Day 1 proper of my holiday week started wet, very wet in fact, with heavy rain. This wasn't great news, but neither was it particularly terrible. There was the chance that any migrating birds incoming would seek shelter when they made landfall and once the weather improved they would pop out into the open and start feeding. At least in theory. All I needed was somewhere to go and the rain to go off. I had got out of bed relatively late and my PC was giving the impression that it was about to die, but I happened to check the weather forecast for Crail at 1150 and discovered that it was forecast to be dry from 1300. I would need to catch the bus in St Andrews in an hour's time.
 |
| Barred Warbler |
Somehow I managed to get ready and out the door in less than 10 minutes. There was a further problem to throw a potential spanner in the works of me being able to get to the bus station in time to catch the 1215 bus to St Andrews. There had been a serious incident nearby the previous evening and I would have to take a longer route than usual to get to the bus station. How long this would add to the journey I had no idea. As luck would have it I saw a bus coming down the road and made it to the bus stop on Dens Road in time to catch the bus saving me a few minutes. I reached the bus station having seen Herring Gull, Woodpigeon and Feral Pigeon with more than 5 minutes to spare. Now I just needed the bus to leave on time and arrive in St Andrews on time, otherwise I'd have another delay of an hour.
Thankfully all went to plan and I arrived in time to catch the Crail bus at 1250. On the way, I'd added just Rook, Jackdaw and Black Headed Gull to the rather short list. The journey to Crail was slightly more productive (mostly at Kingsbarns) with Common Gull, House Sparrow, Starling and Robin joining the other species. I decided I would check places that others were unlikely to, most folk going to Kilminning, Balcomie and The Patch at most. First I headed to Denburn Wood via the church graveyard. Great Tit and Blackbird were seen, and a pair of Grey Wagtails tussled on the small stretch of burn opposite the top end of the wood. Carrion Crows and gulls were in the field. A Goldfinch and Pied Wagtail flew over.
I walked out along the back of the caravan park hoping that there might be a Lapland Bunting in the stubble field. If there was, it was keeping a low profile with Skylarks and Meadow Pipits the only additions. I decided I would see if Wormiston was hiding anything good. The mature trees at the top corner of the track held birds. I could hear them. Blue Tits and a Treecreeper were better than nothing. A Buzzard was being harassed by a crow as it perched atop a large mobile phone mast over the fields at Balcomie. There were a few Linnets on wires over the fields. A Great Black Backed Gull flapped its way over slowly. Although it wasn't raining it wasn't brightening up any.
A couple of Swallows flew over as I passed the farm buildings. A Stock Dove flew over as I headed down towards the holiday cottages and a Pheasant disappeared over the drystane dyke into the field beyond. A Greenfinch flew over looking a little Crossbill like owing to food residue on its bill (and a slightly blurred photo). Reaching the bottom of the field, I found the golf course empty. I scanned over the rocks before and after I made my way down the rather slippy muddy track from the field edge. A single Lapwing was with the mixed gull flock and Shag, Cormorant, Oystercatcher and Curlew were also found. There was a party of Mallards on the water among the rocks along with a couple of Teal which I heard before I saw. Offshore a few Sandwich Terns passed and a few Eiders could be seen among the waves.
As the golf course appeared to be completely empty I decided not to take the coastal path route, but instead I stayed close to the wall which separates the golf course from the Balcomie Farm and walked round in a clockwise direction. This meant I could check the stubble field as I passed and would have a far shorter journey too. Linnets, Starlings, Pied Wagtails and not much else were seen. When I reached the road, John Anderson was waiting for me, having seen me as he'd been driving back from Fife Ness. He gave me a lift down to Kilminning. A small covey of Grey Partridges dropped into the field as we drove down to the bottom end. We waited for the Barred Warbler to show and we eventually got relatively good views. The bird gave us 10-15 seconds views as opposed to the 2-3 seconds as I'd had on Saturday. The light was more even than Saturday also, so the photos showed more detail.
In addition, we saw Magpie, Song Thrush, Goldfinch, Yellowhammer, Dunnock, Blackbird and Blue Tit and Wren. John gave me a run back to Crail to catch the bus back to St Andrews. I didn't realise that I'd managed to read the timetable wrong and the bus was at the stop as we reached the junction. John overtook the bus and dropped me off at the next bus stop and I caught the bus, which luckily for me was running about 10 minutes late. Nothing else was added on the way back to St Andrews, but the Kestrel near Drumoig was seen on the way back to Dundee as it perched on the wires.
Not as productive an afternoon as I'd hoped, but the Barred Warbler photos had made it a worthwhile exercise. Despite everything I'd also managed to see 44 species though other than the Barred Warbler there was nothing too unusual among them. Grey Partridge, Treecreeper, Grey Wagtail and Stock Dove are always worth seeing though. There were some migrants around - Common Darter dragonflies and Red Admiral butterflies were also seen as they passed down the coast.
 |
| Grey Wagtail |
 |
| Skylark |
 |
| Treecreeper |
 |
| Buzzard & Carrion Crow |
 |
| Great Black Backed Gull |
 |
| Greenfinch |
 |
| Linnet |
 |
| Linnet |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
 |
| Common Darter |
 |
| Curlew |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
 |
| Barred Warbler |
Species seen - Barred Warbler, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Eider, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Partridge, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Linnet, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sandwich Tern, Shag, Skylark, Song Thrush, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Teal, Treecreeper, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
