The last few days have been marked by a lot of seabird activity a few kilometres out from Crail. Hundreds of kittiwakes with quite a few sooty and manx shearwaters have been milling over the sea. They are barely identifiable through my telescope and frustratingly far away. There was a report from the May Island on Monday that there may have been as many as 160 sooty shearwaters in the group. This morning I could see several sootys leaving the area, and considering how many came past last weekend, I can well believe it. As well as the seabirds I probably saw a pilot whale in the area a couple of days ago (again frustration – a classic cetacean 2 second tantalising glimpse of the hooked, long dorsal fin, but then nothing else to confirm the sighting) and tonight a bottle-nosed dolphin. There must be a lot of fish about in the Forth just now to attract everything in, although just not close enough to Crail for my liking. Oh for a boat.
There are lots of juvenile willow warblers in the gardens of Crail at the moment. Look for small, quite yellow birds and listen for their distinctive soft “hoo-weet” calls.
Juvenile willow warbler
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