Scotland Trip Day 7 : RSPB Fowlsheugh : 2nd June 2014

 Scotland Trip Day 7 : RSPB Fowlsheugh : 2nd June 2014

Day 6 of our Scottish holiday was spent with the family and, apart from a visit to a formal garden where a pair of Oystercatchers had nested right in the middle of one of the ornamental sections, we did not do any real birding. We stayed the Saturday after we arrived from Newburgh and left on the Monday morning. We usually stop off somewhere on the way south when we return home in order to break up the journey and this is often Montrose Basin reserve. This time, though, we had picked up a leaflet and this mentioned RSPB Fowlsheugh. We had never heard of this place but it sounded very promising at this time of year so we stopped off and checked it out. To say that I was surprised was a bit of an understatement.

There are no buildings or other structures, there is just a private farm house, a very little parking and then a cliff walk. We headed off across a little valley bit that goes down then up again and in the bushes and trees there were Linnets and Meadow Pipits and Skylarks but the big treat was when you reached the cliff path. Before you even saw it the noise of Kittiwakes was impressive. There were too many to count but there must have been a several hundred. They were so close that the nearest were too close for scoping.

As we walked along we looked down into the water and it was full of Guillemots and if it had been hard to guess the number of Kittiwakes then the Guillemots were ever more mind-boggling. As we walked along the path we could see Kittiwakes, Guillemots and Razorbills all nesting really close to the top of the cliffs giving us unprecedentedly close views. It exceeded the numbers at Anglesey and was more of the order of the Bass Rock numerically. Perhaps the biggest surprise was to find impressive numbers of nesting Fulmars and whereas previously I had been impressed if I saw a single Fulmar nest, here there were quite a few – and really close. I would say, in fact, that this is probably one of the easierst places to get good close-up photographs of all these birds.

When we got to the end of the path there was a fantastic modern stone and glass hide of the highest quality and so well protected that I daresay you could spend a winters day inside one without too much bother. There were large numbers of Herring Gulls and there were supposed to be a few Puffins.

I spent quite some time looking for these Puffins and I almost inadvertently looked to the side of me and saw near the top of the cliff, a singly Puffin crouched on a ledge of rock. In fact it appeared as if it had a nest in there despite the fact that there was no earth there at all. Perhaps it had just found a natural cave.

I have to say that we will be going back there again. It is absolutely fantastic and quite a find. It is just south of Stonehaven so is a natural stopping point for us when we are returning from Aberdeen.

We eventually had to leave as we had to get to Musselburgh in time to meet relatives for dinner and the next day it was back to Manchester. A great end to our week-long birding adventure in Scotland.

Because it was impossible to count all these birds I looked up the RSPB web site and as it happens it had made a count a few years ago and came up with site estimates. For the sea birds below I have used these because I didn’t have a clue myself and these numbers don’t look outrageous for what I saw myself; perhaps the Fulmar numbers were greater then than now and I think that there must have been more Herring Gulls.

Bird Sightings : RSPB Fowlsheugh

Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve