April 4th

It’s been a very murky few days with the easterly wind bringing in the haar. I glimpsed my first chiff-chaff in Crail this afternoon through the fog. It was feeding frantically on a bare sycamore behind Castle Walk. This spell of easterly winds has come a bit early: if this was the beginning of May or better still June we could be hoping for all sorts of rarities. Still there are some early species like ring ouzels or even hoopoes that we might get lucky with. Hoopoes are notorious for just a few hours’ visit through Crail gardens and I have never managed to connect with one in the 11 years I have been here. If you see a hoopoe please let me know right away.

Chiff-chaffs are passing through Crail this week