May 13th

There was an impressive thunderstorm directly above Crail today that sounded like a bomb exploding through the town. Not such a common thing for Fife compared to further south. We expect a more gentle rain rather than tropical downpours.

The showers lingered into the evening but the sun fought back and everywhere had that perfect May green and freshness. Kilrenny was alive with bird song: willow warblers, blackcaps and whitethroats now common. There was a flock of 18 curlew preening and snoozing in the pasture field, perhaps brought down by the earlier thunderstorm as they made their way north. I found a single whimbrel in among them – looking like a young bird among the larger, more long-billed curlews. It was noticeable that it had its head down feeding almost constantly while the curlews were much more vigilant. It may have come further and have further to go and so needed to get its energy reserves back up more than the curlews. Or perhaps it was just taking advantage of the protection and alertness of the larger birds around it.

Curlew – a migrating flock at Kilrenny this evening also had a whimbrel with them