0481 : Wet With A Chance Of Waxwings (28/1/18)

As provisional plans to meet up with a friend had fallen through, I decided that I should probably see if I could see the Waxwings that had been found on Monday last week by Charles Rough, and which were still being reported yesterday. With hardly any of the birds around this winter again, it made sense to at least try. I decided that I would also try to add Jay to my year-list at Camperdown Park, as the species has so far eluded me this year.

Grey Wagtail

I decided to get up to the street where the birds were reported, Wentworth Avenue, relatively early. I'm never overly keen on touting binoculars/cameras in built-up areas, so tend to see what I've got to see and move on again, quickly. With a bus at around 0915 I headed out at around 0910. The local House Sparrow flock were rather noisy though only 1 of them was seen. There were also a few Blackbirds around as I headed downhill to hopefully catch the bus. A Herring Gull glided over and a few Feral Pigeons passed overhead as I reached Dens Road. I added a pair of Collared Doves and a Magpie as I waited. I could hear what sounded like Bullfinches in the trees but failed to see them.

From the bus I did manage to add Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Starling and Black Headed Gull. There was a possible Peregrine on Cox's Stack but without hauling out my binoculars on the bus or seeing the bird in flight, I couldn't be sure. I has a rough idea where I was going to try to see the Waxwings but I didn't realise that the bus I was on, actually went the way I was headed, so I actually got off a few stops earlier than I needed to. This did mean that I got a pair of Redwings and a Goldfinch flying over and a couple of Blue Tits in trees by the side of the Crematorium. A flyover Chaffinch and a Robin were also seen as I headed into the housing scheme to look for the Waxwings.

As I wandered along the street which becomes Wentworth Avenue I heard what sounded like Waxwings calling and turned around in time to see what was either a flock of Starlings or Waxwings pass behind me and over the houses and out of sight. I contemplated detouring for a better look for about a second when I realised that ahead of me in a small tree in someone's garden were a flock of Waxwings. I skirted round past them and crossed the road for a closer look and an angle to take a photo where the camera wasn't pointing in towards anyone's house. A quick count gave me 13 as I took a few photos in the rather dismal grey morning light. Unfortunately my lunch bag chose that moment to fall out of my opened camera bag and the subsequent thump as it hit the pavement caused the birds to fly off towards Rosemount Road.

As there was now no need to hang around I headed out onto the main road again where I discovered the birds were in the tops of some of the large deciduous trees, which is where I suspect the first flock most likely flew from given their direction of flight, which suggests that the numbers could have been as high as 40 birds (if the first lot were indeed Waxwings). I had considered walking round to Clatto reservoir but decided that I would instead head for Camperdown Park to look for Jays. A Great Tit was seen as I cut down Harrison Road and there was another in the hedge by the main road along with a few Blue Tits.

I walked in along the entrance road still debating where to look for the birds. I heard a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker ahead of me, and soon managed to find it before it flew off back the way I'd come. Another drummed much closer as I walked on and I stopped to look for it. I actually managed to film a short video clip on my phone which shows the bird actually drumming, seemingly oblivious to me peering out from behind a nearby tree trunk. A call that I wasn't sure of persuaded me to head downhill along the edge of the park, instead of uphill around the back of the golf course.

There were plenty of birds around - Blackbirds, Blue Tits, a few Redwings, another 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a few Great Tits, a Robin or two and some Woodpigeon. A Grey Squirrel was an unwelcome surprise as Camperdown is a good site for the smaller Reds. Further on down the hill I found a Mistle Thrush perched in one of the trees. A little further on I added Coal Tit. By now, the weather had taken a turn for the worse with fine drizzle falling which meant my glasses needed wiped free of water every 100 metres or so. Thankfully I had a cover for my camera with me though the light levels were poor in among the trees. A large flock of around 15-20 Long Tailed Tits were encountered as I wandered along the bottom edge of the park.

Goldcrests and a few Wrens were also seen as I wandered back up the hill along the western side of the park. A flock of Siskins were in the tops of one of the trees as I neared the side entrance. I detoured along to the duck pond where there were only Mallards and a few Black Headed Gulls and oddly a pair of Woodpigeons stood motionless in the water with their bellies partially submerged. They chose to fly before I was able to take a photo. A Song Thrush and a Robin were seen here too. Unfortunately, the top half of the park proved to be free of Jays also, and birds seemed to be keeping a low profile in general as the drizzle continued to fall. I decided to head for the Ninewells Arboretum to see if I could find Jay there.

I headed down Buttar's Loan to South Road then up onto Charleston Drive were a single Long Tailed Tit was seen in the trees across the road before I added a Pied Wagtail to the list for the day. I cut down the western side of the hospital to the Arboretum. I could hear plenty of Jackdaws and they were easy enough to see. A Grey Squirrel was also seen here. Blackbirds, Song Thrush, Blue Tit and Woodpigeons were also spotted. I could hear a Magpie from time to time but couldn't see it. I was near the small community garden when I heard it again, but this time it was countered by the harsh call of a Jay. Needless to say, I headed swiftly in that direction. As did a whole lot of Jackdaws.

The arrival of the Jackdaws seemed to spook the Jay and it flew into the cover of a conifer at the rear of the garden. The Magpie waited at the other side with the Jackdaws sat atop the tree and others nearby. Nothing much happened. I moved to get a better view which resulted in the Jackdaws flying off. A few seconds later the Jay also flew of through the trees away from the Magpie which stayed put. Another year-tick successfully found (at last!). Despite the non-stop drizzle I decided I might as well continue on down to Riverside Nature Park for a wander round. Heading down the hill from the Arboretum I stopped to watch a skein of Pink Footed Geese fly over eastwards. A little further on I spotted a pair of Bullfinches in trees opposite but they flew off before I could get a photo.

I reached the park at around 1235. A Woodpigeon was on the ground in the roadside field along with a Mistle Thrush. Within a minute or so a Magpie had taken their place. A Buzzard flew off westwards across the park, and a pair of Blue Tits landed in a tree at the end of the small wooded area just inside the park. A Carrion Crow was in the trees in Buzzard Wood. A Dunnock and a pair of Redwings picked around below the trees along towards the western end of the rear of Buzzard Wood. There were a number of Redshanks feeding around the pools in the field along with a Pied Wagtail. A Black Headed Gull was seen flying over towards the Lochan.

A Siskin and a Chaffinch flew overhead and a pair of male Blackbirds squabbled along the hedge that splits the roadside fields. I wandered back along the rear of Buzzard Wood where I watched a Goldcrest and a Blue Tit feeding among the branches, and a pair of Chaffinch males perched in a tree. As I walked towards the boggy area to search for Snipe, I spotted a flock of Curlews over the airport. There were at least 3 Snipe among the rather saturated area in front of Buzzard Wood. One of them took off without calling but photos showed it to just be a Common Snipe and not a Jack Snipe.

A Wren was also seen among the vegetation and a Robin was in Buzzard Wood along with a few more Redwings. Wandering further round I bumped into my niece and nephew out with their gran and grandad and pointed out a Magpie, Chaffinches and Herring Gull while we chatted. A Song Thrush and a Great Tit were seen before I made it round to the bay where mist out on the river made the landscape seem strange with Fife invisible and the mist merging with the sky to make a soft grey-white ethereal look. A pair of Cormorants could be seen in the bay and looking towards the burn mouth I could see that the tide had already receded enough to leave some mud. Gulls, mostly Herring, were on the pipe along with a Great Black Backed Gull, a Grey Heron and another Cormorant.

I headed round to the hide where I added Mallard, Teal, Dunlin and Common Gull. I scanned through the waders as best as I could, but couldn't find anything other than Redshanks. I walked along to the Lochan where there were more sleeping Mallard and Teal as well as a number of Teal active over the far side. A pair of Mute Swans swam around in the middle along with a few Black Headed Gulls. A Grey Wagtail landed just in front of the hide screen by the edge of the water. A Grey Heron stood in the shallows at the eastern end. Scanning along the far shore I found a single Black Tailed Godwit, in addition to a few Redshanks. There was also a sleeping Oystercatcher. A Pied Wagtail was seen further across the field and a pair of Stock Doves briefly touched down nearby before flying off again.

With little likelihood of adding much else I decided to head for the bus back into town. My watch had decided to stop working so I decided to buy a new one then head for Swannie Ponds before heading home, in the hope of maybe finding an Iceland Gull or at least a new ringed Black Headed Gull. A Goldcrest showed very close as I stood at the bus stop but didn't stick around for a photo. I reached Swannie Ponds at around 1520 and there were plenty of gulls on the water and along the path. Mostly Herring Gulls and Black Headed Gulls from what I could see. The young Mute Swan was on its own and there were Mallards, a few Tufted Ducks, a single Coot (where has he been?) and a drake Goosander on the water.

As I headed round to check the gulls on the path they all flew off, before I could get a photo of the yellow ringed bird I was able to make out among the birds on the path. A Moorhen appeared from behind the island to join the Coot, and the adult Mute Swans were seen down on the lower pond. A Magpie flew up onto the island and I headed for home. A Sparrowhawk flew over as I walked along Clepington Road but there were no further additions before I made it home.

A total of 52 species seen (36 at the park, and 37 outwith) including 2 welcome year-ticks (in bold) and despite the almost constant drizzle, a relatively enjoyable day's birding around the western edges of Dundee.

Waxwing

Waxwing

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Mistle Thrush

Black Headed Gull

Magpie

Blue Tit

Snipe

Snipe

Cormorant

Carrion Crow & Buzzard

Buzzard

Buzzard

Buzzard

Grey Heron

Teal, Mallard, Redshank, Dunlin & Common Gull

Grey Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Grey Heron

Black Headed Gull, Teal & Oystercatcher

Teal & Black Tailed Godwit

Mute Swan

Stock Dove

Teal

Goosander

Goosander

Moorhen & Coot

Mute Swan

Species seen outwith Riverside Nature Park - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Coot, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Siskin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Tufted Duck, Waxwing, Woodpigeon, Wren.

Species seen at Riverside Nature Park - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Siskin, Snipe, Song Thrush, Stock Dove, Teal, Woodpigeon, Wren.

 

0480 : Windy Wednesday (24/1/18)

For the first time in around a month, Nat was available for a spot of midweek birding, though the forecast high winds and lots of fast-moving rain showers looked to be the main obstruction to a productive day's birding. However, we don't really tend to let the weather spoil things too much on our midweek outings - usually just finding locations/routes that avoid us getting wet as far as possible. As it happened, the forecast had improved over night and although there was still plenty of rain around it looked like we stood a good chance of missing most of it. We'd decided that Angus gave the best options and I'd worked out what we might see and where.

Pink Footed Geese (even the one with orange legs)

Nat picked me up at around 0910 and we quickly worked out where to go first - Monikie in the hope of seeing the 2 Green Sandpipers which have been seen at various times this winter. Herring Gulls and Feral Pigeons started the list off followed by Jackdaws on Clepington Road then Mallards and Black Headed Gulls seen from the car as we passed Swannie Ponds. The high winds were keeping the majority of smaller birds in cover so the journey to Monikie didn't add anything to our list. Having checked Alex Shepherd's Aberbrothock blog the previous evening I knew where we should check first. Unfortunately, we managed to drive past it (it wasn't particularly obvious and only possible to see once you'd already passed it). So we turned around and tried again. No birds, lots of water and a man attempting to keep the channel from becoming clogged up.

We headed into the park next for a more thorough hunt. The trees around the car park held Coal Tits and Blue Tits and also a Woodpigeon much higher up in a tall conifer. A Carrion Crow flew over. We headed for the channel via the kid's play-park but as expected there was no sign of any birds, with the fast flowing water likely to be rather risky to forage along the edge of. Reaching the large northern reservoir we could see ducks and Coots out beyond the still frozen section close to shore. Mallards, Wigeon, Tufted Ducks and a few Goldeneye were noted, along with a few Little Grebes. A few Rooks overflew. A Grey Wagtail foraged in one of the small outflow channels. A Cormorant crashed down onto the water in probably the worst landing I've seen since the Little Auk wreck of 2 years ago. But there was no sign of any Green Sandpipers in any of the likeliest places and nothing flying ahead of a dog walker walking along the top of the bank around the reservoir either.

We stopped to watch a pair of Great Tits in a tree by the path, along with a possible Goldcrest which dropped out sight among the tangle of branches before either of us could get our binoculars onto it. We headed for the southern reservoir next and along with a number of Mallards, Mute Swans and Moorhens and gulls we found a Redshank wandering along the water's edge and another flew off as we headed along behind the trees along the bank. Things were looking distinctly unfavourable for us managing to find our target bird though surely the Denfind Pond was suitable habitat?

The habitat did indeed look promising and there were a few more Redshanks wandering around in the shallow water. I scanned around looking for anything else, but especially Snipe which I've seen here before, but drew a complete blank with not even a Mallard to be seen though there were a couple of Grey Herons stood out of the wind along the far shore but that appeared to be all. We continued along the path behind the hide stopping and scanning. There were a few Teal at the southern end but nothing else. As we walked back, I periodically stopped to scan some more and during one of these stops I spotted a white bellied bird with a darker grey back, its tail pointing towards us and its bill tucked under a wing, asleep.

This looked promising. I took a few photos and they did seem to suggest we'd found it. When it woke up and began to move around, it was confirmed. It was a Green Sandpiper. At last. We headed back to the car happy adding Blackbird, Dunnock, Siskin and Magpie along the way. We decided to see if we could get a closer view of the bird from outside the park and this proved to be the case though there were a lot of branches between us and the bird making photography a bit tricky. We also added a Robin here. Westhaven was our next stop for a quick look for Little Gull for Nat.

Starling was added as we entered Carnoustie and from the car park at Westhaven we added a few more waders - Sanderling, Oystercatcher and Turnstone along with a few extra Redshanks, but no Little Gulls. We were headed for Arbroath to search for Iceland Gull next, and a wrong turn meant we ended up going via the Easthaven road. This did provide us with a small flock of Pink Footed Geese in the fields to the north of the road including an unusual orange legged bird. I knew that there were occasional sightings of Pink Feet with orange legs and I was almost completely sure that this was one of these and not a Bean Goose of either species (Tundra and Taiga Bean Goose have recently been granted 'full species' status). A nice bird to get photos of anyway.

We made a few stops at Arbroath to look at the various small groups of gulls but they were mostly Herring Gulls along with small numbers of Black Headed Gulls. There were plenty of Oystercatchers around and I did add Great Black Backed Gull along the waterfront but we drew a total blank on Iceland Gull. After a quick spot of lunch while the car was buffeted by the winds we chose to head inland to Balgavies Loch where I hoped to get Greylag Goose for my year-list. A Kestrel was seen hovering as we drove back along the waterfront road and there were a few sleeping Eiders out by the water.

The car park at Balgavies was empty of cars, which suggested the hide would be quiet also. A trio of Goldfinches and a Greenfinch were in one of the trees surrounding the car park. The hide was indeed empty. The only birds coming to the feeders though were a pair of Blue Tits. There were few birds out on the water either, with a Cormorant, a few Tufted Ducks, a couple of Goldeneye, some Mallards and some Coot to be seen. A pair of drake Goosanders flew over heading west. A Sparrowhawk zipped through past the empty feeders and into the trees. With nothing much happening and no sign of any Greylags we decided to head for nearby Murton.

Things were almost as quiet there however, with a small flock of Mallards, a small flock of Wigeon and a few Teal, a solitary Mute Swan and a Grey Heron with a blood-stained bill which did give us rather good views as it wandered up the bank along from the hide. The only geese to be seen here were a par of obvious farmyard types. No Greylags. Walking back to the car we added a Chaffinch to the list for the day. We still had a bit of time available so we decided to try Forfar Loch before heading for home.

A flock of Long Tailed Tits flitted through the trees beside us as we walked along from the top car park to the wooden platform to look out over the water at the Loch. There were more birds here (thankfully) and we scanned through them to see what we could find. Gadwall (my first this year) were quite numerous, and a large-ish flock of Goosanders swam across the width of the Loch. A group of Mallards stood on the far bank, while in front of them were a small group of gulls on the water - Black Headeds and a few Herring Gulls. There were also a few Little Grebes and Tufted Ducks, a pair of Teal, a few Goldeneye and a Grey Heron. The trees to our right held good numbers of Woodpigeon.

A Robin perched beside us on the platform as we watched the bush to our left fill up with birds - numerous Long Tailed Tits, a few Blue Tits and a Great Tit. In addition, we also had good views of a male Bullfinch eating the new buds. A 'Sinensis' Cormorant surfaced in front of us before swimming off again. A Sparrowhawk flew over before disappearing to the north. With no other likely additions we wandered back along to the car to head back to Dundee. A Buzzard, our first of the day, glided low over the road, just south of Forfar, to round of the relatively short list for the day.

Any day with new additions to the year-list is a good day, so despite only adding the 2 new birds (in bold) among the 46 species seen and finding lots of or stops to be disappointingly low on bird numbers it was still worth getting up and out for.

Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Cormorant

Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Pink Footed Goose

Siskin

Mute Swan

Mallard

Wigeon & Teal

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Gadwall

Long Tailed Tit

Long Tailed Tit

Goosander

Bullfinch

Bullfinch

Cormorant (Sinensis)

Robin

Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Coot, Cormorant, Dunnock, Eider, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Green Sandpiper, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Little Grebe, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pink Footed Goose, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sanderling, Siskin, Sparowhawk, Starling, Teal, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Wigeon, Woodpigeon.