Scozmo's Photery

March 26th 2025

Day 2 of our family trip and I had more time to wander this morning, it would take a while for everyone to get up and get themselves together 🙂

My first spot was a Pipit, Rock I think.

There are lots of Meadow and Rock Pipits here, loads of Yellowhammer too and mostly spotted in the fields or on the fence, which makes for better shots, if I could get close enough 🙂

Female and male Yellowhammers.

I couldn’t resist taking a shot of this “hingmy” in a rock pool!? Hingmy

No idea what it is or was, from a ship?

I was overflown by a solo Pink-footed Goose on my walk.

Unusual to see only one? There were quite a few Turnstones out on the rocks.

How many do you see?

I don’t think I mentioned the breeze? Blowing in off the sea.

I spotted a Stonechat male bobbing in and out of the dry stone dyke towards the end of the walk.

I liked that I could only just see his head as he popped up. The fields had been ploughed fairly recently by the look of them and the Curlew were enjoying foraging there, quite a lot of them.

There’s a little rocky / sandy cove around half way along this walk and I sat myself on a rock to enjoy the peace and views.

I was joined by a friendly female Stonechat.

The shoreline is heavy with seaweed here and there’s often clouds of sand flies, which the birds love of course.

There are Meadow Pipits everywhere, between the fields and the shoreline, lots to feed them here. I often switch on the Merlin app if I’m just sitting and it has come up with Water Pipit a few times but, I’ve never seen any that I might know were different!?

There are Stonechat, Meadow & Rock Pipit, Yellowhammer, Linnet, Corn Bunting, Reed Bunting, Skylark, Curlew, Redshank, Greenshank (sometimes) Oystercatchers, Cormorant, Shag, ‘gulls galore and Gannets, their numbers varying with the time of year, there are quite often ducks like Wigeon and all the usual suspects, House Sparrows, Blue & Great Tits; certainly enough to keep me occupied with the chance of something else now and again.

There’s a really good blog I follow called Wild Crail, which is only three mils along the coast and very walk-able and he covers the many other birds that can be seen around that area.

As I walk back, I tend not to count any birds I’ve already seen, I use the BirdTrack app to record my sightings but I’m always still looking out for anything new.

A small gaggle of Wigeon in a rock pool with gulls looking on, the gulls are always there 🙂 I see Common, Herring, Black-headed, Black-backed and Terns now and again. I do love trying to photograph flying Terns, great flyers and look fabulous, if you can get a good shot 🙂

There’s always a good selection of waders in the rock pools too.

This Redshank was foraging on the edges of the open sea swimming pool and wasn’t overly bothered by my presence above it.

When I’m out with the camera, I’m usually also out for a walk so I can easily miss something but, I do try to stop now and again, look, listen and just enjoy the surroundings, there are quite a few people who walk here every morning and I’m starting to recognise some but quieter is best for the birds hence, I try to be out reasonably early.

It’s probably also worth noting that’s it is most often breezy at least 🙂

No shortage of Cormorant and Shag out there or on the rocks.

A final spot on today’s wander …

A Dunnock, missed off my list earlier, unintentionally but they do tend to skulk in undergrowth 🙂 to me they are gorgeous, often overlooked birds with a beautiful song.

Just over an hours worth of morning walk this morning, again, family are here so we have plans for the day.

I ended up looking out of the apartment window and seeing a beautiful evening sky going on so decided to take w alk into Anstruther for sunset photos and mum came along with me. Anstruther has multiple harbours and there’s a very old lighthouse on the end of a central pier.

We walked out onto the Eastern pier that would give us a view towards the setting sun.

It was getting hard to see the pier to walk on and there are bollards and securing rings everywhere so we had to tread carefully!

This is Chalmers Lightouse c.1866-77 – Chalmers Lighthouse

I took “a few” shots of this sunset 🙂 and I adapted some to black and white.

I probably could have stayed longer but, it was getting chilly and mum was patiently waiting for me 🙂

We headed back to our rental property and a cozy night in.

Tomorrow we’re planning to walk the coastal path to Crail.

wanderings