Another later than intended rise meant that my original intention to visit Loch of Kinnordy in the hope of seeing a returning Osprey or maybe even a Marsh Harrier was shelved. I was still undecided where to go when I left the house to head for the bus station. With high tide less than 2 hours away, I decided that wherever I went it would be to catch the rising tide first and then move on from there. I had a few options but none of them offered up too much hope of turning up something new for my year-list.
 |
| Pink Footed Geese |
It was just after 1030 when I headed out. Feral Pigeon was first onto the list followed in quick succession by Carrion Crow, Magpie, Herring Gull and a pair of Goldfinches. I jumped on a bus and walked the rest of the way from the top end of the Wellgate Centre adding a Blackbird on the way. I managed to just miss a bus to Tayport, but on entering the bus station I found a St Andrews bus waiting to depart, so I decided to head for Guardbridge initially. From the bus I managed to add a few more species - Rooks near St Michaels and a Buzzard circling above the golf course followed by Jackdaws on the chimneys in Leuchars. A Woodpigeon was in a tree among the houses and while waiting to rejoin the main road at the railway station a Skylark flew past.
Arriving in Guardbridge I added Coal Tit, Blue Tit and Tree Sparrow on the short walk to the hide. Inside I found my favourite choice of window out of action, but with only 2 others in, (Andy Falconer & a novice birder called Eric) there was still a vacant spot at the left hand window. The tide had still to cover the mud opposite so I started to scanning, immediately finding a pair of Knot alongside a few Black Tailed Godwits. There were numerous Redshanks and Dunlin dotted along the far bank as well as more Godwits. Scanning further away I found plenty of Shelduck and a number of Herring Gulls.
A Chaffinch visited the feeders and among the other waders I found an Oystercatcher and a distant Curlew. A Cormorant flew over and a Great Black Backed Gull was seen stood out on the mud. There were a couple of distant Brent Geese at Coble Shore Point. The first Mallards of the day swam upriver as did a drake Goosander, though it chose to fly off as the tide rose further. A Dunnock was seen below the feeders outside my window. A pair of Lesser Black Backed Gulls alighted near the rest of the gulls. A couple of Lapwings flew in and joined the other roosting waders towards the 'goal posts'. A small group of Meadow Pipits flew north over the estuary.
The first Black Headed Gull of the day wandered around on the remaining mud with the waders and a distant pair of Mute Swans could be seen swimming out in the estuary near a string of Teal and a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers. Earlier in the week via twitter, the birder, Susan, I'd spoken to at Rossie Bog while searching for the Great White Egret had mentioned meeting up for a spot of lunchtime birding if I was anywhere near Cupar, so with the tide more or less in I messaged her. She was intending visiting Letham Pools for the less common geese that had been seen. As luck had it a bus to Cupar was due within the next 10 minutes so I arranged to meet her in Cupar and to head for the Pools.
House Sparrows were seen from the bus stop and a Starling was on a roof in Dairsie. I met Susan as planned and we headed for Letham Pools. We didn't manage to see any Bramblings at Bow of Fife but did get nice close views of 2 Reed Buntings feeding in the field by the road. A small group of around 6 Pink Footed Geese were in the field next to the western pool. A bit of scanning from the car added Wigeon, Coot, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Shelduck and a few Greylag Geese. In addition there were a few Black Headed, Common and Lesser Black Backed Gulls. With no sign of decent numbers of geese we decided to try Mountcastle Quarry.
Things were relatively quiet, as usual, with a few birds on the water - Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe and Little Grebe. Having spotted a few geese dropping in to land to the south we wandered along a track in that direction. Soon we spotted a lot of geese on the ground and stopped so as not to spook them. Most of what we could see appeared to be Pink Footed Geese but a complete view of the flock was clearly needed. I had an idea that we would be able to see the flock better from an area near the mature trees slightly east of us, so we headed in that direction. The clouds had looked quite threatening when we'd got out of the car and this had resulted in a bit of a hail shower.
Unfortunately, that hail soon turned to rain meaning we were getting a bit wet. Susan set up her scope and started scanning through the geese flock which we could see a few hundred metres away from us. She soon found a
Greenland White Fronted Goose among the flock giving me a year-tick but before we managed to search properly through the rest of the flock they began to depart in small groups. We decided to check the pools to the east of where we were and I'd no sooner mentioned having once seen an Otter here when Susan spotted one in front of some reeds. It gave us reasonable views as it casually dived and surfaced again crunching on something, time and time again, before we left it to its own devices still happily hunting.
By now we were both a bit wet and as Susan had to get back to work she offered to drop me off somewhere on her way back. I settled on The Wilderness just outside Ladybank and a few minutes later I said thanks and cheerio to Susan by the flooded gravel pit. It was relatively quiet here too with a mix of ducks similar to Letham Pools - Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye as well as a pair of Shelduck. There were a few Lapwings, Oystercatcher and Redwing but no sign of any Snipe. A Siskin flew over as I neared the horse fields on the opposite side of the road. A Song Thrush and a Fieldfare flew across the road and up into the trees but I failed to see the Redwing that I heard calling.
A Pied Wagtail scurried about on the grass and a Jay flew up into a tree across the far side of the open area toward the railway line. A pair of Buzzards were perched on a tree nearby. Walking back along the road I stopped to search for Long Tailed Tits opposite the house (B&B?) on the north side of the road, eventually succeeding in seeing 1 of the birds. A Great Spotted Woodpecker called as I was watching a Coal Tit and a Goldcrest feeding in a few conifers and when I stopped to look for the Woodpecker it saw me and flew off.
Walking back along the road towards the village I added a Yellowhammer, another Buzzard and a mixed flock of Stock Dove and Woodpigeon to the list. Checking my traveline Scotland app on my phone I discovered there was a bus to Dundee due within 3 minutes which meant a bit of a run to get to the bus stop in time, though needless to say it took the bus more than 3 minutes to get there. On the way back towards Cupar I contemplated heading back to Guardbridge for another hour's birding and found that I could catch a bus to take me there after only a short wait, so I decided to try that instead of heading direct back to Dundee.
A few Robins were seen singing near the gate as I headed into the hide at around 1545. In the hide was only Neil Redpath and we had a bit of a chat while I tried to add new birds to my list for the day, eventually adding a Great Tit and a Wren to a similar list from the morning. Neil had a photo of an interesting looking bird that he'd photographed earlier in the day and I asked him to email me a copy so I could check it out on PC at home. Harry Spence had also seen an Osprey from the hide earlier in the day which was written in the book. With the time approaching 1700, I headed for the bus stop and home.
Despite another rather unplanned route for the day, I ended up with a total of 63 species seen, including a year-tick (in bold) and my first Otter sighting of the year.
 |
| Black Tailed Godwit & Knot |
 |
| Black Tailed Godwit & Dunlin & Redshank |
 |
| Knot, Redshank & Black Headed Gull |
 |
| Black tailed Godwit, Redshank, Knot & Dunlin |
 |
| Pink Footed Goose & Greenland White Fronted Goose |
 |
| Mute Swan |
 |
| Otter |
 |
| Otter |
 |
| Little Grebe |
 |
| Otter |
 |
| Shoveler, Wigeon & Teal |
 |
| Pied Wagtail |
 |
| Lapwing, Mallard & Black Headed Gull (?) |
 |
| Jay |
 |
| Buzzard |
 |
| Rook |
 |
| Redshank |
 |
| Oystercatcher |
 |
| Oystercatcher |
 |
| Herring Gull, Goldeneye, Great Black Backed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Wigeon & Black Tailed Godwit |
 |
| Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank & Black Tailed Godwit |
 |
| Black Tailed Godwit |
 |
| Wren |
 |
| Wren |
 |
| Meadow Pipit |
 |
| Mallard |
 |
| Great Black Backed Gull |
 |
| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Brent Goose, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Goldcrest, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Knot, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Little Grebe, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Shelduck, Shoveler, Siskin, Skylark, Song Thrush, Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck,
(Greenland) White Fronted Goose, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
Mammals seen - Otter.
