Trip reports
Evening outing Pencaitland
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
A Chiffchaff sang in the trees behind the car park, seemingly to entertain us whilst we optimistically awaited any latecomers. We later had good views of another in a lower tree: so much easier to tell from its cousin the Willow Warbler whilst it's singing! We decided to walk northwards, and as we came to the bridge across the river we saw a few Lapwings and a Grey Heron in the field - by their aggressive displays towards any passing gull we suspected the former of having young but could not actually spot any. Meanwhile a Song Thrush sang lustily from an exposed branch of an Elder bush, and we watched a family group of Pied Wagtails feeding around a water treatment plant, hopping daintily over the water sprinklers as they circled around.
By this time we had heard our first Yellowhammers, definitely the star birds of the evening. We were to see a number of stunning males, all wheezing out their 'little-piece-of-bread-and-no cheeeeese' songs, and it was interesting to watch their obvious preference for feeding on bare ground or in the 'tramlines' of the cornfields: it is one of several species that has suffered from over-intensive agriculture. One was singing from a clod of earth on the ground, and his camouflage was amazing, despite his apparently bright colouring.
Eventually we found - at least, we heard - a Willow Warbler, but could not track him down as he sang in a nearby bush, and we were surprised that we found no Whitethroats: the Hawthorn habitat along the railway route seemed ideal, and we even found a Council information board indicating that they should be present: perhaps they didn't like the weather anymore than we did! Since it had now started to drizzle we made our way home, pleased to be serenaded towards the end of the walk by our one high-singing Skylark of the evening.