Although heavy rain had been forecast to last most of the day on my midweek day off this week, I realised that it might be possible to squeeze in a bit of birding for a few hours from around 1400 when the rain looked like petering out and there was even a chance of some sunshine. By paying attention to an almost real-time radar map of rain, I was able to see that if I headed out for about 1400 I could watch the tide rise at Guardbridge. I hoped that there might be an interesting wader or two among the increasing numbers of waders.
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| Dunlin & Turnstone |
I headed out at around 1345 to catch the bus into town, hoping to catch the St Andrews bus around 1400. It was still raining when I left and birds were keeping a low profile. A Blackbird was first onto the list as I waited for a bus, then a Woodpigeon and Herring Gull were seen from the bus. A Lesser Black Backed Gull and Feral Pigeons were watched around the bus station. Cormorants were seen on Submarine Rock, with a Carrion Crow on the grass verge at the Fife end of the Tay bridge. Jackdaw was added as the bus passed through Leuchars.
A Swift zipped over as I got off the bus and with the sun shining now I headed into the hide. I had hoped that the work going on beyond the fence to the north of the hide would have been rained off, but found that it was still ongoing, limiting the likelihood of birds coming in close to the hide. I had chosen to bring my scope and tripod with me so that I would be able to identify birds at distance, as most were likely to be. Thankfully the birds at the feeders didn't need a scope to see them and within the first few minutes as I unpacked the scope etc I had already seen Great Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Tree Sparrow and Blue Tit.
I opened the window once the scope and tripod were set up. A Black Headed Gull was gliding around above the river. A couple of Lapwings were on the far bank, and a Grey Heron waded along further downstream. There were a trio of Mute Swans on the water and I scanned the shoreline opposite finding a few Oystercatchers and a Curlew or two. A large flock of Lapwings wheeled around to the south of the bridge before drifting out of sight again. A Common Sandpiper flew low over the river in characteristic fluttering style. A Cormorant fishing had drawn the attention of two large and hungry Great Black Backed Gulls. The large flatfish the Cormorant had surfaced with looked rather too big to swallow easily. However, the aggressive attentions of the gulls hastened the departure of the fish down the throat of the Cormorant and the gulls swam off, leaving the Cormorant to attempt to get the fish further down its neck and into its stomach.
There were a number of Mallards and a few Goosanders alongside the Herring Gulls and Black Headed Gulls down near the bend in the river while up towards the bridge were a large flock of Redshanks. There was nothing obviously different among the ones I could see from the hide but I hoped that as the tide rose the birds would relocate to where I could see them better. More scanning with the scope found a pair of Shelducks with only a single youngster in tow. There were a couple of very distant Red Breasted Mergansers and a few Eiders well downriver. A trio of small waders landed on the mud at a similar distance. Size and behaviour suggested Dunlin, but the light and distance meant i couldn't be certain.
I didn't have to wait too long to find a few Dunlin, with a small group appearing opposite along with increasing numbers of Redshanks moving from upriver. A Swallow swept low over the water. A few miles out I could see the distinctive white shapes of Gannets diving in St Andrews Bay. A small group of Linnets flew over the hide and a Common Gull glided past. I was joined by a couple of regulars in the hide, the McPhersons from Peat Inn, who I run into here quite often and who are always chatty. As we chatted I found a Turnstone among the Dunlins and Redshanks across the river from the hide. Unexpected but not unprecedented. A Pied Wagtail was on the grass behind the pub.
I happened to be looking down the slope below the hide just as a Kingfisher flew past low over the water. A Sand Martin circled round a few times before disappearing westwards over the hide. More scanning as the water levels rose gradually found the orange of a Black Tailed Godwit catching my eye. We later found another four. A Little Egret was spotted out on the salt marsh among the Curlews. We heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling a couple of times but failed to see it. A pair of Magpies flew across the river and into the former papermill site.
As the tide rose further the Dunlin numbers increased as did the Redshanks but apart from a slightly different looking Dunlin there didn't appear to be anything out of the very ordinary among the wader flocks. A pair of Common Sandpipers showed across the river as the waders moved round the bend and a second, and then third Little Egret were found on the saltmarsh . The McPhersons left around 1630 and I headed for home around 15 minutes later. A House Martin was one final addition from the bus home from the City Centre.
A decent enough couple of hours birding even though there was nothing particularly unusual and not many good photo opportunities to be had, with a total of 41 species seen.
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| Cormorant & Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Cormorant & Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Turnstone & Redshank |
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| Dunlin, Redshank, Black Tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Black Headed Gull & Little Egret |
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| Dunlin, Redshank, & Curlew |
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| Redshank & Dunlin |
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| Dunlin & Redshank |
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| Dunlin & Redshank |
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| Magpie |
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| Linnet |
Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Gannet, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Martin, Jackdaw, Kingfisher, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Little Egret, Magpie, Mallard, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Feral Pigeon, Sand Martin, Shelduck, Swallow, Swift, Tree Sparrow, Turnstone, Woodpiegon.
