STONEFACTION BIRDING: 0230 : Closer (9/11/15)

0230 : Closer (9/11/15)

With the days now being much shorter and the weather generally being either colder or wetter or both, it pays to take any opportunity to get out birding that happens to come along. With 3 days off work in the first half of this week, my intentions had been to get up and out early on Monday morning. Heavy rain and gale force winds made staying in bed much more sensible. Nat would be free around lunchtime to squeeze in an afternoon's birding with the hope of adding Bittern to her burgeoning year-list/life-list the reason for the choice of Loch of Kinnordy as the location for spending a few hours birding. Thankfully the weather did indeed brighten up somewhat and although it was still rather windy, it was relatively mild for early November.

Bittern

Nat arranged to pick me up around 1250 and as I waited for her to arrive I noticed there were hardly any birds around - a glimpse of a Herring Gull slewing sideways with the wind and a flyover Feral Pigeon being all that was seen, or heard. We added Black Headed Gull on Clepington Road as well as a Woodpigeon perched atop a lamp post. Heading up the dual-carriageway we only succeeded in adding 1 species, as 3 Starlings overflew the road. Between leaving the A90 and reaching Kinnordy we managed to add just 2 more - Rooks and Common Gulls, both in and around fields, though a flock of what looked like large thrushes did overfly us just before we reached Maryton.

When we reached the reserve we found the car park chock-a-block with cars. There was one recently vacated space where we were able to squeeze in. Having received a text message saying the Bittern had been seen earlier from the East Hide, we decided to walk there first rather than try to squeeze into the likely rather busy Gullery Hide. If the East Hide proved to be busy we could at least hope to get some information on where the Bittern had shown earlier. The path was rather wet and muddy and we stopped by the feeders to have a look. A single Great Tit, a few Chaffinches, a Blackbird a Robin, and a few Coal Tits were all we saw. Although the sun had been shining when we left Dundee it was rather grey and overcast at Kinnordy.

There were a few folk in the East Hide but a pair were just leaving and we squeezed into the middle window. The Great White Egret which had been around for a few days was showing relatively well across the far shore. A flock of Canada Geese were on the water, along with Mallards, Tufted Ducks and a few Wigeon just off the end of the reeds. Lapwings could be seen along on the bogbean islands. Carrion Crow and Herring Gull flew by. Some more in-depth scanning added a selection of wildfowl - a few Goldeneye, some distant Mute Swans, Goosanders and a number of Teal. Something disturbed the Greylags from the western end of the Loch and they flew in en masse to land in front of the hide and in the fields to the north of the reserve. A Cormorant was perched atop one of the wooden poles sometimes used by the Ospreys.

A Moorhen was spotted swimming out along the edge of the reeds along to our left, and while scanning through the Greylags I found a Pink Footed Goose. A small group of Shovelers (3 drakes and a single duck) flew in. A Buzzard was hounded by Carrion Crows before flying off along the trees at the back of the reserve. Something unseen spooked the Lapwings from the bogbean islands and they rose up in a large swarm circling around for a few minutes before settling again. Also in the air were at least 5 Snipe. A flock of Fieldfares overflew 'chuckling' loudly. I spotted a male Pheasant near the brick building among the reeds. A birder sat to our left suddenly remarked that he could see the Bittern in flight, but without any indication of where. Nat managed to follow his line of sight and saw the bird just before it dropped out of sight into the reeds. I missed it. There were a pair of Roe Deer feeding near the pines and I thought I glimpsed some white fleetingly at the owl box entrance hole.

We debated walking along to the Gullery Hide but chose instead to stay where we were. The birder who had seen the Bittern and his companion left a few minutes later. With the 2 photographers who had been in the hide when we arrived having also left we now had the hide to ourselves. The decision to stay put turned out to be a really good one a few minutes later. I happened to look across the Loch and saw a large orangey-brown bird flying low across the water almost directly towards us. I alerted Nat who quickly also got onto the bird before I started taking photos. The bird swung round in front of the reeds in front of us before landing on the small reedy island off to the left. With most, if not all, of the sightings of the Bittern at Kinnordy being rather distant, the relative proximity of our sighting and the resultant photos certainly justified our decision not to move. A Sparrowhawk flew fast and low across the Loch and into the trees across the far side

A trio of birders from Fife and another few birders joined us in the hide a few minutes later and we told them that we knew almost exactly where to look for a chance of seeing the Bittern. Needless to say, scopes and binoculars were all focused on the island. We waited, hoping the bird would feed along the edge of the island nearest to us, but to no avail. One of the Fife birders said he could see movement near the end of the island but no-one else could see anything. He had obviously seen something because seconds later the Bittern broke cover from where he had seen movement and took to the air flying low across the water just offshore from the end of the reeds in front of the hide. I snapped away and watched as the bird flew off towards the eastern end before swinging back round and out of sight, no doubt having found a spot along the edge of the reeds more to its liking. Looking back at my photos, I found that these were even better than the first set.

Having had 2 great views of the Bittern we decided that we could probably now go and check out the view from the other hides. A Red Squirrel scurried across the path and into the trees as I opened the door. Up in the field a flock of Redwings and a few Chaffinches milled around, with some landing up in the trees within the reserve. There was nothing new at the feeders so we wandered in to the Gullery Hide where local recorder Jon Cook was sitting. I showed him one of the Bittern photos and joked that it could be the cover for the next ADBC magazine. Out front, the bogbean was alive with Snipe. Jon had counted more than 130. A video I saw later posted by Charles Rough filmed late morning showed the bogbean absolutely teeming with Snipe, so there must have been hundreds of the birds at that point. Even with the reduced numbers we saw it was easily the largest amount of Snipe I've seen in one place (quite possibly more individual birds of that species than I've seen in any one year).

A few distant Reed Buntings, as well as some noisy Jackdaws were the only additions from the Gullery Hide and with the light rapidly fading we decided on a quick visit to the Swamp Hide before the light went completely. As we were on our way out, Mike Fenton was on his way in, and we told him about the Bittern. He was hoping to see and photograph the Egret, and it flew in just as we were closing the door. The walk to the Swamp Hide was quiet and there were only a handful of Mallards out on the water. A female Chaffinch flitted ahead of us as we walked back and a pair of Blue Tits gave us our last new species for the day. Mike was on his way back to his car as we returned to Nat's and he told us he'd also managed to see the Bittern during his brief visit. Looks like it was being very un-skulking yesterday.

Only 38 species seen, but some good quality birds, and even better views - Bittern, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Cormorant, Fieldfare, Goldeneye, Goosander, Great Tit, Great White Egret, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lapwing, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pheasant, Pink Footed Goose, Redwing, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Shoveler, Snipe, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Teal, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Woodpigeon.