Kinneil Lagoons sit on the south bank of the River Forth, nestled between the picturesque towns of Grangemouth and Bo'ness and the area is an excellent place for bird watching. Flanked by a petrochemical refinery and a sewage treatment works on one side and a former landfill site on the other side it does not sound like the ideal place to see waders and wildfowl, but it is. By the way there is also a huge coal-fired power station on the other side of the river.
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| Grangemouth Refinery |
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| Kinneil Kerse Sewage Treatment Works |
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| Longannet Power Station |
Now I have painted the scene for you let me tell you about my recent trip to Kinneil Lagoons.
As I approached the Lagoons I had a feeling it was going to be a good day for birding as the first bird I saw was a Fieldfare, a winter visitor from Scandinavia, and my first sighting of this colourful thrush this year. However it flew off from the ground where it was feeding and went into the trees, hence getting a decent photograph was very difficult (excuses already):
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| Fieldfare in tree |
There were also flocks of mixed finches flying about............ which is always a good sign............ but very hard to photograph........ so I didn't.
The lagoons at Kinneil are man-made features formed by creating an embankment around what was originally mudflats and then controlling the level of water within the enclosed area. The embankment has large pipes built in to it which allow some water from the river Forth to flow into the lagoons during high tide but stop all the water draining back in to the river at low tide, hence controlling the lagoon water level. The embankment is the part you walk along, affording views of both the river and the lagoons:
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| Embankment with River Forth on left and Lagoons on right |
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| Flow to Lagoons |
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| Kinneil Lagoons |
As I approached the embankment I could see lots of small ducks called Teal swimming and feeding around the shore of the river. The nearer I got to them the further they moved away from the river bank, some of them even taking flight to get away.
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| Teal Feeding |
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| Teal Escaping |
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| Teal Swimming |
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| Teal Flying |
By chance the timing of my visit was perfect, an incoming tide almost at its highest point was driving waders off the mudflats of the river to the shallows of the Lagoons. I knew that these waders would fly low along the river before pouring over the embankment and swooping down into the Lagoons.
I positioned myself strategically at a little bush halfway along the embankment overlooking the Lagoons and waited for the air display to happen. My first sighting was not of waders but a small group of Shelduck coasting past like some heavy bombers on a low-level reconnaissance flight:
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| Shelduck Fly-past |
The light was starting to fade a little and over the river there was a pink glow in the lower half of the sky whilst the upper half was quite dark. With the water being so still and calm it made for some great scenic views as I waited for the action to happen.
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| Looking Downstream to the Forth Estuary |
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| Fife Panorama |
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| Cormorant Skimming the River |
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| Towards Grangemouth and Longannet |
In the distance, through my binoculars, I could see what looked like a swarm of bees swooping and swirling.............but these were not bees...............these were the waders leaving the mudflats and heading my way. As they got closer I could here the whirring sound of their beating wings, it got louder and louder then whoosh!! ......they flew right over my head and swooped down to land at the far side of the Lagoons. I had my camera ready so fired off a few shots before they disappeared:
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| Wader Squadron |
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| Dunlin or Knot? |
I wasn't quite sure what type of waders these were, going by their size and the length of their beaks I thought they were Dunlin but they flew past so quickly I didn't have time to identify them. Not sure if my photographs are good enough to make a positive ID (what do you expert birders out there think?).
These waders had no sooner put down at the Lagoons when something must have spooked them as they were up in the air again and flying back over the embankment and heading back up the river:
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| Spooked Waders |
It was not long before I heard the next wave of waders approaching, this time I could see they were bigger waders with much longer beaks and I was pretty sure that they were Godwits:
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| Godwits Incoming |
Closer examination of my photographs revealed that they were in fact Black-tailed Godwits:
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| Black-tailed Godwits |
It wasn't just ducks and waders involved in this air show I also had a small squadron of Black-headed Gulls and a solitary cormorant fly past me:
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| Black-headed Gulls |
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| Cormorant |
The light was fading fast and I knew I would not get many other decent photographs so I started to pack away my gear when I heard the distinctive 'piping' call of Redshanks coming from the Lagoon and a few seconds later they zoomed past. Luckily I still had a camera nearby so I managed to get a shot of them flying away, low across the river:
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| Redshank Heading Off |
As I walked back towards my car I reflected on what a magical couple of hours I had experienced at Kinneil and vowed I would return soon.
I snapped a few photographs of the Grangemouth refinery and the flare stacks as I headed back which was a stark reminder that this is basically an industrial landscape, but as always nature finds a way.
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| Refinery and Flare Stack |
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| Burning Bush? |
Hope you enjoyed this little trip to Kinneil Lagoons and that it might inspire you to get out to places near you where wildlife thrives amongst the landscapes we create.
Take care
Teddy Edward
