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.
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| 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.
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| Green Sandpiper |
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| Green Sandpiper |
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| Cormorant |
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| Green Sandpiper |
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Green Sandpiper
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Siskin |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Mallard |
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| Wigeon & Teal |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Gadwall |
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| Long Tailed Tit |
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| Long Tailed Tit |
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| Goosander |
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| Bullfinch |
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| Bullfinch |
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| Cormorant (Sinensis) |
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| 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.
