March 22nd   Leave a comment

The wind is now more southerly but it’s still cold. I was hoping for an early chiffchaff. They were reported from all over Fife today, but I couldn’t find any around Crail. My only migrants were a siskin flying over upper Kilminning, and a couple of lesser black-backed gulls in amongst the herring gulls following the plough at the airfield. At Balcomie it is still the same winter crowd: the sanderlings were scurrying up and down the beach and two bar-tailed godwits in the first bay to the north. The sea from Fife Ness was quieter than yesterday, many fewer razorbills were passing. I expect they are still heading north but the wind was taking them further out to sea today.

Sanderlings surf running on Balcomie mid-morning today (WC)

As you head out to Fife Ness on the main road and pass upper Kilminning there is another sheep field on the left where the farmer has put out a load of turnips for the sheep to eat. There are often roe deer in the field too and this morning a young one was taking advantage of the turnips. It was fairly tame for a roe deer, and it stayed put with its breakfast as I watched it from the road. But it soon reverted to type and bounded off. Our local roe deer are, I think, generally unmolested so we can get relatively close to them. One of the real downsides of hunting is that it spoils wildlife watching for the rest of us – everything heads for the horizon when a human appears.

Roe deer and neeps (thankfully not on a menu) (WC)
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Posted March 22, 2020 by wildcrail in Sightings

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