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Great Northern Diver
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Compared to 2023, 'seabirds' have been in short supply this year in the Tay, with the main exception having been Gannets. Most of the rest, bar Sandwich Terns, have been practically non-existent. In recent weeks I have managed to add Puffin and Little Auk to the earlier, though still very few and far between Guillemots and Razorbills. Eider, Long Tailed Duck, Fulmar and Red Throated Divers have made up the rest of what has been a fairly poor selection. Mark Wilkinson's Sabine's Gull from Riverside Nature Park was the main exception. No Skuas, no Shearwaters and even Mediterranean Gulls were in very short supply this year. Despite this, with a storm coming in over Scotland on Friday night and into Saturday bringing strong easterlies and heavy rain, I wanted to get down to Broughty Ferry for a look, with Storm Babet from late October 2023 showing what might be possible. Obviously, the mix of birds would be different, given the month of a difference, but I figured it was worth the effort and with some luck I might get one, or more, additions for my #Dundee150 list.
As the week had progressed the storm's arrival time had moved from around lunchtime Saturday to around sunrise that morning. I had mentioned to Lainy that I was hoping to head down for a couple of hours before the main downpour was due to arrive. As things turned out, I woke up during the night, checked the weather forecast which by this time was showing the rain and high winds hitting Broughty Ferry around 0800, so I decided to sleep in and head down when things had calmed down a bit. It would mean I would miss out on high tide but I felt that was a price worth paying. As it turned out, Lainy messaged me to say she was heading down anyway, but I slept through that message. A slightly later one did wake me up. Lainy was at the Castle and the weather was awful. Not only that, there wasn't much to see, despite the high tide I had suspected might bring in a Little Auk or two, at the very least. Lainy arrived home to find snow on the ground, though it was just sleet where I live.
I kept an eye on the storm's progress, especially the predicted rain, as the morning progressed. It appeared that the rain was due to fizzle out around 1430 or so. I figured I might as well jump on a bus around 1330 to get to the castle for around 1400. That would give me around 2 hours of potential birding before the light completely went. I let Lainy know I was heading out, though as she'd got soaked again, by paying a visit to Clatto she indicated she was likely to stay at home. It was still raining when I stepped outside around 1330, I was running slightly late and hurried down to Arbroath Road to catch the 73 out to the Ferry. Herring Gull and Feral Pigeon were seen from the bus stop and Magpie was added from the steamed up top deck of the bus. With the tide state being more or less low, and the easterlies having only blown in for a few hours overall, I wasn't too optimistic there would be much around.
From the shelter provided by the castle's eastern wall I scanned out over the river, with a modified takeaway container's plastic lid keeping the rain off the lenses surprisingly well. Black Headed Gull had been seen off Beach Crescent, with Redshank, Oystercatcher and a surprise Ringed Plover being noted around on the harbour. Over the next 20 minutes or so, I added very little - Cormorant, Rock Pipit, Turnstone and Great Black Backed Gull. A Grey Seal was seen out in the river. Carrion Crow, Red Breasted Merganser, Common Gull, Curlew and Pied Wagtail were all seen over the next 10 minutes. The rain seemed to be abating and the wind was also thankfully dropping. An ADBC text message came through on my phone - Great Northern Diver and 2 Little Auks off Douglas Terrace (found by Lainy!). I figured she had probably been on her way down to join me, rather than potentially miss out on something good.
I set off in the direction of Douglas Terrace, figuring that Lainy would be easy to find. My phone rang - it was Lainy. I asked her how far along the birds were. Needless to say they were right at the far end. She said her husband Adam would come and get me from beside the lifeboat station. We both arrived there at more or less the same time and a minute or so later I was exiting the car at the far end of the same stretch of street. I could see a large-ish bird off to the west, not too far offshore, and found Lainy down on the beach near the slipway. I hurried down to join her. The bird out to the west was indeed the Great Northern Diver - Lainy had caught one in flight on Thursday from beside the castle, and it was likely they were one and the same bird. Regardless, it was a new bird for my #Dundee150 list. The Little Auks were bobbing around in slightly calmer water near the outflow pipe. I grabbed a few photos of both before we headed along the walkway for more photos of the Diver.
We spent the next wee while, photographing the Diver and the Auks, and Lainy confirmed that she had been on her way down to join me when she had spotted the Diver offshore from the moving car. Then as she headed back to the car after getting a few photos, she spotted the Little Auks. There are plenty of easier places than Broughty Ferry not too far away (including St Andrews, Arbroath, Fife Ness, Anstruther etc) to see Little Auk when conditions are favourable, so to get 2 of them AND the Great Northern Diver, was a great bit of work by Lainy. I had considered walking down to the Ferry, but with limited time available, the bus had won out. My choice of heading to the Castle turned out to be the wrong choice - though I was close enough to be able to see both species anyway. We were joined by Jon Cook who got the Great Northern Diver straight away. The Little Auks which had appeared to be almost anchored in position, bobbing around without going anywhere, had however vanished. Jon had already seen Little Auk so he wasn't too bothered that he had missed out.
We added a Grey Heron before the light went completely, taking my list for the afternoon's efforts to just 19 species. A lift home was also very welcome (thanks again!). The main highlight of the afternoon was obviously the new addition for my #Dundee150 list (in bold) which took me to just a single species short of my target for the year, with a little over a month left to find something else to get me there. Thanks to Mark and Lainy's help and some of my own determination and perseverance, I had somehow managed to add 4 new species in 8 days, all in November! Prior to that, I wasn't hopeful of even getting many more than the 145 I had seemingly ground to a halt at. Now, it is actually within touching distance.....
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| Cormorant |
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Great Black Backed Gull
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Great Black Backed Gull
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Great Black Backed Gull (& Common Gull)
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| Cormorant |
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Black Headed Gull
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Great Northern Diver
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Little Auk
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Great Northern Diver
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Little Auk
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Little Auk
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Little Auk
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Great Northern Diver
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Great Northern Diver
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Great Northern Diver
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Great Northern Diver
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Great Northern Diver
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Black Headed Gull
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Great Northern Diver
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Great Northern Diver
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Great Northern Diver
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Rock Pipit
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Great Northern Diver
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Grey Heron
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Birds - Black Headed Gull, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Northern Diver, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Little Auk, Magpie, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Turnstone.
Mammals - Grey Seal.
