October 24th

Siskin

I haven’t been trying too hard on the year list having been away from Crail for over two months this year. But this morning I passed the milestone 150 as I heard a siskin flying over the sheep field by Denburn. Like redpolls they pass over Crail in October and if you are not listening for their distinctive calls they go unnoticed. Siskins are more likely to stop and some winters a few stay in Denburn feeding on the alder cones. They also visit bird feeders, where their small finchy size and mixture of green, yellow and brown streaks makes them fairly obvious. There should be a few more species appearing for the year list – notably I am missing bar-tailed godwit which is a winter regular and John had a short-eared owl flying in at Fife Ness yesterday. Any owl seen flying in daylight around the shore just now is likely to be a short-eared owl on migration, coming over to the UK from Scandinavia for the winter.