August 30th

A quieter day today. In thirty minutes at Fife Ness at lunchtime there were just a few terns passing and two little gulls. There were flocks of roosting adult and juvenile common terns in a few places between Balcomie and Crail at high tide, left over from the storm. There were meadow pipits everywhere today and particularly in the newly harvested or ploughed fields. Twice today I saw a meadow pipit chasing a northern wheatear away from where it was feeding. Meadow pipits always look a bit frail, and wheatears the opposite. Wheatears are larger birds too. But clearly meadow pipits have hidden depths. They are also probably fed up with wheatears forever bragging about their extraordinary long migrations and their amazing thermal tolerance. Meadow pipits are no slackers in these respects, and some of the birds that are passing through Crail today will end up in North Africa, and may themselves breed up near the Arctic circle.

Meadow pipit – perhaps the commonest bird to be seen around Crail today (JA)