Scotland Holiday Day 8: Ythan Estuary at Newburgh 5th June 2016

Scotland Holiday Day 8: Ythan Estuary at Newburgh 5th June 2016

Again this was a family day but, again, we got some birding in. My family, despite living just a few miles alay from Newburgh, had never been to this part of the estuary and on a blazingly hot day they were captivated by it. We started off at the parking place at “The Inches” and somewhat surprisingly, as we pulled up there was Jim Almond, the “Shropshire Birder”. After our hellos he headed off to the golf course end of the estuary and we soon followed. We ran into a chap who said that he had met a photographer who had seen our main target – Elvis, the King Eider – half an hour before but now there was no sight of it.

As the family wandered off to admire the friendly seals that habituate this part of the estuary, we turned to tracking down the King Eider. Eventually we decided to go to where it had been recently reported; not at the mouth of the estuary but opposite the “tin hut” a shelter raised on the dunes. Sure enough we found someone with Jim who had located the bird and we got some reasonable views of it. There were also a multitude of Common Terns, fewer Sandwich Terns and even fewer again Little Terns. It was possible, however, to see all of them at once.

There were large numbers of Herring and Black-headed Gulls and a whole colony of Sand Martins who were nesting in holes in the dunes. A nice spot was a pair of Wigeon and, of course, there were hundreds of King Eider. We eventually called it a day when we nearly found ourselves cut off by the tide and we all collected again and went off to a restaurant for SUnday lunch. Afterwards some of the family went home but our car returned to Newburgh and the place was quite different with the tide in. We eventually managed to relocate the King Eider and this time we got good enough views that we could show non-birding family members this famous bird.

The Ythan estuary at Newburgh is a wonderful place, even without a King Eider, and we were happy to have introduced the family to it. They too were amazed that they had never heard of it.

Bird Sightings : Ythan Estuary at Newburgh