Share this:

It’s the end of the year again. Time to take stock. 154 species within my 10km radius of Crail – 151 last year, and 161 in 2016, my record year. Not too bad; only missing bar-tailed godwit and garden warbler as regulars, and adding three new species – buff-breasted sandpiper, little bunting and my favourite of the year, bearded tit. The overall Crail list is up to 227 (228 if we count Bean Goose as two species – and they have been split again…). The complete list is below in sighting order. In bold – species not seen every year for the last 3 years, and * the three new species.

Pink-footed Goose no. 37

Stonechat no. 55

Black Redstart no. 97

Barn Owl No. 99

1		Blackbird	Jan	1
2		Carrion Crow	Jan	1
3		Grey Heron	Jan	1
4		Robin	Jan	1
5		Dunnock	Jan	1
6		Wren	Jan	1
7		Grey Partridge	Jan	1
8		Skylark	Jan	1
9		Woodpigeon	Jan	1
10		Redwing	Jan	1
11		Water Rail	Jan	1
12		Great Black-backed Gull	Jan	1
13		Pheasant	Jan	1
14		Cormorant	Jan	1
15		Herring Gull	Jan	1
16		Black-headed Gull	Jan	1
17		Eider	Jan	1
18		Linnet	Jan	1
19		Curlew	Jan	1
20		Rock Pipit	Jan	1
21		Goldcrest	Jan	1
22		Teal	Jan	1
23		Oystercatcher	Jan	1
24		Mallard	Jan	1
25		Reed Bunting	Jan	1
26		Jackdaw	Jan	1
27		Yellowhammer	Jan	1
28		Meadow Pipit	Jan	1
29		Common Gull	Jan	1
30		Wigeon	Jan	1
31		Goldfinch	Jan	1
32		Blue Tit	Jan	1
33		Chaffinch	Jan	1
34		Great Tit	Jan	1
35		Treecreeper	Jan	1
36		Rook	Jan	1
37		Pink-footed Gose	Jan	1
38		Bullfinch	Jan	1
39		Long-tailed Tit	Jan	1
40		Coal Tit	Jan	1
41		Woodcock	Jan	1
42		Common Buzzard	Jan	1
43		Dipper	Jan	1
44		Fieldfare	Jan	1
45		Collared Dove	Jan	1
46		Starling	Jan	1
47		House Sparrow	Jan	1
48		Song Thrush	Jan	1
49		Feral Pigeon	Jan	1
50		Tree Sparrow	Jan	1
51		Corn Bunting	Jan	1
52		Magpie	Jan	1
53		Redshank	Jan	1
54		Red-throated Diver	Jan	1
55		Stonechat	Jan	1
56		Purple Sandpiper	Jan	1
57		Shag	Jan	1
58		Guillemot	Jan	1
59		Kittiwake	Jan	1
60		Red-breasted Merganser	Jan	1
61		Turnstone	Jan	1
62		Sparrowhawk	Jan	1
63		Razorbill	Jan	1
64		Fulmar	Jan	1
65		Long-tailed Duck	Jan	1
66		Gannet	Jan	1
67		Mistle Thrush	Jan	1
68		Kestrel	Jan	1
69		Stock Dove	Jan	1
70		Greylag Goose	Jan	1
71		Coot	Jan	1
72		Whooper Swan	Jan	1
73		Mute Swan	Jan	1
74		Tufted Duck	Jan	1
75		Moorhen	Jan	1
76		Goldeneye	Jan	1
77		Little Grebe	Jan	1
78		Golden Plover	Jan	1
79		Lapwing	Jan	1
80		Pied Wagtail	Jan	1
81		Sanderling	Jan	1
82		Dunlin	Jan	1
83		Twite	Jan	1
84		Lapland Bunting	Jan	1
85		Grey Wagtail	Jan	1
86		Goosander	Jan	21
87		Snipe	Jan	21
88		Merlin	Jan	21
89		Ringed Plover	Jan	21
90		Grey Plover	Jan	21
91		Great Spotted Woodpecker	Jan	26
92		Greenfinch	Jan	27
93		Peregrine	Feb	12
94		Lesser Black-backed Gull	Feb	17
95		Shelduck	Mar	3
96		Northern Wheatear	Apr	1
97		Black Redstart	Apr	1
98		Chiff-chaff	Apr	2
99		Barn Owl	Apr	4
100		Sandwich Tern	Apr	7
101		Common Scoter	Apr	7
102		Yellow Wagtail	Apr	22
103		House Martin	Apr	22
104		Barn Swallow	Apr	23
105		Whimbrel	Apr	28
106		Willow Warbler	Apr	28
107		Common Whitethroat	Apr	30
108		Sand Martin	May	3
109		Common Cuckoo	May	3
110		Grasshopper Warbler	May	3
111		Blackcap	May	3
112		Common Swift	May	5
113		Sedge Warbler	May	5
114		Little Gull	May	6
115		Marsh Warbler	May	12
116		Arctic Tern	May	12
117		Puffin	May	13
118		Manx Shearwater	May	13
119		Great Skua	May	13
120		Common Sandpiper	May	13
121		Red-backed Shrike	May	28
122		Lesser Whitethroat	Jun	3
123		Common Tern	Aug	5
124		Roseate Tern	Aug	5
125		Mediterranean Gull	Aug	12
126		Arctic Skua	Aug	12
127		Knot	Aug	12
128		Marsh Harrier	Aug	23
129		Common Redstart	Sep	1
130		Common Rosefinch	Sep	4
131		Canada Goose	Sep	8
132		Buff-breasted Sandpiper*	Sep	8
133		Pale-bellied Brent Goose	Sep	8
134		Spotted Flycatcher	Sep	15
135		Jay	Sep	15
136		Ruff	Sep	22
137		Pomarine Skua	Sep	27
138		Barnacle Goose	Sep	27
139		Velvet Scoter	Sep	29
140		Sooty Shearwater	Oct	6
141		Bearded Tit*	Oct	6
142		Little Stint	Oct	7
143		Brambling	Oct	11
144		Yellow-browed Warbler	Oct	11
145		Great Northern Diver	Oct	11
146		Ring Ouzel	Oct	12
147		Pied flycatcher	Oct	12
148		Redpoll	Oct	14
149		Little Bunting*	Oct	14
150		Siskin	Oct	25
151		Black-throated Diver	Oct	28
152		Sabine’s Gull	Oct	29
153		Red-breasted Flycatcher	Oct	31
154		Jack Snipe	Nov	11

Mediterranean Gull no. 125

Share this:

There were over 30 great black-backed gulls roosting on the rocks by the harbour at high tide today. Great black-backs are much less common than herring gulls in most places but they outnumber them around the harbour. There are about 10 herring gulls for every great black-backed gull in the UK during the winter, with about 70,000 having been counted country-wide. We have about 20,000 pairs breeding which is about 10% of the world population. Numbers have been stable for the last 30 years. They are our biggest gull species and are clearly much bigger and bulkier when standing next to a herring gull. It is probably a very good job that great black-backs don’t favour nesting on rooftops: they are much warier of people than herring gulls but out at sea they are hugely aggressive and powerful, killing and eating most other seabirds. During the summer they also take a lot of herring gull chicks and eggs. Herring gulls may well be taking advantage of the absence of their main predator when they choose to nest in towns. Great black-backed gulls are mostly scavengers though, following the lobster boats out and taking first pick of the discarded bait or the bycatch tossed from the creels. This is the main reason of course why we have so many around Crail harbour.

Great black-backed gull

Share this:

I have been out along the coastal path and Crail most days this Christmas. Everything is settled into a mid-winter pattern with little change from day to day. Each day has a small highlight or two – yesterday a snipe in the middle of the stubble behind Pinkerton and six goldeneye diving out at Kilminning Castle, the day before the first gannet I have seen for a couple of weeks heading up the Forth past the May and today a flock of 12 teal amongst the mallards north of Balcomie beach. Each mid-winter is a little bit different. This year there are not many waders at Balcomie, and no bar-tailed godwits at all this year. Instead of tens of sanderlings and dunlins there are only a handful. But there are many more buntings than usual – corn, reed and yellowhammers – in the fields, and more stonechats along the coastal path than the last 15 years. Bird populations fluctuate each year for many reasons so I doubt there is anything too significant about the lower number of waders. Without systematic annual counts on a suitable scale – and for wintering shorebirds that is on a much larger scale than the East Neuk – you just can’t tell. But we do know for sure that the corn buntings are definitely on the up because we have been counting all of the local population for many years. I suspect the other bunting species, and probably the tree sparrows and linnets too, are also doing well because they share the extra space made for the corn buntings.

Sanderling

Share this:

I still recommend a walk north out of Kingsbarns for a couple of kilometres through the stubble fields and then back along the shore. Today the light was perfect on the way out – low sun and crystal clear, with the distant highlands glowing white. And it is still full of birds. At the risk of writing a shopping list: in 6 fields I had 200 skylarks, 150 yellowhammers, 40 corn buntings, 50 reed buntings, 100 linnets with a few twite in with them and 30 tree sparrows. And hundreds of woodpigeons, feral pigeons, jackdaws, rooks and herring gulls. I saw a sparrowhawk attacking the linnet flock and a female peregrine after the woodpigeons. But still no luck with the short-eared owl that continues its residence around the golf course.

Some of the many yellowhammers at Kingsbarns today – there is a tree sparrow in the middle of the flock as well

Share this:

Seaweed flies washed up at Balcomie

One of my recurrent themes is how the sea weed washed up onto the beaches makes much of the local bird world go round. It was really evident today with a strand line of made of seaweed fly maggots at Balcomie today. The high tide had washed out millions from the big rotting wrack deposits lower down the shore and each wave was washing thousands every few meters along the sand of the upper beach. Apart from the gulls and eiders picking them off the surface of the water behind the surf, this feast was being left alone. I can only think that the waders had already eaten their fill and gone to roost.

The high tide bonanza is not without its down side. There are two neat sprays of redshank feathers just at the edge of the marram grass behind Balcomie beach. Both are recent sparrowhawk kills and I saw a (probably the) female sparrowhawk trying its luck again further along the shore later. The redshanks are tempted to feed right at the top of the shore by the seaweed maggots. There have been over 50 on most of my recent visits to Balcomie at high tide. But getting fewer as the winter goes on. A female sparrowhawk can take one redshank every other day and they like to specialise. On a walk between Kingsbarns and Crail following the coastal path I counted 5 redshank and one dunlin kill, all that were probably taken in the last few weeks.

Close up of the sea weed flies – the white maggots and the black pupae

Balcomie Beach with maggoty strandline – the sand is back by the way. Maybe 50% of what was there at its peak, but certainly a lot more than the last 10 months

Share this:

I was back out to Kingsbarns this morning and the beach and stubble fields to the north. It’s a nice dog walk and it’s such a bird magnet at the moment. Yesterday there was a hen harrier reported and of course there has been a short-eared owl seen there a few times this winter. But my run of bad luck there continues. Just a couple of common buzzards, bird of prey wise. I did enjoy tens of curlew flying along the coast, their lonely sounding calls matching the open sea behind them. And a grey wagtail flushed up from my feet, as always like a shaft of sunlight against the dark rocks. There were not many skylarks in the stubble field, but among them was a large lark like bunting. It didn’t call but I should think it was likely a lapland bunting: certainly my best candidate for one this winter.

Common buzzard

Share this:

The birth (red) and wintering (blue) sites of the black-headed gull – yellow 2BE7 – that I saw at Saucehope on the 4th November 2018

I heard back from the ringer of the other black headed gull that I saw with a colour-ring  (Yellow 2BE7) at Saucehope on the 4^th of November. This bird was ringed as a chick in the Forvie Nature Reserve on the Ythan, just north of Aberdeen on the 30^th May 2016, and then seen again as a juvenile there 25 days later. It hasn’t been seen since so my record confirms it is still alive and its likely wintering site. Few breed by two years of age so this bird is likely to have its first breeding season next year and it is also likely to breed at it natal colony or nearby, like the Norwegian bird that was with it has done (see November 21^st entry). The Aberdeen black-headed gull has only travelled 124 kilometers as the gull flies from where it was born, but it will likely now be a Crail winter resident for the next 30 years if it gets lucky.

The colour-ringed black-headed gull at Saucehope

Share this:

I have been checking stubble fields this weekend, hoping to find a Lapland or a snow bunting. Saturday it was the fields around the airfield and Kilminning, and today the fields east and north of Kingsbarns. I didn’t find anything unusual but it was encouraging walking across the fields and putting up lots of reed buntings, corn buntings and yellowhammers. Probably several hundred in total across both sites, with about 50 being corn buntings. Other birds of the stubble were hundreds of linnets, woodpigeons and tens of starlings, but surprisingly few skylarks and meadow pipits. The big numbers last month have moved inland. In a small patch of flooded field by Kilminning, holding a few small pools after the rain of last week, I flushed 8 common snipe. A really good number for Crail. At Kingsbarns there was also a big flock of herring, common and black-headed gulls, rooks and jackdaws all feeding on the spilt grain among the stubble. There was a flock of tree sparrows closer to the woods by the beach car park road, dashing out to feed in the fields as well before retreating back to the safety of the trees as a dog walker or car went by. Stubble fields really are a great habitat for birds in winter.

Female reed bunting

The sea from Kingsbarns was fairly quiet. Some gulls far out, dipping down like terns to feed from the waters surface, but not kittiwakes as in the autumn. Instead they were all black-headed gulls. There were hardly any other “serious” seabirds – no auks, gannets or fulmars and only a couple of red-throated divers. I scanned the surf breaking on the rocky shore below the car park and found a few purple sandpipers among the redshanks and turnstones. It’s a reliable site for purple sandpipers but as always they were hard to see. Perfectly camouflaged as they ducked between the rocks and the waves.

Purple sandpiper

Share this:

The weather and short days hasn’t been very conducive to seeing birds. If it is bad weather on the weekend, that is my opportunity gone. I have been seeing a lot of roe deer though. I take them for granted but probably shouldn’t. It is fantastic to have such a large wild mammal fairly common about Crail. You don’t have to look in more than a few fields before you see one and then it is often a small herd of them. I decided to find out a bit about them and so had a look in the Handbook of Mammals of the World this evening. This multi-volume work is still in progress – when it is finished there will be a detailed article for every species of mammal in the world. Luckily deer are in Volume 2. Roe deer are split into two species – a Western and an Eastern species. They look similar and this probably reflects separation of an ancestral single species into two isolated “refugia” in southern Europe and Asia during the last ice age. Since then the two forms have spread back across all of Europe and Asia to meet at the Ural Mountains, and when they did they had probably evolved sufficiently that they were then incompatible. So speciation goes. Western roe deer are one of Europe’s commonest large mammals with a population estimated at about 9 million animals. Amazingly, nearly 3 million are killed by human hunters each year, yet the species remains widespread and common. It has been overhunted in the past but game protection laws and hunting licences have resulted in a stable population. In the past, wolves and lynxes would have been their main predator – that so many roe deer can be harvested by us without the population declining perhaps indicates how many wolves and lynxes there would have been before we got rid of them. The key to the roe deer’s success is of course its ability to thrive in man altered habitats. It most favours the open areas, scrub and light woodland that humans tend to create, and it is small enough to be able to hide in these habitats. They have particular adaptations to cope with a high tannin diet so can eat pretty much any vegetation. It is estimated that a roe deer needs 2 – 4 kg of vegetation a day. That is not that much greenery really, although on a frosty winter’s day, in competition with the rest of a group, that might be a problem. Roe deer also don’t tend to have much in the way of fat reserves so have to forage much of the day. They are active at night as well. The roe deer around Crail don’t seem to have too much of a hard time. I often see quite large groups (8 or more animals), and often they are lounging or lying on the ground rather than feeding. Another measure is how sensitive they are to disturbance, and Crail deer tend to run away at long distances – hundreds of meters. Animals that are starving take greater risks. Of course, they may feel more threatened, but I don’t think they are shot at too often around here. The greatest danger may well be being hit by cars. I do quite often see road kill roe deer, despite the fact that a freshly hit deer is a good bootful of venison and so is often quickly removed from the scene.

A Crail roe deer – this is a yearling, so born last summer

Share this:

There are more long-tailed ducks out at Balcomie and they were showing well this morning. After a week of wind and rain, the sea was flat calm with a diffuse grey winter light highlighting the strikingly marked males. There were about 20 long-tailed ducks in total in the bay and more came past Fife Ness later. The number of common scoters at Balcomie is also much higher than usual, with a flock of about 30 still about, although much further out than the long-tails. Both species feed on the same thing – mostly molluscs like mussels, and also crustaceans – so perhaps feeding conditions are better than usual this winter.

Male long-tailed duck