It’s not been the best of summer weather but we were lucky to have a beautiful day last weekend for our trip to Auchmithie in Angus, where we were very, very pleased to see nesting Puffins and a pod of Dolphins too!
On arrival we checked some roadside gullypots and rescued a trapped toad. We then made our way down the path to the beach where we spotted a pair of Stonechats and a singing Sedge warbler close by. We tasted some Scurvygrass when arriving at the beach – so called as sailors used to take it to sea to fend off scurvy. It has a strong flavour and wasn’t quite to anybody’s taste.
The pebbles on the beach are beautiful – made up of so many different colours – and the water was as clear as I have ever seen it. We spent a long time watching the seabirds – nesting Fulmars, Kittiwakes and Herring gulls, along with Razorbills and Guillemots on the water. There were 50 or 60 Puffins in a couple of rafts on the water, and we were really excited to see 5 or 6 flying into their burrows with food for their pufflings. I tried to get a video of them but they were just too fast, whizzing past at top speed. Many Gannets were feeding on a shoal of fish and we hoped the Dolphins might make an appearance to join the feeding frenzy.
There were quite a few cliff-nesting House martins too, being hunted by a Peregrine, with a Kestrel also making an appearance.
We spent a while waiting for the Dolphins to appear (they had been seen at Montrose the previous day) and were just making our way back to the car park when a couple we had been speaking to about wildlife shouted up to us, saying the dolphins had arrived! There were around 6 in the pod and we watched them making their way to feed on the shoal of fish. What an afternoon! The link below will take you to the dolphin video we took on our way back up the path. Join us soon on an Angus Coastal Tour for all this and more!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1TSbDzbCzVjsjZD59
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