We first took an interest in birdwatching around four years ago and have since logged a substantial number of different sightings. Of course you reach the point where new spots become fewer and further between. Increased travel is required to tick a few more species off the list. My sister emphasises that she is not a "twitcher" and driving many miles with the sole intention of seeing a particular bird is a definite no-no. She says you should only ever observe what happens to be around you. Nicole and I fall somewhere between the two schools of thought. We sometimes go to more out-of-the-way places where we know there is a fair chance of seeing an unusual bird, but we haven't taken this to silly extremes. That said, I had long (and only half) joked that all bets are off if the presence of a spoonbill is announced. If that equates to Cornwall here I come, then so be it. As it turned out, a far less arduous expedition was launched. Word came in that a spoonbill had been feeding at the tidal Montrose Basin on the Angus coast over the last few days. Game on!
The Scottish Wildlife Trust have a Visitors Centre at Montrose Basin - an enclosed estuary of the River South Esk offering 750 hectares of mudflats during low tide. Naturally, this attracts a wide variety of birds who come to feed and roost. We had been up there a couple of times before and as Trust members there is no admission fee to pay. Visitors can use the provided scopes to scan the surrounding area and there is also an informative exhibition about the history of the local landscape and the aims of the Wildlife Trust. Snacks can be purchased from the shop and it's easily possible to spend a few hours here. Today's visit entailed pre-booking a timeslot and we arrived at the appointed hour. There are always assistants on hand to answer questions about the reserve and tell you about recent sightings. The elevated glass-fronted viewing window looks out across the basin and wading birds are a common sight, along with ducks. A small garden in front of the visitors centre has feeding stations set up. Out on the mudflats we observed lapwing, redshank and eider ducks, while the bird tables below our noses were busy with sparrows and goldfinch. One of the guides informed us the spoonbill was still around and had been sighted further round the fringes of the estuary. We knew how to get to this point and access the waterside path. After a few purchases at the reserve shop, we jumped in the car and headed towards a small parking area just off the road to Bridge of Dun. We immediately encountered several eider ducks close to the shore, the males making their distinctive cooing noise as they floated upon the waters of the South Esk. A true sea duck, the eider is rarely found far from coastal regions where it feeds on molluscs. Weighing between two and three kilograms, it is Britain's heaviest duck and also the fastest flying. Over on the exposed mudflats, a great number of geese and assorted water birds were gathered. Suddenly Nicole exclaimed "there it is" and I tried to train my binoculars on the same path as hers. A solitary spoonbill was strutting around among the geese, busily foraging for food. The clue is in the name - the large spatula of a bill swishes back and forth in the water, scooping up crustaceans, worms, small fish, tadpoles and frogs. I observed the bird through my binoculars and managed to take a passable photo at maximum zoom.
Nicole and I high-fived each other. We had finally found this elusive relative of the egret and it was marvellous to watch. A trip to distant shores hadn't been required. Although the spoonbill is seldom seen in Scotland and only small, recently established and isolated breeding colonies exist down south, it was actually fairly widespread across Britain in medieval times. I'm not entirely sure why it largely disappeared. Most likely it was hunted as a game bird. Let's hope we see more of them in future years. Now that I've achieved my ultimate spot, what is the next most desirable bird to tick off? I'd probably say the colourful bee eater, another rare visitor to the UK. The chough is also on my hit list. Basically a crow with red legs and beak, they can be seen on rocky western coastlines. We almost certainly saw choughs on a trip to Anglesey around 6 years ago. They are known to inhabit the cliffs by the lighthouse we visited but this was before our fascination with birds began. We moved on from Montrose Basin, the day already a memorable one. Anything else would be a bonus. The next destination was Balgavies Loch on the way to Forfar. I made a brief stop at Bridge of Dun Heritage Railway. No trains were running due to continuing Covid restrictions but I had a look at the rolling stock from the car park. The line connects to Brechin where a fine station building remains intact. Passenger services ceased as far back as 1952 but a freight link was retained until 1981. The heritage railway initially operated within the station limits at Brechin but permission was granted in 1993 to extend to Bridge of Dun - a journey of 4 miles. The original branch ran on to a junction near Montrose but some of this trackbed has been built on and it's therefore highly unlikely that heritage trains will proceed any further along the old route. I visited the railway with my dad around 10 years ago and must make the effort to return once it's up and running again. As we continued the drive, I noticed a lot of abandoned railway infrastructure in the surrounding area. Angus was certainly hit hard by the Beeching cuts and the only survivor today is the coastal stretch from Dundee to Montrose on the the East Coast Main Line. County town Forfar was connected to Dundee, Brechin and Arbroath. A forgotten jewel in the crown is the high-speed Perth to Aberdeen Caledonian Railway which raced through Angus. This service was jettisoned after being deemed to "duplicate" the coastal route. Not if you live in Forfar it doesn't!
We parked at Balgavies Loch and made our way towards the small bird hide. Long recognised as an important site for wildlife, this inland loch is surrounded by reedbeds and willow carr, attracting water rail, great crested grebe and a number of wintering wildfowl, including goldeneye, teal and wigeon. The reserve is a haven for red squirrels and there is an osprey nest high up in the trees. We observed this magnificent fish-catcher through binoculars and saw a variety of smaller birds in the bushes between the hide and the loch. Today was all about travelling by car but I'd like to return sometime and do a circuit of Balgavies on foot (did someone mention an old railway skirting the northern shore?). The Forfar town loch is another possibility for combining wildlife and wandering. As we drove right through the middle of Forfar, it struck me that I had been here many times for the football but had never properly looked around the town centre. Actually I did take a bus up here from Dundee in my student days but just headed straight for the match at the fabled Station Park - which hasn't seen a train since 1967 and never will again. We took the road to Kirriemuir and again I spotted a disused embankment. This branch line was dismantled in 1965, having closed to passengers in 1952. We were bound for the Loch of Kinnordy Nature Reserve, about a mile outside the town. We had been up here before and had enjoyed a stroll around the centre of Kirriemuir, where I sought out the statues of its two most famous sons. The horn-blowing figure of Peter Pan commemorates the birthplace of author JM Barrie. The story of the little boy who never grew up and had the ability to fly continues to enchant readers to this day and Peter's adventures in Neverland have featured in several films. His creator died in 1937 at the age of 77 and now rests in the town cemetery beside his parents. It is thought Barrie based the concept of Peter Pan upon his brother who died in an accident aged 14 and remained a boy in the eyes of his mother and father. Barrie's childhood home is now a museum in the care of the National Trust for Scotland and is somewhere I'd like to visit, along with the Gateway to the Glens Museum.
Sadly, another legendary Kirrie boy did not achieve anything like the lifespan of Peter Pan nor indeed his inventor. Ronald Belford Scott - known as Bon - left his home country for Australia at the age of six. After an adolescence that included several brushes with the law, Bon Scott became a fixture on the Australian pop (and later rock) circuit, fronting a number of bands - one of whom, Fraternity, had a crack at the overseas market - and experiencing varying degrees of success. He supported himself by working a lengthy series of jobs until his big breakthrough arrived in the mid-70s. Bon had joined AC/DC, a hard-rocking outfit controlled by the guitar-playing Young brothers Malcolm and Angus. They too had emigrated from Scotland to Australia and older sibling George had achieved international success with the Easybeats before settling down in the producer's chair for the early AC/DC albums. By the time the 7th release Highway to Hell rolled around, the band were firmly established as a popular act in Europe and were now making a big noise in America. World domination seem assured however things were not well with Bon. His drinking had escalated to the point where it began to dog his onstage performances and indeed he looked older than his 33 years in final photographs. Bon Scott was found dead inside a car during the winter of 1980. He had been left there to sleep off a heavy session the night before but has succumbed to alcohol poisoning - as stated on his death certificate. That was the sole accepted version of events for many years. Bon was indeed an alcoholic and over-indulgence certainly played a major role in his demise. However British-Australian journalist author Jesse Fink (who wrote a biography of the Young brothers and their vice-like grip on AC/DC) kept picking away at the events leading up to Bon's death and presented his findings in Bon Scott - The Last Highway. Heroin use - most likely dabbling rather than any addiction issues - was revealed as the root cause of the tragedy. Now that may seem like sensational accusations made against a man no longer around to defend himself but Fink's evidence is compelling. The characters Bon hung around with were no strangers to smack and Fink managed to track down almost everyone who had spent time with Bon over those last few fateful weeks. The book firmly concludes that heroin killed the frontman. It probably didn't require a huge dose given Bon's relative inexperience with the drug and huge levels of alcohol already in his system. His death is unfortunately mired in the brown stuff.
None of which should detract too much from what Bon achieved during his glory spell with AC/DC. The band went on to enjoy monster stadium success and are still operating at that level today. Englishman Brian Johnson took over the vocal duties and Malcolm Young unfortunately passed away from dementia complications in 2017. I've long been a fan of Bon's lyrical shrewdness, always delivered with a nod and a wink. I'm often sceptical of the term "street poet" but his earthy tales ring true. Up at the nature reserve, it was mainly swans on the loch but I did get a cracking photo of one being buzzed by a gull. We had covered a lot of ground on our mini tour of Angus and I'll never forget my first spoonbill encounter. A refreshment stop at Starbucks on the way home would normally be a routine matter but it was our first time in a coffee shop for quite some time. We savoured the moment.
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