A walk through Crail this morning turned up two good birds. First a chiff-chaff in one of the walled gardens by the pottery. It was feeding very busily on tiny insects picked off the branches of a small tree. I tried to make into a Siberian chiff-chaff, but it was more brownish than grey and no real hint of green in the wings. Wintering chiff-chaffs are quite unusual in Crail. I only see one every few years. Down south in England they are much more common as a wintering bird.

Then down at Roome Bay I was watching the turnstones turning over the kelp fronds on the beach, directly below the path because it was high tide, when I noticed a dark robin with a shivering tail perched on a seaweed stalk. A black redstart, feeding on the kelp insects as well. Black redstarts in Crail in winter are quite rare. We have them regularly on passage – three out at Balcomie this year in April and October, for example – but a wintering bird is much more unusual. A couple in the last 10 years, with one in 2011 that spent a couple of months down below the cliffs at Roome Bay. I found that bird about this time of year so maybe this bird will stay resident too. It’s a great site down below the cliffs. Lots of small birds are attracted to forage on the insects and sandhoppers that are concentrated in the rotting seaweed of the tideline: today there were wrens, dunnocks, rock pipits, and pied and grey wagtails feeding with the black redstart.


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