Having only 1 day left to reach the milestone of 100 species seen before going back to work on Thursday after New Year, I was torn as to where to go to maximise my chances. Initially I had favoured Montrose Basin, though Twite seemed to be my best chance of adding anything there, along with probably Pintail and maybe Scaup. However, the more thought I gave it, the more St Andrews to Guardbridge seemed the better option. Fulmar and Purple Sandpiper from the cliffs and harbour area, the potential for divers and maybe Scaup offshore as well as possible Merlin and Grey Partridge on the walk to Guardbridge with Little Egret and Kingfisher possible at Guardbridge along with perhaps Golden Plover. Jacqui messaged me in the morning to ask if I'd thought about the Lade Braes walk for Dipper as well. I hadn't. I knew vaguely of the place as well as the possibility of Kingfisher at the Botanic Gardens. St Andews it was.
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| Dipper |
Rather than arrive too early I settled for a slightly later departure than lately, leaving the house at about 0825. Herring Gulls, Carrion Crow and Magpie being first onto the list, followed shortly after by Feral Pigeon and a nice addition of Long Tailed Tits in the small trees by the taxi rank outside the McManus Galleries. From the bus to St Andrews I added a few more to the list - Pheasant, Buzzard, Blackbird, Rook, Jackdaw and the first new bird of the day -
Collared Dove. House Sparrow, Black Headed Gull and Woodpigeon rounded off the en route part of the list.
Arriving in St Andrews I relied mostly on memory as to where I needed to be, though it was at least 8 years since my one and only visit to the part of St Andrews I was searching for. Blue Tits and more Collared Doves were seen before I arrived at a grassy park area with the burn running along the edge. I wandered down to the burn, where I thought I could hear a Dipper, so slowly I headed upstream. Reaching a bend and a slight uphill section to the actual burn-side path, I realised I was actually opposite the Botanic Gardens. So, remembering "nothing ventured, nothing gained" I scanned the bushes and trees surrounding the pond. A bright blue strip in the lower branches of one told me I had found my
Kingfisher. My second new bird of the day.
(At this point, I hadn't realised that I had somehow forgotten to put the Slavonian Grebe from the day before onto Bird Journal - the app I use to record my sightings, so I thought that I had started the day on 95, instead of actually being on 96). A Wren flew across the burn and sang briefly from a perch just through wooden slatted fence surrounding the gardens. A Moorhen wandered around near the pond. I checked the potential perches in the burn for
Dipper and soon found the white breast shining out, just before the bird flew a little further upstream. Thankfully it hadn't gone too far and I soon caught up with it. It was a fairly relaxed bird as it turned out and ignored me, as I stood on the path taking photos of the bird below me. Unfortunately, I became aware of a dog walker approaching and worried that the bird would fly off again.
As it happened, I needn't have worried as the bird ignored the lady and her dog as well as she stopped to ask what I was photographing and then discussing the bird as we had great views of it. A Grey Wagtail flew downstream as we chatted. When she continued her walk I moved a few feet off the path onto the sloping bank and the bird continued to be unconcerned by me snapping away. The light was very poor and I had to set the camera up to ISO2000 and use a very slow shutter speed for hand-held shots, something I try to avoid whenever possible. I edged closer, being mindful of the bird's body language as I did so. There was a small patch of mud at the edge of the burn so I stepped down slowly onto it so I was within 6 feet of the bird. It continued to do what it had been doing and even came closer with a short foray underwater.
After a few minutes of what appeared to be unsuccessful hunting it flew onto another rock a few feet further downstream and I headed back up to the path to walk down to the cliffs and harbour area to seek out my next 2 targets which would take me to 100 if I was successful. (Obviously I didn't know I only actually needed to find 1 of them, at that point). There was a Chaffinch in trees in one of the back gardens overlooking the small park and a pigeon high in a tree that I could only get poor views of which looked to be dark-eyed, but also showed signs of being a Woodpigeon. It didn't go on the list.
At the castle, I soon spotted an obvious Grey Heron stood out among the rocks exposed by the ebbing tide. Numerous grey and white birds out on the water turned out to be the hoped for
Fulmars. I found a few pairs on the slope down to the cliffs as I wandered slowly along. A Great Black Backed Gull youngster was tucking into a large fish (well, the front half at least), which I think was probably an adult Cod. Oystercatcher and Redshank, as well as a slightly unexpected Greenshank were exploring a small sandy patch between the rocky inlets below. I spotted a female Eider further back, and a Curlew picking around near her. A Ringed Plover was the next find among the rocks and pools. A few Common Scoters flew by. There appeared to be a huge flock of ducks over towards West Sands, giving me an incentive to check them out later.
Movement in the rose bushes next to the path near the cottages led me to a Song Thrush, a Dunnock, a Robin and a Wren all picking around among the dried leaf litter for something to eat. I wandered out along the harbour breakwater stopping to scan the rocks at intervals. I thought I had found my Purple Sandpipers at one point, but the plump waders on the rocks turned out to be Knot. I then watched where a Turnstone flew to, in the hope of a mixed group of the species and Purple Sandpipers as is often the case here, but instead I found only a few more Knot. Eventually as waves splashed further up the rocks I spotted a darker, slightly smaller wader, which turned out to be, finally,
Purple Sandpiper. My 100th species for the year (or so I thought - actually the Fulamr had been).
More searching around found a Cormorant in the water and a flypast by a Rock Pipit but despite being plenty of Eiders off the end of the harbour out in the bay, I failed to find any divers or even any Long Tailed Ducks while sitting scanning for a while. I then headed back along the Scores to check out the area near the West Sands. From above the aquarium buildings I was able to see the hundreds of assorted ducks in the waves. These appeared to be mostly Common Scoters though I soon found an obvious group of
Scaup. When I counted the obvious ones I had a figure of around 25 or so, which given the previous year I'd only been aware of one report of 3, seemed to be a lot, so I texted Malc the FBC recorder to let him know and to put word out about the birds, as they aren't particularly regular these days.
I moved closer to scan, first from the Golf Museum roof, where I picked out a Great Crested Grebe among the flock as well as some Eiders, before moving closer again, to scan from the rocks by the seawall. There were a few Common Gulls around among the Herring Gulls and I spotted Long Tailed Ducks among the Scoter flock. A Sanderling flew by, low across the water, mostly hidden by the rocks before a Rock Pipit briefly popped up onto the rocks beside me. I had considered walking out to Out Head, in the hope of finding Snow Buntings, but with the time already at 1230 I decided to head along to the George Evans hide at Balgove Bay then along the coast to Guardbridge.
I added Pied Wagtail and Mistle Thrush behind the Old Course hotel and a Sttarling shared a small tree with a couple of Greenfinches. Rather than take the meandering path across the golf course I chose instead to walk along the cycle path, then cut along the edge of the field bordering the golf course and then into the hide. This I hoped would save a few minutes walking. The only bird seen was a Robin before I reached the field. I was able to walk along the edge of the field without affecting any crops in the field, though a flock of Linnets did fly up before I made it to the northern end of the field. Ahead of me in the trees were a few Blue Tits, Blackbirds and Redwings.
From the hide I could see
Lapwings out on the mud, which was another addition for the year-list, as well as Curlews and Redshanks. Most of the birds were quite distant though. I checked the "Osprey posts" and found both occupied by White Tailed Eagles. There were also Shelduck, Wigeon and Brent Geese feeding off to the eastern side of the bay. There were also a few Grey Plover around. I didn't stay long in the hide and set off to walk along the raised seawall banking, hoping for Grey Partridges or maybe even Twite (both of which I've found here in the past), but I found neither, though a single Snipe did flush from the edge of a muddy puddle in one of the fields.
Moving down onto the saltmarsh further on, I found some Dunlin among the Grey Plovers, Redshanks and Curlews but nothing new for the list. There was a single Stonechat and a couple of Curlews in at the pools at the small nature reserve but no ducks on the water there. I inadvertantly spooked quite a lot of waders from the mud when I reached the far side of the small peninsula jutting out into the river. These were mostly Dunlin, though there were lots of Knot further out, as well as a few Curlews and Redshanks. Another Snipe rocketed past and out around the point.
I had close views of 4 Collared Doves when I reached Guardbridge before heading round to the hide. There was one birder in already but the light was going rapidly so he didn't stay too much longer. A Goldfinch flew across the river and a Little Grebe popped up a few times. A single Mute Swan a few Mallards were picked out. A couple of distant Buzzards were perched on the fence in front of the FBC hide across at the farm. Teal and Goldeneye were the only other additions before I called it a day and headed across the road to catch the bus for home.
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| Kingfisher |
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| Dipper |
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| Dipper |
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| Dipper |
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| Dipper |
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| Dipper |
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| Fulmar |
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| Carrion Crow |
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| Greenshank |
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| Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Ringed Plover |
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| Redshank |
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| Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Eider |
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| Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Knot, Redshank, Purple Sandpiper & Oystercatcher |
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| Purple Sandpiper |
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| Feral Pigeon |
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| Cormorant |
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| Knot |
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| Red Breasted Merganser |
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| Scaup & Common Scoter & Long Tailed Duck |
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| Scaup & Common Scoter & Great Crested Grebe |
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| Scaup & Common Scoter & Eider |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Lapwing |
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| Brent Goose |
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| Moorhen |
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| Redwing |
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| Linnet |
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| White Tailed Eagle |
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| White Tailed Eagle |
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| Shelduck |
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| Dunlin |
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| Dunlin & Knot & Grey Heron |
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| Collared Dove |
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| Teal |
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| Lapwing |
A rather productive day once again, with 7 new additions (in bold) among the 65 species seen. Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Brent Goose, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch,
Collared Dove, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew,
Dipper, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider,
Fulmar, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Greenfinch, Greenshank, Grey Heron, Grey Plover, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw,
Kingfisher, Knot,
Lapwing, Linnet, Little Grebe, Long Tailed Duck, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail,
Purple Sandpiper, Redshank, Redwing, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sanderling,
Scaup, Shelduck, Snipe, Song Thrush, Starling, Stonechat, Teal, Turnstone, White Tailed Eagle, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren
