Another Saturday where motivation was rather lacking resulted in me failing to get up early enough to head over to Morton Lochs to look for interesting insects. Instead I procrastinated for a few hours before eventually going for the short trip up to Swannie Ponds to search for ringed Gulls. With Black Headed Gulls starting to appear back from breeding sites there was a slight chance of picking up an early Norwegian bird, or just a locally ringed one. If nothing else, I might see if the Portuguese ringed Lesser Black Backed Gull was still around. Either way, I would be getting out of the house for a while.
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| Coot |
I headed out at around 1330and Herring Gull was first onto the list, one of the local, possibly breeding, birds eyeing me rather nervously as if contemplating a swoop at me when I wasn't watching. As I was aware of the signs I didn't take my eye off it until he perched back on the rooftops, and I walked on out of its territory.House Martins, rather than the expected Swifts, were next onto the list, a few birds hawking above the roofs of the tenements. When I reached Clepington Road, I added a Lesser Black Backed Gull perched atop the DIY trade shop units across the road, and a flypast Feral Pigeon.
As has been the case recently, I heard a Siskin calling as it passed over, but I managed to see this one without too much effort as it headed westwards along Clepington Road. A pair of Goldfinches twittered away from a rooftop down a side-street before I reached Forfar Road. There was no sign of the nesting Swallows around the big house nearby. When I reached Swannie Ponds, a Blackbird was feeding on the grass beside the bushes, a few Black Headed Gulls were stood around the edges, while out on the water a handful of Lesser Black Backed and Herring Gulls congregated together.
I could see that one of the Coots was still around, which was good news, at least potentially. I was distracted by a juvenile Dunnock feeding on the path a few feet away from me. On the island a few sleeping Mallards in eclipse plumage could be seen in among the longer grass. A young House Sparrow flew down to teh edge of the water where it looked for food unsuccessfully. A bit further round, a Carrion Crow hopped around. The Mute Swan pair could be seen on the island, their white necks visible above the vegetation. The other Coot was near the nest and I was surprised to see movement on the nest, where two scruffy looking youngsters could be seen. They soon joined the parents on the water, and a third which had been hidden from view appeared too. All three youngsters and the two adults loitered near the nest, with the adults patching up the nest with fresh weed pulled out of the water in between feeding the youngsters.
The head of a female Tufted Duck popped up from the island near the Mute Swans, but this appeared to be the sole Tufted Duck around. I scanned through the gulls on the path along the opposite side of the pond, searching for any sign of a ringed bird but found none. The lower pond had been drained and there were a few Black Headed Gulls there including a fresh looking juvenile, which I managed to get some video and photos of. Across the other side of the pond a young Carrion Crow was picking around among the dried up weed as the parents foraged around in the mud nearby.
A Moorhen adult appeared from the island as House Martins swept low across the water. A second adult and a rather brown youngster approaching adult size could be seen in below the overhanging thorny branches hanging from the island. I succeeded in getting a short video clip of the birds feeding, before trying again for more of the young Black Headed Gull which was mooching for food from a lady feeding the Mallards. Overhead a Swift passed over, and I noticed that there was quite a number of mostly Lesser Black Backed Gulls perched on one of the roofs of a house on Clepington Road. there were a couple of pairs alos on the lamp posts but no sign of any ringed birds at all.
A pair of Swallows whizzed low past me and up over the trees and were gone again as quickly as they had arrived. I spent another 30 minutes or so, photographing and videoing the Coots, Moorhens and Gulls before deciding to head for home, but not before adding one last species in the shape of a Woodpigeon. The juvenile Dunnock showed again, very close, but as the camera had been put away I missed out on a few more pics. All in all, I had only managed to see 19 species but I did get some decent video clips of young Coots, Moorhen and Black Headed Gulls.
Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed ull, Carrion Crow, Coot, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Hering Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Feral Pigeon, Siskn, Swallow, Swift, Tufted Duck, Woodpigeon.
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| Dunnock |
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| Dunnock |
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| Coot |
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| Lesser Black Backed Gull |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Moorhen |
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Mallard |
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| Carrion Crow |
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| Lesser Black Backed Gull |
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| Coot |
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| Coot |
