September 27th

I walked out to Caiplie Caves this morning looking for a black redstart that has been seen there for the last week or so. It was grey and blustery and I know how difficult it can be to find a black redstart in such conditions. They tend to forage under the big rocks of the rocky shore and don’t fly about much. On a sunny still day they sit up on more obvious perches. So perhaps not surprisingly I didn’t find it. There were a lot of other small birds foraging among the rocks though: passage meadow pipits and a couple of wheatears, and resident rock pipits, linnets and starlings. A flock of barnacle geese flew by, struggling against the westerly wind. A few flocks were reported coming in yesterday – the first of the winter – and they should be passing Crail for the next few days. They are distinctively black and white with pale grey upper wings, short necks and a distinctive yapping call as they fly by. Mine today were silent though, probably saving energy because of the adverse winds.

Barnacle geese

Juvenile pomarine skua

The wind went round to the north late afternoon and almost immediately the sea watching got better. In 50 minutes looking from my garden I saw a dark juvenile pomarine skua, a couple of little gulls, a great skua, and flocks of hundreds of kittiwakes spread out all over the Forth.