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| Sparrowhawk |
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| Redshank |
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| Raven |
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| Stonechat |
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Common Gull & Sanderling |
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| Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Skylark |
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| White Tailed Eagle |
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| Bar Tailed Godwit |
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| Buzzard |
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| Reed Bunting |
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| Pheasant |
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Great Tit |
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| Fieldfare |
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| Collared Dove & Stock Dove |
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| Stock Dove |
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| Stock Dove |
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| Woodpigeon |
Having half-planned and failed on a few previous occasions to get out of my bed early enough for it to be worthwhile to head for Fife and then either walk from Tayport to Leuchars via the coast, or vice-versa, I was quite determined that I was finally going to do it at some point over what was to be a long weekend for me. I set my alarm to get up earlier than I do for work during the week, although going to bed a bit later than intended meant that less sleep than usual might increase the chances of me rolling over and going back to sleep.
As things turned out I managed to get up after only one press of the snooze button and I was out the door for around 0740. Herring Gull was first onto the list for the day, followed by Woodpigeon and a Magpie as I stood at the bus stop. The Magpies are definitely becoming more common around the local area and across the city in general. Feral Pigeons were seen as the bus passed the Wellgate Centre. I made it in plenty of time to catch the 0810 bus to Tayport.
Although the bus windows were rather filthy I still managed to identify Blackbird, Carrion Crow and Starling as the bus headed through Tayport. I jumped off at the stop before the turning circle to try and see a few garden birds around the houses. Blue Tit, Robin and House Sparrow, plus additional Starlings were added as I wandered down towards the shore. A Collared Dove was a slight surprise, but the selection of birds out on the mud was less so. Common Gull, Shelducks, a few Curlews, a single Lapwing, Black Headed and Herring Gulls and some Teal being the initial crop during the first binocular sweep. A Greenfinch landed in a small tree nearby.
I wandered on a bit along the track towards the forest. A Song Thrush flew off ahead of me, and Woodpigeons flew over. A small flock of Goldfinches called from a tree on the other side of the fence at the abandoned RAF weather station. More scanning added Oystercatcher and Redshank, both expected birds here. A Sparrowhawk appeared out over the mud, being chased by a Carrion Crow, before heading into the trees of the main forest. A Wren churred low down in the foliage. I detoured off the path to check out the salt marsh for Snipe. Unfortunately, despite it being early and there being a surprising lack of dog walkers around, I drew a blank.
More scanning found a flock of Mallards in a channel out towards the river along with a few more waders. A few Carrion Crows were dotted around on the mud. A skein of Pink Footed Geese headed north out over the river. A distant angler out on the river had a Mute Swan for apparent company. With the tide quite far out, most birds were rather distant so I hurried on, choosing to cut in to the path to search the trees for Goldcrests and Coal Tits. It was rather quiet but another sweep of the binoculars found a Grey Heron, a few Grey Plovers and some Dunlin beyond a small group of feeding Shelduck. A few Ringed Plover scurried around. Small groups of roosting Wigeon could be seen in a few rather far away locations.
On Lucky Scalp, the large shingle island out on the river I could see Eiders, though a bit of unseasonal heat shimmer made it a bit tricky to pick out much else. I stumbled on a small group of Goldcrests and Coal Tits in the conifers before I headed round into the Tentsmuir Point nature reserve heading for the stand of deciduous trees where I have had reasonable success in the past at finding Green Woodpecker. A Robin perched on one of the WW2-vintage concrete blocks was the first bird seen in this area, though Carrion Crow and a singing Skylark, my first of the year both overflew. Chaffinch and Mistle Thrush were added among the trees but there was no sign of any Green Woodpecker. I heard one calling from the edge of the main forest a bit further on, so decided to see if I could spot that one, once I had finished checking the area I was in.
I heard the deep 'pruk' call of a Raven and soon picked up the dark shape of one flying over the forest, as it disappeared and re-appeared behind the tree tops. Thankfully, it chose to perch where I was able to confirm the ID and to get a few photos, albeit rather distant. Another year-tick. A Mistle Thrush was next on the list. Heading in the direction of the calling Green Woodpecker, a small flock took flight but I failed to get decent enough views to identify them. Thankfully they took flight again and I managed to see that they were Meadow Pipits, probably around 20 or so birds together. Goldfinches fed in the trees nearby and a Stonechat put in an appearance perched on some tall vegetation. Another Skylark was seen out above the dunes, but I failed to find the woodpecker. Another skein of Pink Footed Geese headed northwards above the forest.
I headed back towards the beach and scanned towards the sea. A Grey Plover, a few Redshanks, a handful of Sanderling (one of which was being chased around by a rather aggressive Common Gull) could be seen along the edges of the channel running from the large tidal pool. A Cormorant flew by. I crossed the fence line, heading for the end of the dunes where I hoped to find Snow Buntings, though reports this winter have been few and far between, though a flock had been reported earlier in the week. There were hardly any birds around the pool, with three Carrion Crows the most obvious. I did spot movement around the far end which turned out to be a pair of Ringed Plover. They were joined by a single Pied Wagtail before I headed into the dunes.
Last winter, there was a large flock of around 50+Snow Buntings regularly seen around the northern end of the dunes, but despite extensive searching I found none. Out on the shore, a couple of adult Great Black Backed Gulls fed on a washed up animal corpse, most likely a seal, while a pair of younger birds stood around waiting their chance to get at the left-overs. A Reed Bunting flew up from among the grassy dunes. There were lots of tiny footprints, possibly from voles, in the open areas of the dunes, along with various bird footprints of various sizes from suspected Pheasants to smaller passerines, maybe even Snow Buntings.
Skylarks and Carrion Crows provided the only interest as I headed south past Kinshaldy where the burn comes out from the forest and the dunes to meet the sea. Further on, a drake Long Tailed Duck flew low over the sea. I took the opportunity to cross the beach to where the slowly incoming tide was lapping at the sand. A Sanderling sped by, to drop onto the sand further south of me. I headed back into the dunes, to the area known as the Goosepools to take a short break, seated atop another of the leftover relics from the Second World War, a concrete bunker perched atop one of the higher dunes. Although, the tide was still some way out, the rather calm waters made scanning for birds slightly easier. Unfortunately, there weren't too many birds visible out on the water. A few Common Scoter, a few Eider, a Red Breasted Merganser flock, and a few Herring Gulls, but the numbers of each were rather low.
A birder I know from Riverside Nature Park passed by, having walked from the Kinshaldy car park. We chatted for a minute or two before he headed off through the dunes again. I headed inland slightly to check out a few flooded areas below small treed areas. I heard an unusual call I didn't recognise while checking out one of these areas and hurried out from below the trees, but could see nothing. I caught up with the other birder and as we stood discussing what had made the unusual call, a large bird took to the air a few hundred metres away. A White Tailed Eagle, which appeared to be a 1st-winter bird, probably last year's locally bred bird, an only the second fledged bird in the east of Scotland for a long time.Sometimes the Eagles will fly towards you, but this one chose to go in the opposite direction. It was a year-tick for us both though, so the quality of the sighting was of less consequence than the sighting itself.
I spotted a distant Buzzard wheeling above the trees well to the west, near Leuchars village, and in the opposite direction, a few Oystercatchers stood around on the shoreline at the Eden mouth. Although my legs were beginning to feeling rather heavy, I decided to take a detour to the south of the Leuchars runway in the rather forlorn hope of rediscovering the Great Grey Shrike which was reported way back in late October/early November. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the saying goes. A lone wader down by the water turned out to be a Bar Tailed Godwit. I heard some birds calling in the sky slightly to the north and managed to pick out three Snow Buntings as they overflew me. Maybe the main flock is wintering out of sight, along the Eden this winter, rather than in the dunes to the north?
On the mud, was a collection of Redshanks and Oystercatchers but little else. Scanning along the airfield boundary fence added nothing, so I turned to head back along the beach, passing two wildfowlers heading in the opposite direction. Hopefully, they didn't find many birds either. I did manage to see a smallflock of Linnets milling around by the beach, near the end of Reres Wood, another addition for the day. There was little to see, or even hear, as I headed along the worn track that skirted the edge of the wood. A bird perched in a tree on the airfield turned out to be a Buzzard and a Carrion Crow chased it off across the base and out of my view. A Green Woodpecker called loudly, somewhere nearby and I scanned but saw nothing. I walked on a short distance and the bird called again, though it must also have moved on a bit.
A skein of Pink Footed Goose headed north as I slowly edged through a few small trees to see if I could catch sight of the Green Woodpecker. As I reached the end of the trees, the bird must have spotted me as I caught it in flight heading away from me and up into the jumble of tree trunks where I lost sight of it. Still, it was a good bird to get for both the day list and the year list, even if the views were less than brilliant. A Stock Dove flew off from one of the radio antennae on the base as I reached the western end of Reres Wood. A Great Tit could be heard in the gorse over the fence but it stayed elusive.
A Stonechat pair was picked out among the longer grass in a field to the south of the track. I usually see these birds on the opposite side of the track, so this may be another pair. Pink Footed Geese overflew, in two groups. Movement in the field turned out to be a flock of around 20 Yellowhammers, which were surprisingly hard to pick out when they were on the ground. A few Woodpigeons overflew, and a Reed Bunting took flight and headed off high to the north. A male Pheasant seemed to appear from nowhere, feeding in the field a little further on than the Yellowhammer flock.
Approaching the farm buildings after drawing a blank searching for Woodcock, I spotted a distant Mistle Thrush perched on a lighting pole at the moto-cross track. Another was in the small horse field by the path. A Great Black Backed Gull overflew, and a minute later a Grey Heron appeared from the same direction. The trees and bushes on the opposite side of the farm house were full of birds, rather surprisingly so. Great Tits and Blue Tits foraged in the bushes. In the tree tops behind, Jackdaws, Fieldfares and Goldfinches perched in small groups. A Chaffinch appeared and a Blackbird shot across the road in front of me. A Dunnock ducked in below the wooden fence and as I searched across the fields to the north, a Sparrowhawk took to the air cutting low across the field before landing atop a short section of hedge to view potential targets.
A Stock Dove sat high in a large tree in the grounds of Earlshall Castle and the harsh call of a Jay rang out near the western edge of the grounds. I decided to see if I could catch sight of this bird and cut down the track on the wasteground. As suspected the Jay could see me and it flew on a little, perching up in the trees where it could see me, and I could see it. Unfortunately, there were also rather a lot of branches in the way for a worthwhile photo. A large flock of Woodpigeons took flight as I neared them. I found yet another Buzzard perched in a tree before heading back to the road.
A Starling sang from the top of a chimney on the first house, and a pair of Stock Doves were acting as though Spring wasn't too far away. Surprisingly, a Stock Dove landed in the tree nearest to me and I managed a few rather nice shots, before it was joined by a pair of Collared Doves, all three birds perching together on the one branch. Heading back into Leuchars, I stopped to photograph a Woodpigeon perched on the church, before I wearily headed to the bus stop to catch the bus for Dundee and home. Although the sky looked very promising for a cracking sunset (which it more than delivered), I had zero energy left to walk to the river for photos.
Despite the long distance walked, easily upwards of the usual 12 miles (possibly nearer 13-14 miles), it was a very worthwhile effort with 63 species seen in total, including 8 new for the year (in bold).
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider, Fieldfare, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Green Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Plover, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Lapwing, Linnet, Long Tailed Duck, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Raven, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Sanderling, Shelduck, Skylark, Snow Bunting, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Teal, White Tailed Eagle, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.