I'm not certain how many guided walks I've now led at Riverside Nature Park. I usually do two a year - one in May for the return of the summer migrants and another in October to hopefully catch some visible migration or vis-mig as it is more usually known. As some birds follow the river west they pass over the park and out over Invergowrie Bay and on westwards. On Saturday I was once again, leading a vis-mig walk. One thing about them is you never know how many folk to expect, with a low of three once and a high of around thirty more, with the usual being around a dozen or so.
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| Long Tailed Tit |
Unfortunately I wasn't feeling great on Friday night but with no way of cancelling, I had to hope that I would make it to the park alright for the 0830 start on Saturday morning. While this time is a decent compromise between being early enough to avoid the majority of dog-walkers and late enough to not put too many folk off attending while still being able to catch some vis-mig, Xplore Dundee's tinkering with the bus timetables has made it harder to reach the park for that time, and as it happened the TravelineScotland's app seemed to have some less than accurate information about when the buses I needed actually were.
As it turned out, I managed to miss the 22 on Dens Road and then the 9 in the City Centre. The 5 was later than the Traveline app showed meaning that it was a bit of a race against time to reach the park for the start time. On the way into town I'd seen Carrion Crow, Herring Gull, Magpie and then Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon and Starling in the city centre. I made it to the park at around 0822 and the walk in towards the car park gave me a few species - Woodpigeon, Herring Gull, Chaffinch, Robin, Carrion Crow, Starling, Dunnock and a pair of Bullfinches. Not a bad start.
There was another female Bullfinch at the car park entrance but there were only a couple of cars. The one person who actually looked like they were waiting for me I recognised as reader of this blog and bird photographer Lainy McCormack. Her husband Adam got out of the car when I arrived. So, two people, better than none, but a new record low for attendance, and as it turned out they'd only decided the previous evening to attend having seen my post on Facebook about the walk. We waited for five more minutes in case anyone else showed up adding a few more species to the list - Blackbird, Song Thrush, Yellowhammer, Feral Pigeon, Goldfinch and Magpie before we decided to set off. We'd gone about three steps when another car arrived and we were joined by another lady, Tina, who wasn't sure when the walk was due to start but had come down anyway. Thankfully she'd caught us in time.
We headed up to the hill, though the sky had been rather quiet for passing birds from a vis-mig perspective while we'd been waiting. From the top of the hill we could see a number of Pink Footed Geese out in the bay on the mud. Also around we could see some Redshanks, an Oystercatcher, Black Headed Gull, Teal, a Grey Heron and a Cormorant. A small flock of Lapwings flew into the bay, and a few Mallards were spotted a little closer. Tina hadn't brought any binoculars so I loaned her my small spotting scope and monopod so she could see what the rest of us were seeing. She found a Curlew and I found a couple of Black Tailed Godwits. A Lesser Black Backed Gull was still around among the Herring Gulls.
A few Skylarks passed over, and there were a few Song Thrushes and Blackbirds but overall it was rather quiet. We headed down off the hill to walk round towards the bay for a better look adding a Pied Wagtail, and a pair of Rooks to the list as well as the first Meadow Pipit of the day. A Stock Dove overflew before we headed along to the hide which was very quiet with only Feral Pigeons to be seen. At the Lochan there was a pair of Wigeon with the Teal and Mallards but no sign of either Little Grebe or Moorhens. Further on we added Greenfinch and a flock of Long Tailed Tits bewteen the two halves of the park, along with a Blue Tit in the trees. A House Sparrow was seen in the usual hedge between the cow fields.
An attempt to find Snipe was unsuccessful and Buzzard Wood proved to be very quiet also. As it was now after 1030, Tina headed off, and Adam headed back to the car for a bite to eat. Myself and Lainy had a look at the line of bushes which stands at the eastern side of the boggy area. This proved to be very productive for us with Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Herring Gull overhead and in the bushes, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Lesser Redpoll, Blackbird, Chiffchaff and Song Thrush all giving us decent views and some nice photo opportunities in quite a short period of time.
We headed back to the car park with Lainy and Adam deciding to head for Morton Lochs and myself deciding to hang around for a few more hours in the hope of adding to the thirty-eight species already seen and hopefully adding Little Stint to my own park-list when the tide came in far enough to be able to search through the wader flocks. It took around another thirty minutes before I added anything else when a flock of Linnets flew over near the bay. A single Swallow headed out across the bay five minutes later. A pair of Siskins were next overhead. A Common Gull flew past out into the river. A male Sparrowhawk lifted from the trees at the hide before heading away east at speed chased by the local Jackdaws. A Great Black Backed Gull was in the bay and a Wren showed amongst the scrub by the path from the hide to the Lochan. There were five Buzzards in the sky together for a spell, rising up from Ninewells and drifting over the park and bay.
After that, it was over an hour before any further progress was made when I added Great Tit and Goldcrest to the list. A pair of Mistle Thrushes flew over and another Yellowhammer was seen. As the tide came in I was able to add Dunlin to the list but couldn't see any obvious Little Stints among them. What looked like a possible Curlew Sandpiper on the back of the camera proved to be a dunlin at an odd angle. From the hide, seventeen Bar Tailed Godwit were counted along with the two Black Tailed. Unfortunately, just as the whole wader flock was coming into view from the hide, something unseen spooked the whole lot and the vast majority flew off and didn't return. The Redshanks and a few Dunlin didn't stay much longer and even the Black Tailed Godwits flew off before the tide was even close to being all the way in. Very frustrating given that I'd stayed at the park just for the high tide wader flocks.
Heading back along to the Lochan I found that there were at least a hundred Redshanks strung out along the shore. The ducks were mostly on the water and I took the opportunity to get some photos of the Teal moulting out of eclipse plumage. A single young Moorhen appeared from somewhere giving me one final species for the day taking the total to a very decent 53 species. A Stock Dove popped in briefly behind the Redshanks. I headed for home a short while after, rather tired and still feeling a bit under the weather, but pleased with the length of the list and some of the photo opportunities.
Although the turn-out for the actual walk was poor, all three seemed to enjoy it, and the size of the group meant it was easier to move as a group and all see the same things. Given the tide state and the rather poor vis-mig we did very well to get a total of 38 species on the walk itself, and 53 in all is in the top 3 or 4 day totals for the park. The weather was also far nicer than forecast with warm sunshine and low winds mostly and the only rain being a very brief passing shower that lasted around 30 seconds at lunchtime and slightly heavier rain in the city centre as I walked from bus stop to bus stop.
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| Pink Footed Geese |
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| Cormorant & Lapwing |
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| Lesser Black Backed Gull, Curlew & Herring Gull |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Teal |
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| Wigeon |
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| Carrion Crow |
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| Carrion Crow |
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| Long Tailed Tit |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Lesser Redpoll |
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| Lesser Redpoll |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Dunnock |
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| Magpie |
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| Buzzard |
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| Buzzard |
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| Sparrowhawk |
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| Wigeon |
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| Teal |
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| Mallard |
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| Stock Dove & Redshank |
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| Teal |
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| Mallard |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Teal |
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| Wigeon |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Lesser Redpoll, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Siskin, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Teal, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
