To test our eyes we often watched a lark until he seemed a faint speck in the sky... ‘I see him yet we would cry’... ‘I see him yet!’. (John Muir. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, 1912)
Amateur birdwatchers, serious ornithologists, researchers and enthusiasts of all ages visit the Park. The first Descriptive Management Plan listed over 200 bird species in 1976. They included seabirds, waders, ducks, woodland and grassland birds.
Through the year oystercatchers, ringed plover and other permanent residents are joined by seasonal visitors such as mallard, teal and wigeon in the winter and terns, eider and shelduck in summertime. Some have been spotted in flocks of hundreds, others were single birds, such as the bittern wintering at Seafield in early 2006.
John Muir and his friends loved to watch the skylark until it became just a speck in the sky. This was one of several species that declined in the later 20th century due to changes in land use and listed on the RSPB’s ‘Red Alert’ list. Today it is seen more frequently.
Monthly wader and wildfowl counts have been undertaken by the Rangers since the early days. They are sent to the national Wetland Bird Survey or ‘WeBS’ database. The data makes a useful addition to national surveys and helps the Ranger Service and Advisory Committee to make informed decisions.
The vulnerability of the tern led to monitoring throughout the summer breeding season. Part of the foreshore was fenced off annually with warning signs and regular patrols.
Kittiwakes were first recorded nesting on the Granary by Dunbar Harbour in 1934. In the 1970s the granary was redeveloped and the entire colony moved to the castle area and cliffs on the north and south of the harbour entrance. It is the only mainland colony on the Firth of Forth. The birds winter in the Atlantic and return to the castle for the breeding season in early March.
Nightlife
