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| Little Ringed Plover |
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| Coot |
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| Wood Sandpiper |
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| Wood Sandpiper |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Tree Pipit |
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| Osprey |
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| Cuckoo |
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| Kestrel |
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| Whinchat |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Tree Pipit |
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| Wheatear |
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| Leucistic Juvenile Robin |
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| Marsh Harrier |
Sunday 18th May was my last day before I had to go back to work after a week's holiday and the final day of 9 days birding in a row. As plans for a day out on the Friday with my pal, Jacqui Herrington, had fallen through owing to Jacqui being ill, we made alternative plans to see if we could get Cuckoo onto my year list. The weather was once again favourable but as it was a Sunday we decided on a slightly later start.
I left the house about 0935 to meet Jacqui at our "new" pick-up point. Starling, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon and Swift were all seen within a minute or so of setting off with Lesser Black Backed Gull and Feral Pigeon also seen as I walked along the road. While waiting I added House Sparrow and House Martin before Jacqui arrived. We were headed to Loch of Kinnordy first for a wee look then take things from there. While waiting at traffic lights at the bottom of Caird Park 4 Mallards flew past. We took the backroads route via Glamis to Kinnordy, adding Pheasant and Lapwing near Glamis.
Arriving at Loch of Kinnordy just after 1015 we headed into the Gullery hide where we looked out at the small bogbean islands which were dotted with Black Headed Gulls. I immediately picked up a Little Ringed Plover amongst them. This year has been my best year yet for sightings of this normally uncommon wader locally for me. Out on the water was a mixture of ducks - Gadwall, Mallard, Shelduck, Tufted Duck and Wigeon. Coots and a few Moorhen also swam around. A couple of Grey Herons were stood along the reedbed opposite the hides. Mute Swans glided across the water and Oystercatchers noisily fed and flew about with Lapwings doing likewise in smaller numbers.
A Reed Bunting flew past and then we managed to find the Wood Sandpiper feeding among the Black Headed Gulls and near the Little Ringed Plover. I finally managed to get reasonable record shots of this species which until now I have tended to find difficult to see, let alone photograph. A Common Sandpiper flew in and landed on a stick angled out of the water, calling excitedly. Swallows zipped in below the hide where they tend to nest in summer. The Rooks along to the west kept up a constant raucous backing track with the occasional bird flying out from the rookery trees. A Buzzard showed before we left the hide to head for Backwater Reservoir.
We stopped briefly at the bend in the road at the western end of Kinnordy so Jacqui could photograph a couple of families of Greylag Geese. We also added Curlew and Carrion Crow here while we were stopped. Once we set off again we hadn't gone too far when we added Jackdaw and a single Stock Dove to the list. Further on Song Thrush and Blackbird were seen. A brief stop at a recently clear-felled area allowed us to add Tree Pipit and Dunnock, while Whitethroat was heard but not seen. As we neared the turn off for Backwater I spotted a raptor slightly to the south circling upwards. This turned out to be an Osprey, a species which we had failed to see at Kinnordy.
Backwater Reservoir can be incredibly hit or miss. When it is good, it is very very good, when it is bad, it is almost devoid of bird life. Thankfully, luck was on our side and we picked a very good day. Tree Pipit was seen on wires, a Great Tit flew across the road and a Kestrel hovered looking for prey, all before we reached the dam. Crossing the dam we added Common Gull and Mistle Thrush to the list, with Oystercatcher also seen. Scanning the water further on I picked up a distant bird out on the water which turned out to be a Cormorant. As we drove on we saw a few Chaffinches with a few more Mistle Thrushes about as well. A bird flew directly towards the car, and initially I thought it was a raptor species but quickly corrected myself. A
Cuckoo. My first of the year. It kept going, disappearing behind the trees.
We parked at the car park and scanned around. A family was camping in the woods and was making a fair bit of noise resulting in the birds being mostly rather distant. A pair of Ravens were picked up flying along the ridge line to the north. Another bird down on the water turned out to be my first Great Crested Grebe at this site. A Mistle Thrush sang from the trees down towards the reservoir, and a Chaffinch fflew into a lower branch in the same tree. Siskins flew over before dropping into the small trees that split the car park into two distinct areas.
We decided to visit Glen Isla next as we were relatively close already and Jacqui hadn't been there before. Just like Backwater, Glen Isla can be unproductive but we were willing to take that chance. On our way back down the road we spotted a Robin by the road, then a Meadow Pipit on the fence, a few Mistle Thrushes in the fields and another Cuckoo perched on the wires. We had a very brief sighting of a Black Grouse which flew off over the fence by the road before either of us could get our cameras onto it. We had stopped to look at a bird on the wires which turned out be a male Whinchat. By the end of the dam we stopped to watch a Pied Wagtail and a pair of Willow Warblers for a few minutes. We saw another (or possibly the same ) Kestrel before we made it back onto the main road.
Heading for Glen Isla we added Linnet and a few Oystercatchers and Woodpigeons too. We spotted a promising looking area by the road where we thought we might get Redstart among other things so we planned to stop on our way back to check it out. It was pretty quiet in the glen with a few Sand Martins and Meadow Pipits but very little else on our way in, except a Blackbird. We finally got Wheatear onto the day list when I spotted a female on a boulder on the other side of the fence. A little further on by a forested area we saw a bird perched on the wires. A rather unexpected, but very welcome,
Spotted Flycatcher. My second new bird for the year of the day. Unfortunately it flew into the trees and I didn't manage a photo. There was another Willow Warbler feeding in the same tree which showed a lot better.
We headed back to the area we had earmarked earlier. A very pale small bird was flitting around but was very elusive, never stopping for more than a second it seemed. We finally managed to ascertain that it was actually a leucistic juvenile Robin. There was also a Tree Pipit high in the tree tops here. Jacqui went for a wander after clambering over a small stile as I tried for photos of the Robin. Jacqui shouted to me and I hurried along to join her. She had seen a Ring Ouzel, which I managed to hear calling but failed to see. A nice bonus bird. We heard a Redstart but couldn't pick it out.
We headed back towards Kinnordy again for a second attempt to add a few more species. With the top down on Jacqui's car, we managed to add a flyover Magpie. A Goldfinch and a Whitethroat were at the clear-felled area where we had the Tree Pipit earlier in the day. Back at Kinnordy most of the species we had seen earlier were still around. In addition we had three Pink Footed Geese fly out. The male tagged Marsh Harrier (yellow Y) quartered over the reedbeds for a while before dropping down out of sight again. We popped into the Marsh hide where we managed to see Shoveler as well, before we headed back down the road.
We managed to see 64 species in all, including 2 year-ticks (in bold). Species seen - Black Grouse, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Coot, Cormorant,
Cuckoo, Curlew, Dunnock, Gadwall, Goldfinch, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Little Ringed Plover, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Harrier, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Raven, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Shelduck, Shoveler, Siskin, Song Thrush,
Spotted Flycatcher, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Tree Pipit, Tufted Duck, Wheatear, Whinchat, Whitethroat, Wigeon, Willow Warbler, Wood Sandpiper, Woodpigeon.