Blackness

Saturday 21st January 2012

Well, after being away most of last week on business, allied to the fact that I had a couple of family things on this weekend, it didn't look as if I would get any birding done at all, however a few hours of freedom saw me out, still within the 'Shire visiting the village of Blackness and its castle

Blackness Castle stands beside the Firth of Forth, at the seaport which in medieval times served the royal burgh of Linlithgow. The castle was built in the 15th century by one of Scotland’s more powerful families, the Crichtons. But Blackness was not destined to serve as a peaceful lordly residence. In 1453 it became a royal castle and its enduring roles were those of garrison fortress and state prison. In the twilight of its days in the later 19th century, Blackness served as an ammunition depot, but after the First World War it was decommissioned and passed into state care as a visitor attraction.

One of the attractions of the place is that is only 4 miles from my house, but probably because of this, I tend to overlook it somewhat.

Still, off I went, in a reasonable gale with squalling winds working on the principle that if it was too bad I would be home in 10 minutes. Parking the car up at the boat yard and walking down towards the castle (top picture) saw plenty of Carrion Crows, Chaffinch and a few Magpie being blown about in the fields to the right of the approach road.

Once down to the castle you can walk round the back onto the beach.

First sighting was off a flotilla of Shelduck, which waited for me to get my camera out and then took off towards Fife, leaving one solitary straggler.

As usual, there was a fine collection of Blackheaded and Herring Gulls

Further down the beach in among a collection of varied gulls, there were a couple of Redshank pecking about between the seaweed.

As the wind was getting up a bit again I decided it was time to get back towards the castle and the lee of the wall for a cup of coffee. This turned out to be good as it showed a colony of Oystercatchers that hadn't been visible from the beach before

All in all a decent 90 minutes and I certainly will go back there again and see if there is anything of note to report. Realise that the photos are not of the finest quality but I am just trying to get used to my new camera that Santa brought me.