on the rocks.
In the morning we went to Craigton CP where they had an excellent adventure playground on which we all had great fun. Only birds of note were a tree creeper and a coal tit.
The afternoon we went to the beach at St. Andrews where I did some scoping and got good close-up views of the common scoters and also the long-tailed ducks.
Tuesday 15th
Back to Fife Ness again for the morning trip where there was a red-throated diver close in shore again and a couple of great-northern divers flew over close in. Also a pair of velvet scoter flew by, distinctive with their white wing bars.
For the family trips the girls had decided to go on a shopping trip to St. Andrews, and the boys were going off swimming leaving me and L to go on a birding trip. I decided on Guardbridge where there is a hide at the mouth of the Eden estuary. Just as I got there the heavens started to open so we hurried to the shelter of the hide. This turned out to be rather well-equipped and with quite a few birders in it too. L was very good, sitting in his buggy quietly while I scanned the mud flats. There was nothing of great interest: plenty of curlew, oystercatchers, redshank, shelduck, goldeneye etc. After a while I spotted a peregrine sitting on the flats eating a recent catch. One could get a great view of it chewing its prey. There was also a distant wheatear sitting on a ridge. After about an hour L started to get restless and I had a bit of time free still so I decided to go back to St. Andrews to explore the Eden estuary from the other end. There's a long track which takes you out to sand dunes by the estuary and then you can walk down onto the mud flats. L enjoyed scrambling around the dunes and picking up shells on the beach and I got good views of a red-breasted merganser and a long-tailed duck.
Wednesday 16th
Morning trip to Fife Ness where there was not much new apart from a pair of red-throated divers close in including one which was moulting to summer plumage.
In the afternoon most of us went back to the Eden estuary beach to escape the fierce easterly wind. By sheltering behind the dunes one could be quite warm in the sun. There were lots of red-breasted mergansers there, a single long-tailed duck and a moulting red-throated diver as well as the usual curlew and oystercatchers.
Thursday 17th
Back to Fife Ness for the morning trip where I say 3 velvet scoters go by and with the help of a fellow local birder managed to pick out some guillemot amongst a distant flock of auks. He also told me about a firecrest in the local patch just up the road. I went to have a quite look and got a brief view of something but it looked more like a goldcrest to me and I didn't have time to hang around and find it.
In conclusion and excellent holiday from a birding point of view which far exceeded my expectations and the rest of the family all enjoyed the holiday as well. I managed to tick off lots of year sightings as well as a few lifers which, as I mentioned, for historic reasons had eluded me as a boy.
121 Coal Tit
122 Osprey (LIFER)
123 Eider
124 Fulmar
125 Rock Pipit
126 Common Scoter (LIFER)
127 Gannet
128 red-throated diver (LIFER)
129 shag
130 purple sandpiper
131 long-tailed duck (LIFER)
132 razorbill
133 kittiwake
134 great northern diver (LIFER)
135 velvet scoter (LIFER)
136 Peregrine Falcon
137 wheatear
138 red-breasted merganser
139 guillemot |
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