BIRDS OF CARLINGNOSE AND INVERKEITHING BAY
The year 2004 got off to an excellent start with a well-attended meeting held jointly with the Inverkeithing Green Gang. John Done, who is the unofficial bird recorder for Carlingnose Reserve, asked the audience to imagine accompanying him on his usual walk from his home in North Queensferry, around the village, over the hill to Inverkeithing Bay, and back via the coastal path.
Although the area so covered is not very big, the range of habitat is surprisingly diverse, with grassland, quarry cliffs, woodland, scrub, sand and mud. This diversity in turn supports a variety of birds – in fact John has a species list of 130-plus, which includes birds seen flying over such as whimbrel, and those seen at sea and on the rocky islands.
There is a resident peregrine on the middle span of the Forth Bridge (with a plentiful supply of pigeons to hand!) On the Keithing Burn, despite its tendency to turn a rusty orange colour on occasion, a kingfisher is regularly seen, especially in winter, and a dipper patrols along the burn as far as the pool at the old brickworks.
To round off his talk, John called for a little audience participation in the form of a quiz, which required the identification of ten birds by listening to their calls and songs. The winner received a valuable prize!