0338 : After The Rain (14/10/16)

With a forecast for heavy rain on Friday, I decided to treat myself to some new binoculars as I would likely be stuck at home anyway. When I discovered that they would be delivered by 1300, all going to plan and that the weather forecast had improved slightly I decided that I really should get out somewhere to test the binoculars, and hopefully see some good birds along the way. So when the parcel arrived not too long after 1300, I ripped open the packaging, changed over the strap and decided where to go to avoid the worst of any weather and see some birds without spending all my time on a bus. Riverside Nature Park offered the best compromise. If I was lucky I might find some grounded migrants in the park. If not, I would get to test the binoculars out in less than perfect conditions.

Long Tailed Tit

I headed out shortly before 1345 but birds were in short supply until I made it into town with only a Feral Pigeon and a Blackbird seen. Cutting through The Howff I did manage to see some more birds even if it was just a Carrion Crow, a Woodpigeon and another Blackbird. Once I made it to somewhere near the park on a re-routed bus, I managed to find a few Goldcrests in a tree on Glamis Road.

I arrived at the park at around 1430, the journey having taken a bit longer than it really should have (I could have made it to Guardbridge in less time). A Coal Tit was in the trees bear the entrance and a couple of Robins sang to mark their own little bits of the park. A young Woodpigeon was in a small tree just inside the park and the first Magpie put in an appearance flying over towards the road. As with everywhere else this week, it didn't take too long to find a few Goldcrests in another tree. Two birds caught my eye as they flew over beyond Buzzard Wood. A pair of Snipe flushed from the boggy area. A Blackbird hopped about ahead of me as I wandered in the direction of Buzzard Wood. An odd call caught my attention from the direction of the back of Buzzard Wood and I headed in the direction of the sound.

I failed to see what had made the noise (Sparrowhawk kill?) but I did hear and then see Bullfinches in the trees. A few Carrion Crows overflew and I wandered round to the front of Buzzard Wood adding a flyover Chaffinch en route. I decided to check out the boggy area first. A Meadow Pipit and another Chaffinch perched in one of the small bushes before I flushed a couple of Snipe. A Herring Gull drifted over as did a pair of Black Headed Gulls minutes later. A Starling landed on a telegraph pole by the road. A couple of Goldfinches landed in the bushes and another Snipe took to the air as I negotiated my way through the swampy underfoot conditions.

Buzzard Wood was very quiet with nothing seen, though there were one or two birds calling from deep within the trees including a Great Spotted Woodpecker that remained unspotted. A Great Black Backed Gull overflew as I headed round to wander around the edges of the former dog exercise 'field' checking the trees. But first I had to collect some muddy dog footprints on my clothes from a bulldog called Bella. The owner was actually apologetic which made a refreshing change. The trees were very quiet though a very dark reddish male Pheasant wandered into a nettle bed when it spotted me. A flock of Jackdaws loitered in the trees near the car park.

A Grey Heron lifted from the boggy area as a dog walker and his charge went exploring. The Great Spotted Woodpecker I had heard earlier flew into the trees across the road from the car park entrance, its call alerting me to its flight in. I headed next in the direction of the Lochan, encountering a flock of Long Tailed Tits and a few Blue Tits on the way. At the Lochan there were a hundred or so Redshanks roosting along the far side with a few Teal and Mallards. The Mute Swan pair were on the water but there was no sign of the Tufted Duck seen on previous visits. A pair of Stock Doves appeared from behind a patch of vegetation as they flew off.

The hide was my next stop in the hope of adding a few more waders to the list. The tide was still rather high with only a few feet of exposed mud to be seen by the end of the pipe at the burn outflow. Out on the water were plenty of gulls, mostly Black Headed Gulls together, a single Great Black Backed Gull was on its own and further out were some Herring Gulls. As the pipe and the mud slowly reappeared from the receding tidal waters Redshanks began to fly in to land on the pipe before a few moved onto the now larger area of mud. The Great Black Backed Gull joined some of the other gulls on the pipe and I was surprised slightly to see a Lesser Black Backed Gull also in attendance. I was less surprised to see a couple of Common Gulls but they were no less welcome, adding another species to the list.

A pair of Black Tailed Godwits  flew round the bay before settling among the Redshanks and gulls on the mud. Mallards swam out from their roost before a few more Godwits flew in as did many more Redshanks. A Cormorant stood on the pipe drying its wings. With no sign of any Curlews, Oystercatchers or Dunlin coming in I decided to head on back past the hill as the sky was beginning to look increasingly threatening with rain further upriver. The bushes near the recycling site were full of Goldfinches and a few Blackbirds were out in the open along the edges. I found another flock of Long Tailed Tits and succeeded in getting a short video clip of one obliging bird before I called it a day and headed for a bus. Unfortunately this entailed a walk up to Ninewells and a rather protracted journey home via numerous detours. Still the binoculars had proved to be rather impressive (as they should have been considering the price paid) and I'd managed to see 32 species (those seen in and outside the park in italics) even if there had only been a few Goldcrests representing the migrant influx.

Goldfinch

Pheasant

Jackdaw

Teal

Teal & Redshank

Great Black Backed Gull

Common Gull

Black Tailed Godwit & Redshank

Herring Gull

Lesser Black Backed Gull, Herring Gull & Great Black Backed Gull

Cormorant

Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Cormorant, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Pheasant, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Snipe, Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Woodpigeon

0337 : Lucky 13? (13/10/16)

With the easterly winds showing no sign of letting up and having had two of my previous best finds on the 13th October (2013 - Red Flanked Bluetail (the first of the two) and 2014 - White Billed Diver), I definitely had to make the effort to get out and about on the 13th, with the Crail area being once again the focus of those efforts to find something good. I messaged birding buddy, Jacqui, to see if she was free. She messaged me back in the morning and we arranged to head out for the morning.

Grey Heron

It was a slightly later start owing to Jacqui having stuff to do at home first, but I headed out at around 0815 to catch the 0835 bus to Guardbridge to meet her. There were a few birds seen on the way to the bus station - Feral Pigeon, Starling, Herring Gull and Dunnock with Carrion Crows mobbing a Buzzard just to the east of the Wellgate Centre being a surprise sighting. A Blackbird and Grey Wagtail were added before I arrived at the bus station. Cormorants were seen on Submarine Rock, before my attention turned to a wasp on the bus window next to my seat. Incredibly while trying to open the window so it could find its way out, I managed to trap its back leg somehow. It struggled for a while before finally looking like it had died. I told the guy in the seat behind me to watch it didn't end up in his lap when I closed the window. It didn't. It was still alive and probably a bit annoyed. Thankfully I was getting nearer to Guardbridge and it flew up to the skylight window on the bus before I got off.

I joined Jacqui outside the hide and quickly spied what I could, missing a few species that she had seen, but managing to get Goosander, Redshank, Grey Heron, Lapwing, Woodpigeon, Black Headed Gull and a very distant White Tailed Eagle on its usual perch way out on the river. The sun's glare was rather strong and made seeing the birds on the wet mud tricky. We set off for Crail after a few minutes, adding Rook and Pied Wagtail on the road to St Andrews. We decided to try the fields around Wormiston first with the stubble fields conceivably hiding a bunting or two, most likely Lapland which would be a lifer for me. Skylarks flew over as did a small group of Golden Plover as we walked down past the farm buildings.

A few Swallows flew by, and a number of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits lifted from the stubble fields. Goldcrests and Blue Tits were in the bushes around the holiday cottages. A flock of small birds which also lifted from the stubble turned out to be Linnets. Out on the rocks offshore at the bottom of the track we added Great Black Backed Gull, Mallards, Shag, Eider, Rock Pipit and Curlew. I suggested we wander round the edge of the field in the hope that something might be sheltering in the lee of the drystane dyke but a single Yellowhammer, a pair of Magpies and a pair of Redwings completed our Wormiston list.

Denburn Wood was next and although there was plenty of activity it was mostly just the regular Great Tits, Blue Tits, Robins, Wrens and Blackbirds, though we did also find a Coal Tit and a Treecreeper as well as a single Chiffchaff. If there was anything more exotic it was in hiding. We headed next for Kilminning but again it was rather quiet with a fairly standard mix of birds with Goldcrests the most visible despite their diminutive size. A few Robins, Wrens and Blackbirds plus the ubiquitous Magpies were all we found except for Goldfinches. Greenfinches were feeding on the rosehips and there were a few Redwings and Blackbirds in the bushes. We could see the Golden Plover flock taking flight in the distance and a flock of Linnets and Skylarks much closer.

A nice surprise was a Stoat which popped up on a row of tyres on the airfield and posed nicely. Jacqui spotted a Kestrel hovering above the coastal path. A few more Skylarks and Meadow Pipits gave us decent views before we headed back to the car to head down to Fife Ness. The intention was to do some sea-watching from the hide, but we bumped into John Anderson and Beth who told us the hide was rather busy already. As we wandered along the track a bird lifted from not too far in front of us. It was grey with a very obvious white rump and a black tail. It landed a few feet further on but as soon as we lifted our binoculars it took off again and flew another few feet. This happened 3 times before it flew out of sight behind the hide.

The only thing it could be was a Redpoll, and with tweets on twitter announcing Mealy Redpolls on the Isle of May this seemed the most likely explanation though we could not completely rule out an Arctic Redpoll. We hunted for it along the path but drew a blank. Our brief spell of sea-watching gave us Razorbill, Guillemot and a Red Throated Diver in addition to the Gannets but it was pretty quiet overall. Shags, Great Black Backed Gulls, Cormorants and Oystercatchers were on the rocks beyond Stinky Pool.With Jacqui having things needing down at home we headed back to Guardridge. A low flying skein of geese at Balgove Bay were Barnacle Geese. A nice surprise.

With heavy rain forecast I decided to spend an hour or so in the hide even though the tide was well in, Jacqui headed home and I headed into the hide. Out on the water were 4 sleeping Goosander, a few Mallards, a mixed flock of gulls (mostly Herring and Black Headed but also a few Great Black Backeds and Common Gulls) and some Wigeon and Teal further out. A Tree Sparrow visited the feeders. As the tide receded waders started to appear on the mud and I managed to pick out some distant Dunlin among the Redshanks. I found 6 Pintail out on the water and they took flight with some of the Wigeon a while later. A surprise departure from Leuchars in the shape of an RAF Typhoon which actually took off from the base shook things up with a flock of around 150 or so Golden Plover and another smaller flock of Lapwings appearing from somewhere.

Also out on the mud were a handful of Bar Tailed Godwits feeding among the smaller waders. I looked for Oystercatchers but failed to find any, which was a surprise. The White Tailed Eagle was back on its perch and a few of the local Buzzards put in an appearance. The crows across near the Fife Bird Club hide found a Sparrowhawk and chased it off. Greenfinch and Chaffinch visited the feeders and a flock of around 30 Goldfinches wheeled around across the river before settling on the barbed wire fence. The forecast rain looked imminent once or twice but came to nothing. More scanning found a couple of Black TailedGodwits and a Greenshank flew in to join another 3 that I had somehow overlooked. A small group of Jackdaws flew over from the direction of the base. Eventually around 1600 I decided to head for home as the rain started to fall. A good day out with a nice mix and a total of 62 species seen - the highest total of the week so far, even if the hoped for mega-rarity never materialised.

Golden Plover

Linnet

Linnet

Rook

Treecreeper

Wren

Skylark

Golden Plover

Stoat

Red Throated Diver & Razorbill

Wigeon

Goosander

Mallard

Goldfinch

RAF Typhoon

Golden Plover

White Tailed Eagle

Wigeon

Cormorant

Wigeon

Wigeon & Pintail

Species seen - Barnacle Goose, Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider, Gannet, Goldcrest, Golden Plover, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Greenshank, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Guillemot, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Linnet, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mealy Redpoll, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pintail, Razorbill, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Shag, Skylark, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Swallow, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Treecreeper, White Tailed Eagle, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.

0336 : Still Searching (12/10/16)

The continuing easterly winds had swung slightly making the Angus coast look a better bet for finding incoming migrants on Wednesday. For the usual weekly outing with Nat, I suggested the Angus coast, but she wasn't particularly keen. However, with diminishing returns from my 3 day run at the Crail area and unfinished business with regards checking the suitability of sites from Saturday, I managed to persuade her that it did actually look the better option.

Buzzard

Nat picked me up at 0800 and off we went. Feral Pigeon, Starling and Herring Gull giving a rather slow start to the list with Carrion Crow and Woodpigeon a bit further on. We headed up the A90 to Brechin then cut across country to Montrose. Our only addition along the way were a few Lapwings in a field and some overflying Pink Footed Geese near the Basin. We checked out the small park beside Tesco in Montrose which has turned up decent birds in the past, but it was very quiet probably as a result of the light rain shower. We did still manage to see Goldfinch, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Cormorant (overflying), Goldcrest, Robin and Song Thrush while Blue Tit was heard but not seen.

Our next planned stop was the area near Mains of Usan, so off we went. Eiders on the river as we left Montrose and Rooks in a field behind Ferryden gave us another few birds for the list. The walled garden appeared to be empty except for a small bird which shot out a bush and over the wall before it could be identified. A Meadow Pipit flew over. Further on we explored a bit of the wooded area but Goldcrests once again were the most numerous species. More Pink Footed Geese overflew and a Tree Sparrow showed well on wires by the big house driveway entrance. A Yellowhammer was the next addition and there were 3 Moorhens on the pond. A Grey Wagtail overflew and a Chaffinch was seen on our walk back to the car. A Great Spotted Woodpecker eluded us, though we heard it call from in the trees and a Buzzard showed well perched out on a branch behind the walled garden.

A trio of young Pheasants was in a stubble field on our way to Fishtown of Usan. We decided to check the stubble field first and there were plenty of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits but no obvious Lapland Buntings or similar amongst them. Offshore we spotted Curlews and Black Headed Gulls on the rocks along with Herring and Great Black Backed Gulls. A single Grey Heron roosted among them. A few Guillemots and a pair of Common Scoters headed south. Common Gulls and Gannets were also spotted out over the stormy sea. Checking the area down towards the beach added Dunnock (no Siberian Accentor here either), Rock Pipit and Wren. A Redshank flew low over the rocks.

I wanted to check the area beside Boddin as the gorse along the cliffs looked like they might have potential from looking at Google Earth, but having never visited I had no idea how accessible they were. As it turned out, with crops planted in the small field bordering them, there was no means of checking the area properly. There were plenty of Cormorants on the rocks along in front of the cliffs and a Wren was seen, but little else. Our next planned stop was the gully running down to the coast from Braehead of Lunan, which we had found earlier in the year while out exploring.

A few Redwings overflew as we walked down the side of the field, and there were Goldcrests in some of the trees. Robins were the predominant bird as far as we could see on the opposite side of the well vegetated gully. I did spot something different in an Elder, which turned out to be a Blackcap. From the bottom end of the track beyond the railway line we checked the sea finding a few Velvet and Common Scoters. A single Red Throated Diver was among the small group. Walking back up the track a few Swallows flew past headed south.

We stopped off at the car park at Lunan Bay for a spot of lunch, watching Greenfinches and a few House Sparrows among the rosehips as we ate. A short wander around after lunch only added Great Tit and a few more Blue Tits, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and Wrens were seen. We decided to head to the ADBC hide for some seawatching next as we would be sheltered to a degree from any rain. A strange call on our walk down turned out to be Harris Hawk in a cage in a garden.

There were plenty of gulls on the beach but only Kittiwake was different to what we had already seen elsewhere. Velvet and Common Scoters were out in the bay in small groups but the swell made it difficult to scan through them in hope of finding a Surf Scoter amongst them. I did find the winter's first Long Tailed Ducks in a small group close in along with a pair of Goldeneye. There were a few Guillemots dotted around and a single Razorbill. I found a Red Throated Diver and a few Shags relatively close in. Nat decided to head back to the car for a cup of tea to warm herself up. I had another 20 minutes of seawatching finding a single Scaup among the other ducks close in to shore.

With time increasingly against us we decided on a short stop at Arbroath waterfront. Nat spotted a Turnstone on the rocks and a Ringed Plover. There turned out to be quite a few Ringed Plovers dotted around. I scanned through the gulls on the rocks and checked for other waders as Nat spoke to Jim Smith from Dundee Naturalists Society. A Rock Pipit and an Oystercatcher were the only additions before we called it a day and headed back towards Dundee. A large flock of Golden Plovers and a smaller group of Lapwings finished off our list for the day. Despite the promising conditions migrants had been rather few, but with no text alerts from Fife, it hadn't proved to be the wrong choice.

Cormorant

Tree Sparrow

Pink Footed Geese

Pheasant

Skylark

Rock Pipit

Herring Gull

Skylark

Rock Pipit

Blackcap

Goldfinch

Pink Footed Goose

Yellowhammer

Common Scoter

Red Throated Diver

Song Thrush

Common Scoter

Velvet Scoter

Velvet Scoter

Common Scoter & Razorbill

56 species seen - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Eider, Gannet, Goldcrest, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kittiwake, Lapwing, Long Tailed Duck, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pink Footed Goose, Razorbill, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Redwing, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Scaup, Shag, Skylark, Song Thrush, Starling, Swallow, Tree Sparrow, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.