Bewick’s Swans at Shewalton

Like many bird species in the UK, Bewick’s Swan has become much scarcer as a winter visitor.  This is partly due to a decline in its world population, and also because of changing patterns of migration.  During the 1970s, autumn passage and over-wintering of Bewick’s Swans in Scotland was regular, with birds often stopping off on islands like Islay, these birds heading to their winter quarters in Ireland.  During the period of October-December, some would occasionally drop in at well-watched Ayrshire localities such as Shewalton Sandpits.

Harlequin Ducks at Kennedy’s Pass

As someone who often spends the whole day, when sea conditions are right, trundling down the south Ayrshire coast counting divers, I’ve got to know most of the good vantage points and headlands at which to stop.  Kennedy’s Pass is one such spot, and the lay-by on the bend as you approach from the south provides a slightly more elevated viewing platform.  Another lay-by exists about 100 metres further on, just as you leave the second bend in the road.

Eurasian Spoonbill at Hunterston in 1978

In the days before Global Climate Change was a phrase we all got to know, winters in Ayrshire tended to be cold, wet and dreich affairs (so, what’s changed, I hear you say?).  The general pattern of our winter weather was something which people in the south-west of Scotland knew well, and met with the usual resignation.  Occasionally, there would be a day when a ridge of high pressure brought slightly colder and sunnier weather, and it was during such a period that an unexpected visitor appeared at Hunterston. 

European Storm Petrels at Turnberry Point

During 1980, my interest in seawatching had got to the point where Turnberry lighthouse had almost become a second home.  However, it kept on producing interesting seabirds and the head greenkeeper at the golf course was happy to allow me to take my car all the way down to the point, thus avoiding the need to carry tripods, telescopes etc,

Leach’s Storm Petrel, and the Girvan Police

The 18^th of November 1982 turned out to be an interesting evening, and not, I might add, because of the parent-teacher meeting I’d just been to.  The weather on my way home from Ayr was wet and windy, with strong, blustery rain showers battering the car from time to time.  On my arrival, I was greeted by my wife who told me that the police had dropped by earlier – a Sergeant McClung from the Girvan station.  He’d enquired if “I might be able to do anything for the wee bird which he’d had handed in to the station by a member of the public who’d found it sheltering in a garden in Girvan.” 

Yellow Wagtail at Bourtreehill mid 1970s

Imagine, if you will, a time when Bourtreehill, Irvine was predominantly farmland, with fields of barley and hay rippling in the early summer breeze.  Most of my limited encounters with Yellow Wagtail, up till this period, had been in wet meadows and marshland, often with cattle present nearby.  The thought of looking for breeding birds in cereal fields or hayfields hadn’t crossed my mind.  Strange, really, since it had once been a bird which had been quite common in Scotland, rejoicing in nicknames like “Corn Willie.”   

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Wilson’s Phalarope at New Cumnock 1978

On the 5^th September I walked round the subsidence lagoons at Knockshinnoch with Mark Rollie, looking for waders in what looked like some promising areas.  Mark, being a local lad from New Cumnock, knew the area well, and seemed keen to show me some parts of this wetland which were unknown to me. 

When you look at the spread of bird records within Ayrshire, many places jump out of the page as locations which are very well-watched – some, less so.  However, the woodland of Auchinleck House is one of those areas into which birders very rarely venture.  In truth, there are many such places in the county, and you have to wonder what birds are missed during the course of a year.