There are some places that I always try to visit at some point throughout the year, even if it is only once or maybe twice if I'm lucky - Speyside etc for the Highland specialties, East Lothian coast for Red Necked Grebes etc, Killiecrankie in late Spring for Wood Warbler and Pied Flycatcher now with added bonus Nuthatches. Another under-visited place is Largo Bay where if you are lucky you can get the rare pair of Surf Scoter drake and Female King Eider. A little along the coast there is a good chance of Mediterranean Gull. Throw in divers and grebes offshore and it is easy to see the attraction when a year-list is being put together, or even just for a good day's birding. So when Fife Bird Club's January outing to Largo Bay came to our attention, myself and Nat decided to attend.
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| Snipe |
An earlier than normal (for January) start would be required but the quite inconvenient - slightly too early or almost too late - bus times to Fife didn't appear to leave too much margin for hold-ups etc. Nothing daunted I was out the door at around 0740 to walk into town to catch the bus to the other end of the Tay bridge to meet Nat. As it was still around 45 minutes before sunrise I didn't expect to see too many birds on the walk. Herring Gull was first unsurprisingly, with a foraging Blackbird a little bit down the road. Woodpigeon and Carrion Crow were the only others seen before I reached the bus station though a few species were heard (Blue Tit, Robin, House Sparrow, Wren) but went unseen.
There wasn't a whole lot extra added on our way through Fife with Rooks and Buzzard being the exceptions. We reached the rendezvous point at the Levenmouth car park earlier than expected. With the sun a little over the horizon it was still a bit chilly outside but I ventured out for a spot of early birding before other Fife Bird Club members arrived for the 0900 start time. A Cormorant flew past offshore, while Starlings called from among the rocks where they were feeding down on the beach. There were lots of gulls around, mostly Herring Gulls and Black Headed Gulls. Waders seen on the first scan were unsurprisingly Redshank, Oystercatcher and Curlew. A Pied Wagtail landed on the sea wall, a few Goldeneye were on the river mostly males congregating around a few females.
Other birders arrived and scopes were set up. Nat joined me and I pointed out some of the birds that were already on the list. Great Black Backed Gull and Jackdaw were both added from a second scan along the beach. A pair of Bar Tailed Godwits fed along the edge of the sand. I thought I heard a
Dipper calling and a few seconds later I spotted the bird low over the water before it landed out on a rock at the base of a large pole. A first for the year for both myself and Nat and a slightly unexpected bird at the seaside. Some medium sized waders flew in to join the throng across the river. A quick look through the scope showed them to be
Knot. Another year-tick for me, though not for Nat.
Sanderlings scurrying along the sand were next with a few Eiders bobbing around offshore. A few Feral Pigeons were noted along with one or two Common Gulls that had been overlooked initially among the gull flock. A Rock Pipit called and landed close to the Pied Wagtail that was frequenting the car park as we scanned around. Another look at the gull flock found a good January bird in the shape of a
Lesser Black Backed Gull. I usually have to wait till March to get one of those. A couple of Dunlin were the next find. Red Breasted Mergansers were picked up offshore and further out a few Long Tailed Ducks were seen, mostly in flight.Among the Herring Gulls I found a single yellow ringed bird (T:630 - which may be from the Angus or Aberdeenshire coast).
I next found a Red Throated Diver that proved rather elusive a bit further offshore but I eventually manged to get Nat and others onto the bird. While trying to relocate it I also found a Shag diving among the waves. After lots of scanning along the shoreline among the rocks, Nat found us a Turnstone across the river among the gulls. After around an hour we moved a bit further east along the bay to see if there were anything else of interest offshore away from the river mouth. Willie Irvine found a flock of Ringed Plovers quite close by, though a group of walkers decided to continue walking through despite the horde of scopes obviously pointing at something. Needless to say off went the flock. A few House Sparrows chirped in bushes round about.
Offshore there were a number of
Velvet Scoters bobbing around. There were a few
Common Scoters among them. Usually the opposite is the case with a few Velvets among the Commons. I picked up a rather distant
Slavonian Grebe which proved difficult to track as it continuously dived. Eventually others managed to pick up the grebe. A flock of Dunlin did pop in briefly to the same area where the Ringed Plover had been but they didn't stay for long. After a bit more scanning we moved on again, this time to Lower Largo for more scanning of the bay.
Collared Doves were in the trees behind the car park. There were a few waders around on the beach and rocks including Redshank, Oystercatchers and Turnstones. Purple Sandpiper was spotted perched out on a rock. I found a Guillemot and another Red Throated Diver. As before it was tricky to get others onto the diver with the bird diving a lot and popping up further away from where it was expected. A few Long Tailed Ducks and Scoters were seen flying by before I spotted a larger bird much further out in the bay swimming eastwards. It had to be a
Great Northern Diver, a bird I didn't see at all last year. Again it proved tricky to get others onto the bird with no markers to point people towards. Eventually however the bird swam in front of the two oil rigs stood out in the Forth which meant that directions could be given.
A few Chaffinches laded in the trees. A few minutes later I heard a calling Grey Wagtail and whirled round in time to see it fly down behind a roof. A few minutes later I heard it again and luckily this time it landed down by the small burn outflow before flying up to a different roof giving everyone good views. A Buzzard drifted over behind us, missed by most folk, despite being harassed by Carrion Crows. A Kestrel went by in the same direction a few minutes later, and returned just as we were about to leave. Kilconquhar was to be the next stop, so off we went.
As we parked up in the village a Lapwing overflew. Willie Irvine pointed out a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the trees opposite. Nearby a few Jackdaws, Blue Tits, Goldfinches and a flyover Bullfinch were seen as we stood around deciding whether or not to start our lunch. Lunch was duly decided upon and eaten, but birds were still watched for with more Lapwings overflying and a Coal Tit seen in a small tree nearby. Half of the group went to the Fife Bird Club hide down at Kilconquhar Loch while the rest of us walked along the road to overlook the Barnyard Marsh small reserve where we were hoping to see some Snipe, and with a bit of luck potentially Jack Snipe also.
We added Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer as we walked to near the end of the road and corner of the marsh. The plan was for Willie and another birder with suitable footwear to walk through part of the marsh which would flush a few Snipe, if they were actually there. As we took up position a couple of birds took flight anyway, giving us an early indication of what to expect. Once the walk got underway there were plenty others to see, with small groups taking to the air, gaining some height and circling round before dropping back in again before we headed back to the car park.A probable Woodcock was seen by some of the group but I managed to miss it. A skein of Pink Footed Geese overflew while a little later another skein of Greylags this time headed inland. The first Stock Dove of the day passed overhead before we headed for the hide to swap places with the other half of the group.
On the way, Reed Bunting, Wren and Siskin were all seen while in the woods leading to the hide some of the group managed to see Long Tailed Tits. I only saw what might have been the birds flying off over the trees, so they didn't make it onto my list. Once in the small hide we scanned out across the loch where a mixture of species were spread out towards the far end. Mallards, Tufted Ducks, Teal, Wigeon, a few Pochard, a pair of
Great Crested Grebes and some Coots were all on the water, with a few roosting Grey Herons perched in trees along the far bank. Heading back out from the hide we added Great Tit for the day and at the roadside I spotted a Song Thrush which perched up in a small tree but then flew off just before teh others reached where I was standing. A Robin was seen flying across the road on our way back to the car.
Our last port of call was to be Ruddon's Point hoping to add at least the female King Eider which had been seen earlier as well as a rather unseasonal Manx Shearwater by another birder. Unfortunately, the wind had strengthened and the sky was greyer and darker, which coupled with the tide state made trying to find anything out on the water trickier than it would ideally have been. There were Eiders offshore near the small island/spit, with a few Wigeon and Cormorants. Oystercatchers and Redshanks were also seen. Lots of scanning produced very little. It increasingly seemed to be a forlorn hope. I did succeed in spotting a Great Northern Diver, quite likely the same bird from earlier in the day close in to shore on the other side of the point, but when I hurried across for a closer look I couldn't see it. Nat told me that it had been right in front of me when I was looking further out through the binoculars.
I thought it had been another one that got away but a second attempt by the group re-found both the Great Northern Diver and a Red Throated Diver, neither particularly far offshore. With some photos taken of the bird, despite the conditions, I tried again to find the King Eider. Eventually despite the swell I picked out a potential candidate among a small group of Eiders. It was impossible to track and I hesitatingly told the others to try and get on the bird, just in case, though my directions were rather vague, mainly because I was getting split second glimpses of the bird as the waves rose and fell around it.
Eventually a female bird took flight low across the water. I rattled off a series of photos, but Willie was unconvinced that it was the King Eider. Checking the photos later at home showed that it didn't look like a Common Eider though having never seen King Eider in flight before I needed a second opinion, or two. Posting the photos on the Scottish Birding group on Facebook and the Bird Identification thread on Birdforum resulted in a qualified consensus that it was indeed the
King Eider female. Success after all. As we were watching some of the other birds round about, Willie spotted a large high flying flock of Golden Plover.
With the light getting worse and the temperature dropping myself and Nat decided we would head back to the car and head for home. If the light and time was on our side we would maybe drop into Birnie and Gaddon where an American Wigeon had been seen during the previous few days. We added Magpie as we walked the mile or so back to the car and even managed to find the eyepiece off Nat's binoculars that she had somehow managed to drop on her way out to the point. As it turned out the rest of the group wasn't far behind us and arrived back at the car park just as we were setting off for home. With the light levels dropping quickly we decided against the Gaddon Loch detour and added only one more species to the list on our way back through Fife in the shape of Pheasant.
A rather productive, and enjoyable, outing in the end with a rather decent total of 74 species seen by me (and a few others missed but seen by others). A good total for the limited daylight of January. Among the 74, I added 9 new species for the year (in bold).
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| Lesser Black Backed Gull, Herring Gull, Carrion Crow |
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| Dipper |
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| Herring Gull & Oystercatcher |
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| Goldeneye & Black Headed Gull |
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| Goldeneye |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Velvet Scoter |
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| Buzzard |
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| Redshank |
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Grey Wagtail
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| Snipe |
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| Stock Dove |
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| Red Throated Diver |
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| Great Northern Diver |
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| Eider |
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| King Eider |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull,
Common Scoter, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew,
Dipper, Dunlin, Eider, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull,
Great Crested Grebe,
Great Northern Diver, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Greylag Goose, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel,
King Eider,
Knot, Lapwing,
Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Duck, Magpie, Mallard, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Pochard, Purple Sandpiper, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sanderling, Shag, Siskin,
Slavonian Grebe, Snipe, Song Thrush, Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone,
Velvet Scoter, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
