June 4th

After the spring passage period – and it is pretty much over now – there is the summer passage when failed, non or post-breeding birds appear along the shore to take it easy before the autumn migration begins. One of the earliest to appear are the Canada Geese. Last year I had my first migrating flock on May 30^th, and today I had a flock of about 30 flying into the Forth at Kilrenny. As usual their loud, deep honking – a parody of a goose call really – caught my attention before I saw them. Canada Geese will be with us in increasingly larger post-breeding, moulting flocks right through the summer, before they go back to Yorkshire or the West Midlands in the autumn. The Kenly Burn mouth is the most reliable place to see them: although few would twitch a Canada Goose, I think these local short distance migrants are a legitimate and interesting addition to the Crail list. I heard flocks of Canada Geese flying south over my house in the autumn when I was a boy living in New Jersey where they are “proper” geese and as meaningful to the feeling of the passing of the seasons as you can get. It is not so different to hear their honks 40 years later over Crail and use them as the indicator of the start of the summer season. As I tracked the flock over the Forth, they flew over a pod of about 25 bottle-nosed dolphins also heading west into the Forth. There have been dolphins about all spring, but I haven’t seen such a big group this year. I hope they stay in the area all summer: everyone loves to see a dolphin.

Canada Geese (John Anderson)