BIRDING LOTHIAN

In the early hours of 4 July 2009 I set out on an “owling” trip commencing in farmland just south of Longniddry. At my first stop near Southfield I was surprised to hear two male Quail calling in turn in barley at 02:40hrs, having drawn a blank here only 10 days previously. Encouraged by this I proceeded east along the back-roads via Coates as far as Camptoun, added 8 more calling birds. In total birds were audible at 8 out of the 12 locations where I stopped to listen for them. Quail had already been logged at Coates, from mid-May, and indeed 7 were calling in this area on the evening of the same day. Together with another just beyond Camptoun at Drem pools this made a total of 18 calling birds along this fairly linear route of just over 5 miles, clearly we were witnessing a major influx and we were set for a true “Quail year”! This article aims to summarise observations made in Lothian that summer, including information gleaned on the arrival and distribution and the brief insights these have provided into the lives of these enigmatic birds.

Chronological Overview

Quail have traditionally been quite erratic in occurrence in Lothian, though a number of previous “Quail years” have been noted, in particular 1989 [1] which was responsible for the vast majority of the tetrad (2km square) records plotted in the South-east Scotland Bird Atlas (1988-1994) [2], see Figure 1:

Figure 2. Quail distribution for period April-July 2008 (South-east Scotland Bird Atlas). Symbols as Figure 1 and small grey squares show where there had been no “timed tetrad visit” (TTV) to date.

But since annual arrivals can be so variable, and there were further vast tracts of farmland which had had no coverage, it was far from certain that this picture was representative or lasting. Thus, following the initial reports of Quail in 2009 on 13 May, near Coates, per Abbie Marland, the author commenced targeted visits in the traditional core range of Quail in the region, i.e. central East Lothian. Concentrating effort on 29-30 May when it was anticipated that more birds would likely be arriving, with an associated peak in calling activity, visits were initially made to a substantial area in the Peffer valley east of Aberlady and also the farmland south and west of Longniddry (total 21 tetrads). Despite the frequent use of a tape lure, no new birds were detected, though a pair had now been seen near Coates. Arriving home on morning of 30 May, after a full nocturnal survey, having now covered nearly 40km mainly by bike and drawn a complete blank, there was an email message on lothianbirdnews reporting 3 Quail calling in the long grass at Aberlady the previous evening! [Note to self - must try harder!!!]

Nevertheless, later the same day, without use of the tape lure, a Quail was heard in an oilseed rape field by Laverocklaw, south of the Cottyburn c/p west of Coates and the following day Frank Hamilton located one in cereal at Penston. Quail arrival was also reported from Glenkinchie on 1 June, per Sandy Rae, and at Oxenfoord, near Cousland (just into Midlothian), on 6 June, per Graham Clark, and calling birds in the Coates area had increased to 2 on 2 June.

By the middle of the month there were indications from further south that it was looking like a good year for Quail, for example 23 calling males reported from “one locality in South Yorkshire” on 14 June. Interestingly, return visits to sites in the Peffer valley also now produced calling Quail at East Fenton and Brownrigg (14 June) and Drem pools (20 June), all well covered in late May so apparently all fresh arrivals. Numbers calling in Coates area continued to increase with 3 on 19th, 4 on 22nd and 7 on 30th June. The latter was the first indication of what lay in store for the rest of the summer, and was probably the forefront of the true influx which apparently occurred in early July.

This brings us back to the introductory account which heralded a further rapid rise in numbers. Expanding coverage out southward in the direction of the Gladsmuir plateau, and later to encompass Falside Hill and neighbouring regions, another traditional site (see Figure 1), together with further visits in the east of the area, soon brought a harvest of many more calling birds, and it became quite a challenge to properly document and keep track of the numbers. Further records are summarised below though undoubtedly those reported were only the tip of the iceberg. More details are provided in articles in Scottish Birds documenting coverage [4] and observations from the Coates area [5].

On the evening of 5 July Jim Nicholson heard 4 Quail calling around Redcoll, of which 3 were apparently additional to those on the previous day. 5 more were calling between Redcoll and Muirpark, Tranent at dawn on 7 July, including 2 at Penston where a female was also heard. On 8 July a couple were calling at Ballencrieff, a bout of calling apparently tripped off by first Skylark commencing the dawn chorus. In the Peffer Valley new birds were found at West Fenton (2) and Park Hills on 12 July. The following day 9 were now calling at Coates and numbers at Glenkinchie had also increased to 2. New birds followed at Gullane and Luffness Mains on 15 July. Mark Holling had been checking areas further east but had drawn a blank until finding one at Bonnington south of North Berwick on 16 July. 11 heard calling at Coates on 18 July was the peak count audible in any one locality, including the bird shown right, though this seemed to be a temporary concentration boosted by new arrivals and some perhaps then dispersed to other areas [5]. The impression of continuing arrival was further confirmed by a new bird at Chapel and an apparent increase to 2 at Brownrigg on 19 July.

Extension of coverage to Falside Hill and areas south of Tranent found further new birds, though these could not be confirmed as recent arrivals as this region had not been covered earlier. On the south side of the hill a couple were located at the west end and a single further east at Myles Farm, together with further singles at New Winton and Buxley on 20-24 July. Venturing even further to the south-west a bird was found near Cousland on 26 July, not so distant from the early June report and possibly the same individual. Lighter coverage on other sides of the “zone”, along the Tyne valley to Samuelston and near the coast around Longniddry did not produce any more, though anecdotal reports from farm workers per Mike McDowall for areas around Gifford highlighted many more, with Quail “all over the place” in early September.

Figure 3 shows an overview of assumed territory occupancies broken down into the main regions where detailed monitoring was undertaken. Allowing for some movements between areas, a minimum total of 58 calling males had been recorded, distributed in 29 tetrads (cf. 41 birds reported from 27 East Lothian “sites” in the record “Quail year” of 1989). The chart also provides a conservative picture of the pattern of arrival, with the apparent rapid rise in numbers in early July very apparent, though it is important to recognise that some apparently “new” birds, as per above account, may have been there a long time before they were detected, particularly where coverage was expanded to new areas.

Figure 3. Assumed arrival and territory occupancy of Quail in East Lothian during spring-summer 2009 [Glenkinchie=NT46IMN, Falside Hill=NT36YZ, NT37QV; Gladsmuir plateau=NT47AFGQ, Garleton ridge=NT47HKLMSTUXY; Peffer valley=NT48QVW, NT58AFKL]

The records from around Gifford are not included on the chart but additional records submitted to the Atlas are shown on the final combined distribution map for 2008/9 (Figure 4). Remarkably, apart from the records near Cousland, there was but a single new record outside East Lothian, near Broxburn in the west.

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