When I woke up on Sunday morning following a rather late night I found a message from Jacqui asking where I was, and if I fancied an afternoon's birding at Kinnordy. Having had such a successful day out the previous day and still 'needing' Bittern for the year-list it was an answer in the affirmative that found it's way back. After a bit of discussion we settled on a 1215 pick-up from the same spot as Saturday.
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| Smew |
The list for the day started off as I headed out at just before 1210 with a Herring Gull, the local House Sparrows and a Feral Pigeon. A few more species were added as we headed out of Dundee with Carrion Crow, Starling and Black Headed Gull. Other additions on the way north were Jackdaws, Pheasant and Woodpigeon plus a few Oystercatchers at the flooded pool at Auchindorie Farm. A Buzzard was on a telegraph pole at the farm.
Surprisingly, although there were a couple of cars in the car park, the Gullery Hide was empty when we walked in. A quick scan around gave us Teal, Coot, Wigeon, Mallard, Mute Swan, a few Whooper Swans, a drake Goosander, a few Tufted Ducks and a Grey Heron. There were Lapwings and Oystercatchers on the Bogbean islands. Further scanning around found a few Goldeneye dotted around. Jacqui found the first Snipe of the day on one of the Bogbean islands.
A little later I spotted something white behind the reeds slightly to the right of straight ahead where a channel runs away out of sight. It was the drake Smew and it eventually swam out and along the front of the reeds and into the westernmost channel in front of the hide. Unfortunately there was still a lot of ice which possibly stopped us getting much closer views. It then swam further left after a few minutes and we lost sight of it.
A few Greylags flew past, but there was a much larger influx later which included an orage neck-collared bird 'CLZ'. This bird had been ringed in Scotland but has also been seen in Iceland a few times. A Common Gull flew past, and a Moorhen wandered out onto the ice. A female Reed Bunting landed in the reeds to the left of the hide before we decided to check out the feeders and the other hides. There were Long Tailed Tits and Siskins foraging just outside the door of the hide among the branches.
Blue Tit and Great Tit were seen in the trees as we headed for the East Hide. We stopped to watch a party of Chaffinches feeding along the edges of the path. Among them I found a Lesser Redpoll. Tree Sparrows, Robin, Treecreeper and Coal Tit were seen around the feeders. Nothing else was added from the East Hide, and despite much scanning we were unable to conjure up the Bittern from here either. A trio of Great Spotted Woodpeckers were seen in a tree between the two hides as we were heading back along the path. Jacqui spotted a Weasel which may have been after the Chaffinch flock close by but our presence seemed to encourage it to disappear off into the undergrowth. Another addition to my growing mammal list for the year.
A Wren was the only worthwhile addition from the Swamp Hide so we headed back to the Gullery Hide where we found Trevor Donaldson and the Aberdeen/Deeside RSPB group filling most of the space but having no luck with either Smew or Bittern. Fortunately for them, the Smew flew out from where we'd last seen it and landed in a decent spot for viewing. One of the ladies phoned to alert others from the group who had walked to the East Hide, and within minutes they arrived back and managed to see the Smew. Still no Bittern though.
We were joined by Jimmy Mair down on one of his annual twitching trips south from his northern home on the Moray coast and we had a wee catch-up blether. He'd finally managed to see a Bittern, at Strathbeg, when one wandered out in front of him. Him and his pal had also had a successful day down into Fife and were heading for home. Myself and Jacqui decided it was time to do likewise at around 1600. As we exited the hide a Brown Hare trotting along the path at the end of the wooden walkway spotted us, and ran up through the car park, across the road and up the field opposite and out of sight beyond the rise. Nothing new was seen except a Kestrel on the way home, though I did finally add a Blackbird to the list for the afternoon as I headed down Court Street having been dropped off by Jacqui.
A decent afternoon's lazy birding with the 2 mammals new for the year being my own highlights although a drake Smew is always a welcome sight. 42 species were seen (and 2 mammals).
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| Whooper Swan & Tufted Duck |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Mute Swan & Tufted Duck |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Lapwing & Snipe |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Smew |
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| Smew |
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| Smew & Greylag |
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| Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye & Wigeon |
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| Mute Swan, Greylag Goose & Smew |
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| Buzzard |
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| Reed Bunting |
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| Long Tailed Tit |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Lesser Redpoll |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Whooper Swan |
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| Snipe |
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| Mallard & Smew |
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| Snipe |
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| Pheasant |
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| Pheasant |
Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Goldeneye, Goosander, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Redpoll, Long Tailed Tit, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Siskin, Smew, Snipe, Starling, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Treecreeper, Tufted Duck, Whooper Swan, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals seen - Brown Hare, Weasel.
