July 4, 1996
We woke today to a light drizzle (this seems to happen quite frequently in Britain), and headed for Edinburgh. It is fortunate that no one seems to mind vehicles pulled half-way off the side of the road, because we’ve been doing a lot of that along the way, stopping to see birds. We saw a flock of Eurasian Oystercatchers on a grassy hill, and an adorable Yellowhammer singing exuberantly from a grassy area at the side of the road. Pied Wagtails, the British Isles race of the White Wagtail, were spotted at the roadside, and we saw our first Ring-necked Pheasant this morning, as well. We also spotted a bird kiting over the highway, whose markings under the wing and on the tail matched a Rough-legged Buzzard closer than any other, although this would have been outside of the bird’s normal summer range. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see it closely enough to be certain.
In Edinburgh, we took a bus tour of the city, and then explored Edinburgh Castle, which was interesting and offers some gorgeous views of the city and the Firth of Forth (although I don’t seem to have gotten any photos of the water).
We ended up leaving Edinburgh ahead of schedule, intending to drive as much of the way to Inverness as we could before we stopped for the night, but a serendipitous stop brought us to a marvelous nature park in the Tay Forest.
The Hermitage was originally a private “pleasure garden,” featuring two 19th century “follies:” Ossian’s Hall and Ossian’s Cave, after a legendary bard of the same name. A stream runs through much of the park, with a gorgeous waterfall very near Ossian’s Hall, and the short, self-guided Hermitage Woodland Walk was a perfect length for the time we had, since we didn’t arrive until late afternoon. One thing in our favor was the fact that there were more hours of daylight as we moved further north. It is quite amazing to watch the sun set and then look at the clock to find it is already 10:00 p.m.!
The scenery was simply beautiful, and we saw some lovely birds, including Common Blackbird and Common Wood-pigeon. There were a couple of new species, as well: Kevin spotted a beautiful male Eurasian Bullfinch, and I found another of the British thrushes, the Mistle Thrush. These are a bit hard to distinguish from the Song Thrush, but I studied the bird long enough to feel certain of the ID. I caught a glimpse of a bird that might have been a Chaffinch, and a reasonably good look at a female flycatcher that I thought might a Pied Flycatcher, but the woods are dense, and we were losing the best of the afternoon light, so I’m not certain enough of either of the IDs to feel comfortable counting them. I also watched a smallish sandpiper being quite active along the stream bank near the parking area. Unfortunately, I was not able to spend enough time (and get close enough) with this bird to get a positive ID in the field. But, by scouring the field guides after the fact, I narrowed it down to either a Common or Green, and in looking at seasonal data, it seems that Green Sandpipers aren’t seen in this area during this time of the year, so I’m calling it a Common Sandpiper. And this is how my birding skills slowly improve.
This was a wonderful diversion, and it perked up my mood after the somewhat dour Edinburgh. It also occurred to me that, for the first time in my life, I didn’t have fireworks on the 4th of July! Our walk through Tay Forest more than made up for that, though. We also had a few additional sightings while driving through he Scottish countryside. I was pleased to see our first Common Buzzard of the trip. This is Britain’s commonest hawk, and very similar to the Red-tailed Hawks back home. I loved seeing these familiar, yet new, birds throughout Britain. We also saw numerous Roe Deer, and a lot of European Rabbits, and I caught a glimpse of a large bird that may have been a Golden Eagle. They are found here, but I wasn’t certain about the ID. I still would like to see one closer up!
Species List
Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella), Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii), Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Common Wood-Pigeon (Columba palumbus), Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula), Eurasian Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula), Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus), Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos), Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo),(European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus), Purple Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
Let me know what you think!