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| Birding:The Early Years (I'm on the right) |
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| Kestrel and Hawfinch drawings |
I think my earliest bird-related memory is getting an old fashioned "clout roond thi lug" for remarking on the "bloody Spueggies" while out with my parents as a very small child. Planes were my main interest back then. I could name every one of my Dad's model plane collection and even appeared in the Daily Record because of this 'skill' when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I must have had some sort of interest in birds as I have a photo of me with my next door neighbour (him with binoculars, me with Observer's Book of Birds and some drawings of birds I'd copied from the book - looks like Hawfinch and Kestrel). See above....
I don't remember the details, or the reasons why but somewhere along the line when I was in primary school, my Dad started to take more of an interest in birds too and built a fairly rudimentary bird table for the back garden. It was more or less a wooden tray on a wooden stake with small hooks to hang small net bags of peanuts and "fat cakes" from. I remember that we used to also throw out bread for the birds. House Sparrows (those bloody speuggies), Starlings, Blue Tits, Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Robins, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Great Tits were I think our main customers.
I would sit at the back window with a small pair of 8 x 30 binoculars and watch the birds, or sometimes I would stand in the garden with the binoculars, having thrown out some old bread and see what was brave enough to come down to feed while I was stood there. One of the neighbours further round in the street shouted me over one day and invited me down to watch the birds at her feeders in her garden. I think I was probably watching the birds in her garden as much as those in our own that day. There was a bit more cover in her garden with tall trees at the back and a hedge along the side. The kitchen window was also closer to the action so I got better views, though it was mostly the same species we had in our garden.(Thanks, Mrs Parkes).
I remember being woken up in the middle of the night by my Dad and taken through to the back window to peer out into the dark where a silhouetted Tawny Owl was perched atop the telegraph pole out in next door's back garden eating whatever it had caught. Another memory is of a tame Jackdaw (possibly someone's escaped pet) flying into a classroom at Mossgiel Primary and the teacher sending for me to let me see it, and to identify it. I was able to stroke it as it perched on the back of a small wooden chair. The local newspaper came up to photograph it and it was featured in that night's edition of the Tully (Evening Telegraph).
Thinking about primary school, from time to time we would be visited by members of staff from the fairly recently opened Camperdown Zoo with birds of prey. I can recall a Buzzard and I think also a Golden Eagle (probably Tawny Owl too) as they perched on small logs on the stage in the school hall. We must have had talks about the birds too but just seeing these rare birds (Buzzards were rare back then) was a great experience.
Kestrel was the bird of prey most likely to be seen back then, with one being seen hunting along the Morgan Academy playing fields fairly regularly at play-times. Another playing fields memory is my first ever Great Black Backed Gull towering above the flock of smaller gulls (Black Headed and Common Gulls most likely)it was stood amongst.
Outwith school I can remember seeing a few interesting species of birds and identifying them myself. My first ever Waxwing feeding in a small Rowan tree beside my cousin's tenement block. My first Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming in the oak trees at Finlathen Park. Sometimes Grey Herons would be seen on the Dighty, along with Moorhens and the odd Mallard. Oystercatchers, Curlews and even the odd Redshank would be seen on the football pitches in winter, probing around in the mud for something edible.
One of my favourite things to do on the way home from school in late summer was to stop on the 'big bridge' across the Dighty Burn between Fintry and Linlathen and watch the House Martins and Swifts hawking for insects just above the water. The Swifts were my favourites, so sleek and fast. We likened them flying up the burn to the X-wings attacking the Death Star in Star Wars (which was also a big favourite around that time).
The bird table in the back garden was visited by a male Brambling one snowy day, among a flock of Chaffinches. This was a rarity (sort of) and it was in our back garden. Another slightly unexpected bird locally that we would encounter regularly while out playing was the Linnet. A small flock frequented the waste ground we knew as the 'hillys' and their call as they took flight is still familiar. Unfortunately for the birds, a small playpark and then sheltered housing was built on the ground and the Linnets moved on.
Another garden bird memory is of a big fat Woodpigeon (much less common then) spending a whole snowy winter morning demolishing my Dad's Brussel Sprouts that he had grown down the bottom of the garden. How it managed to fly afterwards I have no idea.
We lived in a cul-de-sac and in winter the rooftops were used as a stopping off point for hundreds of Starlings heading off to roost somewhere. Although we were never treated to a murmuration display, I can remember the noise as the birds took flight again and headed onwards quite clearly and their loud chattering to each other as they stopped for a few minutes.
A few of the houses in the cul-de-sac had House Martin nests below the eaves and I used to enjoy watching the birds coming and going to these nests in the summer. One of the neighbours cats, Tom, also took an interest in the birds and would perch precariously in the opened small top window as near as he could get to the birds and try to catch them as they whizzed in and out of the nests. I don't think he ever had any success but it never stopped him trying.
There was also a period of time when my dad and I would go further afield on foot to see what birds we could find. This was mostly following the Dighty Burn down through Finlathen Park, through to Drumgeith Park and sometimes even further. Reed Buntings were the best discovery made during those walks.
My dad played golf and sometimes I would go with him to Caird Park. Skylarks and Grey Partridges would frequent the rough and we would often spook an unseen bird or two as we searched for a wayward golf ball. Sometimes our walks would take us out to Burnside of Duntrune and I remember we found a field mouse in the snow by the side of the road on our way back.
We built up quite a nice collection of bird books and I would flick through them and look at the photos and paintings of birds I'd never see, like Peregrine Falcons (if only I'd known then just how regular a sight they would be 35+ years later). My favourite bird book then was my copy of "The Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe" by Bertel Bruum and illustrated by Arthur Singer and it was much studied. I still have my original copy of this book among my own collection.
A holiday in the early eighties to Edinburgh included a visit to Port Seton where I saw my first ever terns diving into the water just offshore. I think these were likely to have been Common Terns, though there may also have been Arctics among them. At secondary school I played a fairly active part in the Young Naturalist's Club which would meet one lunchtime per week for an hour and we would sometimes go on trips on Saturdays in the school minibus with Cambo, near Crail being a regular destination. Unfortunately I can't remember too much wildlife being seen on these trips though we must have seen something.
My interest in birds, and wildlife/nature in general, took a back seat not long after that, though never completely going away, with teenage life and then adulthood thereafter getting in the way but a lot of the memories are still remarkably fresh in my mind.
Species I remember seeing when I was young (there may be others but I can't confidently say for sure, these are the 95% sure ones)- Cormorant, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Pink Footed Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck, (Mandarin - probably wildfowl collection bird at Craigtoun Park), Kestrel, Grey Partridge, Pheasant, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank, Lapwing, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black Backed Gull, Common Tern, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Tawny Owl, Swift, Great Spottd Woodpecker, Skylark, Swallow, House Martin, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Waxwing, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Redwing, Song Thrush, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting.