Piltanton Burn 14/viii/23


 

Sunny spells and showers, light westerly, low tide 17.45.

When I arrived at the parking area about 13.45, there were several other cars there already – dog walkers and a family with young kids. Too much disturbance, so I turned around and went elsewhere until later. It was shortly after 16.00 when I returned and this time I had the place to myself. With the tide reaching its lowest ebb, there was a lot of exposed foreshore. The first thing to catch my eye was a goodly number of Ringed Plovers scampering about, a mixture of juveniles and summer-plumaged adults. My highest count was 55 but there could easily have been quite a few more hidden amongst the hummocks of wrack, certainly an increase since my last visit. A dozen or so Dunlin were also there, mostly with breeding black on their bellies. The influx of 60 Golden Plover from last time were absent, apart from one single bird I spotted.

A Whimbrel came to my attention when a Curlew started chasing it towards me along the muddy edge of the creek. The size difference was very obvious and the larger aggressor persisted in its pursuit for maybe 50 metres, until finally letting its congener alone. As the latter began to probe in a shallow pool, the turning of its head in the sunlight revealed clearly its pale median crown stripe flanked by darker ones. A second Whimbrel came to light further east when I scanned that way to count a flock of Little Egrets, which numbered 11. Another trio of the elegant white birds upstream made a total of 14, my highest count at this site. A single Greenshank, 10 Redshank and the ubiquitous Oystercatchers completed the wader list. Notable land-birds included a couple of Wheatears along the entrance track plus the resident Stonechat family there. A flock of about 30 Greenfinches were feeding along the edge of the dunes, which was nice to see given how much this species has declined in recent years due to the Trichomonosis disease. Hirundines were a constant presence during the hour and half, mostly Swallows with a few Sand Martin. They seemed to be moving west or south-west, following the curving coast of Luce Bay perhaps and then heading south to the Mull of Galloway before departing from Scotland for another year. Back at the parking area, my car was still the only one and as the evening sun was shining warmly I decided to have a quick look for basking adders in the dunes. It did not take long to find one and what a tiny one it was; no more than 20 centimetres I would estimate, so born perhaps only in the last week or two.

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