STONEFACTION BIRDING: 0176 : Edenside Exploration (21/6/15)

0176 : Edenside Exploration (21/6/15)

Sundays are not the best of days for birding when public transport is required, as if you are lucky your destination will have a bus maybe once an hour, sometimes once every two hours, and given the frequency they tend to be rather busy. However one exception to this 'rule' is St Andrews which gets two buses per hour from Dundee per hour on a Sunday. Still not brilliant but better than once every two hours (or none at all). Having not spent much time around the Eden Estuary this year so far and being at a bit of a loose end, I decided to visit both St Andrews and Guardbridge and some of the little spots around about.

Fox

I left the house at around 1010 to walk into town to catch the 1035 bus to Fife. I was undecided whether to head for St Andrews first and walk back from there to Guardbridge or vice versa. As I tend to buy a dayrider ticket to allow me to jump on and off buses this wasn't a major issue. I would decide on the way. Blackbird was first onto the day list, followed by Carrion Crow and Herring Gull. Within the space of ten seconds on Dens Road at the junction with Dura Street I had added three species of Pigeons - Feral Pigeons overflying, Woodpigeon feeding on the grassy area behind the flats and a recently fledged Collared Dove that didn't flinch in the slightest as I passed it on the pavement closer than 3 feet away. Before I reached the bus station I had also added Starling, Blue Tit and Robin.

Lesser Black Backed Gull and Herring Gull were both seen on the roofs behind the bus station, but there was no sign of the youngster from the week before. An Oystercatcher overflew as I waited to board the bus. Cormorant was added as we crossed the roadbridge, with Buzzards being relatively frequent on the way through Fife with 3 or 4 seen in flight. Swifts, Goldfinches, House Sparrows and House Martins were all seen before I decided to get off the bus at the northern end of Guardbridge and do a spot of exploring. Swallows zipped low over the road and under the bridge over the Motray as I crossed the road to check out the large pool at the end of River Terrace. A Dunnock sang from a bush, Mute Swan and Mallard were at the pool with a pair of Shelduck on the water as Sand Martins belted low across the surface. A large flock of Rooks overflew the village and a Reed Bunting male was singing from within the reeds by the burn.

I headed back to the main road to head into the small local nature reserve area opposite the old paper mill buildings. A rather ill looking Herring Gull looked up from the mud but made no effort to move (when I returned later the bird was dead). A Pied Wagtail flitted around across the mud, catching insects. Black Headed Gulls were around in small numbers. Reaching the mouth of the burn where it meets the Eden I stopped to scan. A few Curlews could be seen on the exposed mud over the river. A small group of Canada Geese swam upstream and opposite the hide I could make out the shape of a single Little Egret striding through the shallow water. A Great Black Backed Gull took exception at me being in this area and swooped down from its perch atop the building opposite. This seemed like the behaviour of a nesting bird and it would be interesting to discover if this was indeed the case as I'm not sure this species is commonly a nester on man-made structures.

I bumped into a lady with a camera around her neck which turned out to be a Nikon P900 just like mine and we had a short chat about the capabilities and what birds were around. I headed further along the path to scan out across the river, picking out a single Black Tailed Godwit in summer plumage and a distant Grey Heron. A Wren gave a burst of loud song from a bush nearby and after a bit of searching I managed to see a singing Blackcap. Out on the river, despite the heat haze I found a family group of Goosanders. A Sedge Warbler and a Whitethroat appeared to be competing to see who had the loudest song and I managed reasonable views of both. I decided to head for the hide next and picked up Chaffinch and Linnet before I made it back to the road.

Things were pretty quiet from the hide with only a few Redshanks to be added out along the river edges. The feeders were slightly more productive with Greenfinch, Great Tit and Tree Sparrow seen. After something to eat I decided I would walk out to St Andrews following the coast from the small nature reserve area on the southern side of the river. There wasn't much to be seen along the way there though I did encounter a couple of ladies I know from Riverside Nature Park as I passed the Guardbridge Inn. Skylark and Meadow Pipit welcomed me to the nature reserve but most of the birds were rather distant. The pools were quite dry with no sign of any waders, or any Yellow Wagtails - a rare species this far north but a pair was suspected of having tried to breed in this area a few years ago. This pair had given me my first ever sighting of the species when I chanced upon them on a day very similar to the one I was currently enjoying.

The best sighting of the day was just ahead of me. I was unaware that not too far in front of me was a Fox, and that Fox was equally as unaware of me. When I spotted the bright orange back of the animal it was mostly hidden by vegetation as it listened for signs of movement in the long grass before it pounced and managed to catch something - a sequence I managed to capture on a not particularly great video clip. I approached as quietly as I could and got much closer than I expected to. At this point the Fox looked up, spotted me and disappeared into the vegetation and up the small slope. A little further on, a few minutes later I saw what was surely the same Fox trotting along the track at the edge of the beach, sending the Shelducks and Lapwings into the air. I shot some more nice video footage and then hurried on to try and close the gap a bit. The Fox eventually spotted me and took off running until I lost sight of it at a bend where a small channel runs out from the fields.

When I reached this particular point myself I decided to get up from the beach mud and onto the raised banking and to walk along that till I reached the golf course. At first this seemed like a good idea, until I started encountering lots of thistles on the path. With a tricky descent back down to the beach or a long walk back to somewhere I could get back to the beach I decided to push on. It certainly wasn't the most comfortable walk possible and birds were few and far between with only Linnets close by. Way out in the bay a few Great Black Backed Gulls were feeding on a Seal carcase. I found my first Damselfly of the year (a Common Blue) just before I reached the golf course. I stopped in at the hide there for a short while but there was nothing much to see except Linnets close by.

Rather more distantly I did succeed in picking out a few Eiders in flight and a Stock Dove flew in front of the hide. A Common Gull was in a small group of Black Headed Gulls out in the bay. Crossing the golf course I was passed bya Song Thrush and stopped briefly to photograph a Meadow Pipit on a fairway. A Mistle Thrush flew off across the rugby pitches as I passed the Old Course Hotel. There were lots of Woodpigeons and rather a lot of Linnets here too, despite the activity around with preparations for the upcoming Open golf tournament. I had intended on stopping off on the rocks at the West Sands behind the golf museum but the area required a large detour beacuse of more Open activity.

I eventually settled on a high viewpoint to scan out across the bay. I picked up a single Sandwich Tern hunting not too far offshore and a rather more distant Gannet. On the cliffs were the usual Fulmar nesting pairs and I eventually wandered up the hill to attempt to film a few of the birds despite the large number of tourists around. I succeeded in getting a couple of reasonable clips before heading up to the bus station to catch a bus home, after a reasonably enjoyable day's birding on foot.

55 species seen in total - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Eider, Fulmar, Gannet, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Little Egret, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Sedge Warbler, Shelduck, Skylark, Song Thrush, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Tree Sparrow, Whitethroat, Woodpigeon, Wren.