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To Autumn ( 1st Verse ) Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with
apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel
shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding
more, And still
more, later flowers for the bees, Until they
think warm days will never cease, For summer has o'er-brimm'd their
clammy cells. John Keats |
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The
first sunbeams of sunlight uncovered a Grey Heron lurking in the rocks
to the left of the Cormorants. It was the first time we had seen one
there. The birds seemed to be livened by the brightness. A handsome
Redshank picked its way through shallow pools below us, and a pair of
Eider sped past south. I picked up a fairly large flock of Sanderlings
flying in the opposite direction before coming to rest on the beach
amongst some Gulls on a sandy spit. For once we were willing the dog
walkers to disturb them so that they might fly back to the Point. It
didn’t happen.
On
the south side of the Point I managed a couple of pictures of Pipits.
The first was of a Meadow Pipit, with its light, creamier look. On the
rocks, I captured a shot of the more drab Rock Pipit. Next, I was
attracted by the familiar cheeps of a Grey Wagtail (surely a more apt
name would be the Yellow-rumped Wagtail). I traced its calls to
shoreline rocks. Our final capture on the Point was of a pair of Mute
Swans (probably the ones we’d seen earlier) that were beautifully
silhouetted by the now strong sunlight behind them.
Just
up the coast from Stevenston we parked the car at Saltcoats Harbour and
immediately came across a Curlew foraging close in on the rocks. It
seemed to be used to people passing as it was unconcerned by our
attention. A Feral Pigeon was a bit more wary, keeping its eyes on me
until I was out of sight. No such worries for the “gallus”
Herring Gull. I was at the close limit of my camera lens and it
couldn’t have cared less. But most skittish were the Starlings.
They were up and away at the mere flick of a wrist.
Walking
along the north side of the harbour we could see (against the sunlight)
many birds making the most of the low tide feeding opportunities before
the tide came in. Oystercatchers were perhaps the most noticeable, and
noisiest, as they searched the rock pools. A large group of Ringed
Plovers were joined by a single Sanderling. A single Black-headed Gull
stood motionless in the midst of the
activity as if it had already had its fill. Most of the Redshanks
present were roosting in a group but one was climbing over large rocks
searching for titbits.
I was
a bit disappointed not to have seen Purple Sandpipers on the rocks of
Saltcoats Harbour, and there were no Terns or Gannets. Although very
pleasant, it all seemed a bit quiet. We drove to Irvine Harbour for a
short visit and as we stepped out of the car we just missed out on a
picture of a Seal close to the walkway. There seemed to very little
else on the river. The closest birds we could see, some Lapwings, were
about 200m away. It was with some delight then when a Cormorant flew
past us up the river. Then I noticed, just across the Irvine, a Great
Black-backed Gull. We decided to take a stroll up to the river mouth. A
noisy Black-headed Gull passed us at just above head height. Most
likely it was checking us out for bread.
All we saw on our walk were a pair
of Rooks on a tower of security cameras (see “Pictures of the
Week”, below). As we returned to the car I caught an
Oystercatcher bolting downstream over a magnificent preening Mute Swan.
John pointed out that well beyond them (~200m), three Seals were
sitting on a platform over away on the Garnock. My camera managed an
image good enough to distinguish the Seals. I think the right and
centre Seals have “doggy-like” heads and are Common Seals
and the left, from its “Roman nose”, is a Grey Seal . Our
last picture of the visit was of a flock of Feral Pigeons that circled
the car park just as we were settling down on our stools, preparing tea.
It
had been an enjoyable trip with a few highlights such as the
Sanderlings and Seals, and a few pleasing photographs had been taken
(see below). Definite highlights were the cream-filled fruited scones
from Morrisons which, with lovely strong tea, drew the expedition to a
very satisfactory conclusion. And of course the blue skies had helped
to make it one of those outings made us feel that it was a pity we had
to go home.
7th October With an approaching weather front moving in from the
Atlantic set to drench Central Scotland, we travelled east to Dalkeith
Morrisons for breakfast. As we dined (9/10), the weather seemed to be darkening
and it had started to spitting with rain. We decided to cut our losses and opt
for Musselburgh, rather than travelling further east where the
weather may have been just as bad. In the recent weeks, I had visited
Musselburgh searching for even a record shot of the White-winged Scoter but I had always arrived
after it had left. “Maybe this time”, I said to John. We parked on the approach road into Levenhall Links and
walked down to the sea wall just to the east of the Scrapes. The first bird we
saw was a Cormorant perched on top a yellow sewage outlet. Not surprisingly, a good place to find birds. “There’s Sammy!”, roared John, our code for
“There’s a Seal”, in this case, a Common Seal. It was fairly close to the the
wall, but the light was poor. Next, an adult Gannet swept past without diving.
About 150m offshore we spotted a small flock of Velvet Scoter. I scanned the flock
to determine if one of them was the White-winged Scoter - sadly not.
The tide was reaching its high point and birds were pouring
on to the Scrapes. They were mainly Oystercatchers, Redshanks and Bar-tailed
Godwits. We decided to visit the Scrapes as there were blue skies to the West,
so we guessed the light would improve. On our way there we were passed by a
couple of Juvenile Gannets and far out on the sea I noticed a pair of winter
plumage Slavonian Grebes . In breeding plumage these are the most attractive
of the UK’s grebes, and although their winter plumage is not as fetching, I
think their red eyes certainly catch one’s attention.
From the hides we could see many birds. A group of a dozen
Redshanks were roosting in the centre of the Middle Scrape. John estimated that
there were over 1000 Oystercatchers crowding the central area of the Reserve. I
could also see significant numbers of Curlew and also a pair of Shelduck.
Suddenly, something seemed to put up a lot of the birds and
I noticed that there were Golden Plovers
among them. In Scotland, they winter mainly on the coast, but in summer they
move to upland moorlands. About half a
dozen Dunlin had been feeding near to the Redshanks, but they were also
disturbed. Not so the Teal, who dabble contentedly throughout. Gradually all of
the birds settled and order was restored. Bar-tailed Godwits had landed at the
back of one of the Scrapes but took a while to feel safe enough to tuck their
beaks beneath their wings.
On leaving the Scrapes we were greeted by about 100 noisy
Greylags flying overhead. They approached from the direction of the Esk. Some of
them settled in the Scrapes but most circled back from whence they came. We
were returning to the car, intending to view the sea from Fisherrow to check
that the White-winged Scoter hadn’t been hiding there. A Guillemot popped up
just below the sea wall probably attracted in by Mackerel shoals. A juvenile
Shag bobbed up and down on the waves as it watched us pass by. Just as I was
snapping it, a handsome Cormorant flew past. I wondered if it was one of the
continental “sinensis” race, but I’m uncertain.
Just as we were about to move away from the sea wall, a
Scoter flew across our view, but once again it was a Velvet, not the species we
were after. By the path, on the way back to the car I noticed that there were
still wild flowers in bloom. Scentless Mayweed, Yarrow and Common Ragwort a plant with a bad reputation.
I drove along to Fisherrow but we didn’t see any Scoters
there, only several boats that might have unsettled them. Undeterred, we
travelled back to the mouth of the Esk. We could see poor weather moving in
from the west, but were delighted to see a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers fly
upstream. A young Herring Gull was continually lifting something from the sea
and dropping it. At first I thought it was a Razorshell
but from the pictures I could see it was a shard of wood. Maybe it too
thought it was a Razorshell. John spotted flocks of Wigeon gathered 50m out in the ever
more choppy sea. Occasionally some of them flew further into the mouth of the
river. We decided we too should get into a more sheltered place - the car for a
tea and pastry!
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