Once again the choice of destinations for our midweek outing was looking rather limited, owing to a combination of a lack of 'good' birds and wet weather forecast for most of Fife and Angus again. It looked like a trip further afield was our best option. Having never visited the likes of Baron's Haugh and Lochwinnoch RSPB reserves we decided that a trip south and west was a decent enough idea. Essentially it would be a reconnaissance trip, so that we would know where to go, in future, if anything "good" turned up. Black Guillemot on the west coast near Glasgow were also a possibility if we made it that far. Having made arrangements a thought occurred to me, the Gull Billed Tern at Kinneil Lagoons was sort of on the route.
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| Common Tern |
When Nat arrived at 0900 we decided to head first to Kinneil in the hope that we would be lucky enough to catch the bird that had been showing in the mornings before heading off down the Forth. It was fairly typical fayre as we set off first towards Perth then down to the Forth bridge, with Herring Gull, Carrion Crow, Blackbird and Woodpigeon seen. Starling and Buzzard were seen in Fife while the numbers of Magpies slowly increased the further south we got. Lesser Black Backed Gull, Stock Dove, Pied Wagtail and Lapwing along with Swallow, Collared Dove, Swift and House Sparrow were all seen between the bridges and Bo'ness. Jackdaws vied with Magpies to be the most numerous corvids.
We easily found the place to park for Kinneil Lagoons, having checked Google streetview the previous evening. A Whitethroat was perched in a small tree near the car park. The river held plenty of Black Headed Gulls and Shelduck. A Dunnock was in the bushes by the track as we walked along the edge of the river. A Grasshopper Warbler reeled from a reedbed but went unseen. An Oystercatcher flew by. A singing Sedge Warbler was spotted in the reeds and a tern flew by. Unfortunately it was only a Common Tern.
We found a few birders scoping the lagoon and stopped beside them. One of them I recognised from Fife Bird Club (I think). Another was the renowned bird artist Darren Woodhead who I'd met a few years ago at the Red Flanked Bluetail twitch, unfortunately on the day it had disappeared. The third birder I didn't recognise. A quick question of "is it about?" was answered with "it left about 20 minutes ago and we haven't seen it since". This wasn't great news but we were in the right place if it returned. On the lagoons were a flock of Black Headed Gulls, a few Oystercatchers, a Curlew, a couple of Redshanks and a few Woodpigeons around the edges. A Great Black Backed Gull overflew.
I scanned out across the river picking out a few distant Common Terns and surprisingly a pair of Great Crested Grebes. A Bar Tailed Godwit was on the lagoon. There were a few Grey Herons stood around the edges. We decided to have a wee wander further east along the track to see what else the site had to offer. There were a few Linnets, a family of Long tailed Tits flew between some bushes, while further back a Kestrel hovered. A Willow Warbler sang loudly from a tree before we wandered back. A Cormorant was out on the river and a Stock Dove took off from the bank. A couple of Sand Martins overflew as we wandered back to the car for something to eat. A Goldfinch was added to the list near the car.
We worked out a route to Motherwell, taking the backroads to Airdrie then south to the town. This would hopefully give us a better chance of seeing some birds than taking the motorway. Unfortunately, the reality was somewhat different with only Greenfinch added, though we did see a few other species that we'd already seen earlier too. Motherwell proved to be a nightmare to navigate around with traffic roundabouts at seemingly every junction. Eventually with the help of google maps on my phone we made it to the reserve.
A pair of Garden Warblers were singing at the car park but the foliage was too thick to see them. Great Tit was added on our way down the hill. Our first Ringlet butterfly of the year was seen on the way. We headed first to the Marsh hide. Out on the water things were relatively disappointing with a few Mallards, some gulls, the odd Moorhen, some distant Coots, a few Teal and a single drake Wigeon seen. There were 3 Grey Herons perched in trees. A Mute Swan family was seen from the next hide but we decided it wasn't looking worth wandering any further round. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was another 'heard only' bird. A Robin showed well though and our second 'new' butterfly of the day was a Small Heath as we headed back to the car. A Blue Tit was another late addition on the way back uphill.
With the time now after 1520 we decided to double back on ourselves to Kinneil in the hope that the Gull Billed Tern might have returned. Getting out of Motherwell wasn't straightforward either, with a junction near Fir Park being a nightmare to get out of in particular. We encountered some rain, but few birds, on our way back to Kinneil. A wrong turn meant we ended up in California. Not the US state obviously but a very small village. Feral Pigeon was the only addition along the way. A Pheasant wandered across the access road as we arrived back at Kinneil. The tide was well out and there were lots of Shelduck out on the mud as well as Black Headed Gulls. A Wren sang loudly from among the bushes. A few Common Terns were seen but no Gull Billed Tern. We eventually headed for home adding only Rook on the way.
Although we were ultimately unsuccessful in seeing our target bird we did manage to see 2 new butterfly species for the year and visited 2 new birding sites seeing a total of 50 species on the day.
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| Black Headed Gull |
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| Sedge Warbler |
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| Common Tern |
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| Great Crested Grebe |
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| Shelduck |
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| Common Tern |
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| Shelduck |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Collared Dove, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Sedge Warbler, Shelduck, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Teal, Whitethroat, Wigeon, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren.
There were a number of heard only birds, mostly at Baron's Haugh - Blackcap, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Little Grebe, Reed Bunting, Skylark, Song Thrush, Water Rail.
