The Birds and the Beaches
My journey with seabird identification in St Andrews, and why it matters
By Amelie
2025
When people ask me what my favourite thing about St Andrews is, I always answer 'being close to the sea'. Running or walking on West Sands is one of my favourite ways to spend my time. My ideal study break is sitting at Castle Sands, watching the waves. I love the beach. So, when I went on my first ever bird walk with the VIP, I was embarrassed to realise how little I knew about the wildlife that has made the beach its home. In fact, the first bird walk we did, I hated it.
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We met at East Sands during fresher's week. 8am. Probably the earliest I had woken up in my entire time at university. Cold, tired, and hungry, I trudged to the beach to meet the people I would be working with over the next months, and was given the pair of binoculars that would end up travelling with me everywhere, not that I knew that yet. During this first walk, I distinctly remember sitting on the pier, after having walked along the beach, and nearly falling asleep. People around me were talking about birds, and pointing out different species, while I looked at the rocks in front of us in confusion. Rock pipit? Redshank? Turnstone? These were mysterious entities that I could not see, and that I had also never heard of. They were surely making these up.
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But as the weeks went by, I began to slowly understand the nuances between each species, and began going on my own bird walks. Before taking the VIP I knew that different types of gulls existed, but I had never made an effort to try and distinguish them. However, after being told the difference between herring, black-headed, and great black-backed gulls, I found it fun heading down to East Sands and trying to spot each of them. The next week, I sat at Castle Sands, and kept on seeing big birds with black wing tips fly past in the distance, which I noted down. I then headed back to the library, looked on the RSPB website, and figured out that that was a gannet, a bird that our professor, Will Cresswell, had pointed out to me on the first bird walk, but which I couldn’t even find in my binoculars. While seemingly not a big accomplishment, I felt triumphant – a new species had been unlocked! And as I looked at their photos online, I could hardly believe that these majestic birds fly past us in the distance all the time, and yet they go unnoticed by most.
A screenshot from my Notes app on my phone when I went out for my first solo bird walk and was trying to identify different seabirds – I noted down their characteristics, then went back to the library and tried to look them up
Photo of my notebook after sitting at Castle Sands on one of my other solo bird walks
One thing I tried to do when learning to identify birds was creating flashcards; I would draw the bird on one side, and then its name on the other. While good for getting familiar with key differences between birds, for example the plumage differences between waders, it had nothing on the bird walks we went on, and nothing on the hands-on guidance given to us by Will and other students. I began to appreciate the early morning starts, as this showed me a version of St Andrews I had always previously slept through. Now that I am more aware of the nature around me, I am constantly in awe of the diversity on the beaches, as I am paying attention to species that I had never noticed before. One walk, we saw a merlin chasing its prey in the sky, and I marvelled at the fact that I would never have seen if I hadn’t taken this module. Similarly, when a peregrine falcon flew past us at West Sands, I’m not exaggerating when I say I felt a thrill when we saw it pass over our heads. Being able to be so close to these animals that I had only ever heard of, and never before seen (or at least was never aware that I had seen), was exciting. The most amazing thing is that all of this had been around me my entire life already – the happiness felt from watching gannets dive, or seeing masses of geese fly far in the distance, can be experienced by anyone, if they just know where, and how, to look.
Early mornings on West Sands – the scopes and binoculars really do make a difference when learning identification since it means you can learn to identify behaviours, rather than just remembering physical characteristics
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I think a key moment for me when I knew I was really getting into bird identification was when I was walking home at 4am after a night out. I passed the Shell garage in town, and saw a gull walking beside me. Since it was smaller than a typical herring gull, I paid attention to its yellow legs and its black eye, and thought that maybe it was a common gull. I had never identified one of these before, so when I looked it up to confirm whether or not it was this, and found out that I was correct, I felt strangely proud. It also signalled to me that I wasn’t just thinking about birds when going on our bird walks or beach trips – it had become a natural instinct to look at something and wonder what it was (even after the club), showing how this module really has changed the way I look at the world. This curiosity surrounding seabirds is not just a new personality trait however, it shows how identification skills naturally lead to an awareness and appreciation of the environment. And ever since I have started caring about birds, I have become distinctly aware of the threats to them.
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According to the Scottish Government, seabird populations have been declining significantly in the past 20 years, with species such as the Arctic tern and kittiwake declining by more than 50%. Birds are being lost, and so are the words to describe them. The mere existence of The Lost Words book, which aims to restore and teach nature words to children, is indicative of the decrease in wildlife literacy, and therefore in the ability of people to understand what even is declining. I had never heard of the Arctic tern or kittiwake before the VIP, so had no reason to know that they were decreasing in population, and so no reason to care. This is why biodiversity literacy is so important – without learning about the world around us, we cannot care about it and cannot work to save it.
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Learning identification skills is therefore not a trivial task, and while seabirds piqued my interest, there is a multitude of wildlife in St Andrews that needs monitoring and looking after. This is why I started creating the identification guides for the Biodiversity Literacy VIP Instagram page, and why when I walk with friends, I can’t help but point out the different species of birds we come across. I hope that this sparks some sort of awareness in the wildlife in our town, or just some interest in identification, since paying attention is the first step to caring.
Will told us something in our first meeting, and while I don’t think these are the exact words, the general meaning still stuck: you can only save what you love, and you can only love what you know. By getting to know the birds on the beaches of St Andrews, I hope I can now work to save them so that future generations can understand the joy of not just watching them fly and dive and nest, but of the satisfaction of identifying them too.
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Now, when I go to the beach, it is not just to relax, to look at the waves, and procrastinate my work. I still do these things, but with an added dimension. I pay attention to the birds; I look above me, I look far ahead of me with my binoculars, and I am acutely aware of my surroundings. The education I have received over the past semester has revealed a whole new world, a world more interesting than I could ever have imagined. I still have a very long way to go when it comes to identification, but I know I will always feel the same excitement when seeing a new species, or identifying something correctly for the first time. The knowledge gained from this class will fuel a lifelong passion for birdwatching, and it all started with a walk on the beach.
Sunrise at East Sands, one of many things I would have missed if it weren’t for the weekly bird walks
Bonus content J I went to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle over reading week! Got very cold but was still on the look out for birds (binoculars proudly on display) – not many birds were seen since most had migrated already, but any nondescript flying shape in the sky (most likely a Northern fulmar or glaucous gull) had me excited