A walk on the beach

[Nicola Main]

This morning me and my friend Mairead (you pronounce it My - rid by the way), went down the beach to do a Ringed Plover survey for the BTO. We left my house just after half eight in the morning (still half asleep but there you go, we're not nature watchers for nothing are we?). Sky was a bit grey but the rain stayed off (thank god) as we walked down the road to the beach. The first birds of note we saw was a small group of Swifts flying above the Swallow Golf Hotel at the front, after watching them we continued on our way past the hotel and 5 minutes later reached the sea-front. We got out our map and record sheets and began our two mile walk along the beach. There were small rafts of Eider way out to sea and a couple of Cormorants flew low over the water a few yards from us. A Rock Pipit was busy gathering sand-hoppers from the seaweed in front of us and the Oystercatchers and Curlew were also numerous sitting on the rocks. As we carried on down the beach we saw more Cormorants and a couple of Grey Heron sitting way out on the rocks. A Carrion Crow was searching for edibles in among the seaweed and rubbish on the tideline. Still no sign of our quarry though.

I spotted something fairly slim and white further out on one of the rocks and, after getting my binocs on to it, discovered it was a tern of some sort. I automatically took it for a Common and as we looked more closely we could see a whole host of them sitting on the rocks preening and frolicking with each other. Common Terns used to nest here a few years back near the harbour at Westhaven but they disappeared, I had always been hoping they would return and I was so happy. However, my I.D. skills went completely awry and, after looking at them closely again through the binocs, discovered they weren't Common Terns but Sandwich Terns! You could clearly see a long, black bill and black legs. Mairead practically had to stop me from shouting 'Yesssssss woohoooo' at the top of my voice.

After leaving the terns (Mairead nearly dragging me away by my coat!) we continued on our search for the plovers. We rounded the corner which takes you to the harbour at Westhaven and I just happened to look to my right and saw a little brownish-white ball with whirring orange legs come from behind a rock. I shouted to Mairead 'There's one!' and we quickly jotted it down on our sheet. I had forgotten how small Ringed Plovers were! It was a stunning male with his black bandit face markings and broad black chest-band. One down, how many to go? The tide was coming in so there wasn't as many bird species as there would have been an hour or so earlier but a few Shelduck and a very nosy young black-backed gull amused us for a few minutes.

As we carried on our way we came to a large area of pebbly beach and as we walked past it a whole group of small waders flew up ahead of us. I had said to Mairead before we left 'If you see a small wader in flight with a white wing bar it'll probably be a plover' so we automatically took to be plovers because we could distinctly see a white wing bar. There was roughly ten of them so we jotted down ten. I had a sudden misgiving and looked through the binocs at the small group that were now wading near the surf and got a shock as I saw, wait for it, 4 or 5 summer-plumaged Dunlin! What a find it was for me and what an error I had made for the survey. We had mistook Dunlin for plovers! There were however plover mixed in with the Dunlin so we just quickly scribbled out 'ten' and put 'five+'. As we journeyed further on I noticed another small wader on a rock and, looking through the binocs, discovered it was a summer-plumaged Turnstone with four or five others! There was also a single plover sitting next to them so we recorded him.

The Swallows and House Martins were swooping in every direction catching sand-hoppers and other insects and I almost got bashed in the head from a Swallow! After about an hour or so we finally reached Easthaven and parked our bums on one of the picnic tables for a bite to eat and a read-up of our notes. As we were sitting chatting away I heard the unmistakable scratchy warble of a Whitethroat. It wasn't difficult to find him. He was quite happily singing away on one of the telephone wires a few metres to our right. Fifteen minutes later we packed up our stuff and walked back home the 'inland' way. Nothing much else of note we seen apart from a Yellowhammer begging for bread and no cheese up on the top of a tree as we walked past Liz McColgan's Health Club near Panbride House and a solitary heron sitting in the middle of a field of crops. Very unusual behaviour! A couple of Buzzards were soaring the thermals above the edge of Carnoustie and a Skylark was twittering away merrily before descending into the field to our left. All in all a very rewarding day!

Hope you liked this little story, Nicola.

[demicav]

Sounds like a great morning for you. You sound very experienced in identifying birds, something I'm struggling with but hoping to get better with time. A wonderful story, thanks for sharing.

[JeffH]

What a lovely tale of what was obviously a lovely walk.

Jeff

[Gill Catton]

sounds lovely!! A good day, I love turnstone in summer plumage too

With regard to the heron this 'loafing' behaviour can be quite common I remember coming across a number of them apparently just randomly standing around in a field.... seemed very odd but apparenty its not uncommon - I think it might be to do with getting some rest away from begging chicks (that can be quite violent in their demands as they get big) - once the chicks get big the adults leave them for longer and longer periods trying to get them to fledge properly.

[Kymba]

What a great report Sounds Like you had a really nice Morning Bird spotting, and you cant beat a walk on the beach.
thankyou with sharing it with us

[rlchew]

What I want to know Nicola is what Fraoch was up to whilst you were out obviously having a great time birdwatching?

Mind you, there has been many a time when I have been watching waders on a beach only for a dog to appear to scatter them to the four winds.

I guess Fraoch walking and Ringed Plover counting are not compatible .

I hope Fraoch is adequately compensated tomorrow .

A great account of your day out.

Richard

[Nicola Main]

Thank you everyone for your kind replies. LOL Richard, unfortunately Fraoch had to stay at home. As you say bird surveying and a very excited labrador don't really go well together. If I had brought her she would have been off like a rocket straight down to the water and would have scared everything away! I'm sure she understands (heehee)