0507 : Still Not Spring (28/3/18)

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. 

0506 : Searching For Spring (24/3/18)

As the sun was shining when I finally got out of bed I decided that I wasn't going to waste the entire day at home. Instead, I would go somewhere in the hope of finding an early Spring arrival, most likely a Chiffchaff. As one of the better spots in Dundee for connecting with Chiffchaff early in the season is around Riverside Nature Park, I decided that was where I would go. With warmer temperatures than of late it promised to be a nice walk even if I was unable to find my target bird for the day.
Long Tailed Tit


It was just before 1400 when I headed out hoping to catch a bus into town. Herring Gull and Feral Pigeon were all that I managed to see. One of the local RSPB group members was at the bus stop already and we had a chat as we headed into the City Centre. Only a Carrion Crow was added on the journey down. Nothing else was added on the second bus journey out towards the park either, though it was nice to see the sun shining and blue skies.

Heading into the park I spotted 2 Buzzards along to the west, somewhere around the Botanic Gardens, circling up on a thermal. A Herring Gull glided over and a Carrion Crow hopped around on the grass. A pair of Woodpigeons flew off as I walked in past the trees at the entrance. In the trees opposite a Chaffinch was perched and as I neared the gate a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew off towards Buzzard Wood. A Greenfinch was difficult to find among the bare branches but I found it after a few minutes of homing in on its call. The Blue Tit in the branches above was a lot easier to see.

The first Long Tailed Tits of the day flew through the trees I was scanning. On the ground along the eastern side of Buzzard Wood there was lots of activity, with 4 Redwing, 3 Blackbirds, 6+ Chaffinches and a Robin all feeding. Unfortunately a rather loud plane taking off from the airport seemed to spook them back into the trees. On the grass to the south were a small flock of Feral Pigeons. A Song Thrush was spotted in a tree at the corner of Buzzard Wood half-hidden among the branches. A pair of Oystercatchers flew past, noisily calling, which seemed to upset a pair of Mallards which shot out from the boggy area in front of Buzzard Wood.

There was a reasonably large flock of Jackdaws in the cow fields and a pair of Goldfinches flew over as I searched the boggy area for Jack Snipe. One of these days I will succeed in seeing one up close on the ground. There were 4 Snipe in the area but they didn't hang around. Having had a decent start to my park visit the 'new' ones fizzled out for a while until I found a Coal Tit in a conifer round towards the Lochan. The Lochan itself had a flock of 24 Oystercatchers and maybe 12 or so Redshanks plus 5 Mallard. A pair of Long tailed Tits with nesting material were seen flying to a particular bush.

On the hill behind a Stock Dove picked around before being joined by a male which proceeded to strut around, throat feathers puffed out. This did not impress the female dove and he soon gave up. A pair of Starlings were in the grass between the Lochan and another large pool. As I walked along the path I noticed that there appeared to be a small flock of Stock Doves feeding on the hill. A Common Gull flew over and a Black Headed Gull was another addition as I headed for the hide overlooking the bay.

It is increasingly difficult to see down into the bay from the area around the hide with trees and bushes blocking most of the view. I did succeed in managing to see a flock of Redshanks which when spooked flew into the tunnel where the burn flows out from, below the railway line. This wasn't something I've seen before from any of the waders at the park. A Lesser Black Backed Gull was on the pipe along with a few Herring Gulls. The majority of Black Headeds and Common Gulls were across the far side of the bay. Scanning out across the mud from the bridge I found a few Curlews and some Shelduck but it was rather quiet.

I spotted a Skylark descending back down to the hill, the flight distinctive and the first Magpie of the day flew up to land atop a tree. I spotted a distant Pied Wagtail fly in to land at the Lochan. Heading back into the main body of the park I spent a few minutes trying to pinpoint a Yellowhammer which I did eventually. There was small number of Teal feeding along the mouth of the burn. A Linnet was seen near the recycling area. A few other bits and pieces were seen as I headed for the exit - 4 Magpies together, a Buzzard and a pair of Curlews, but nothing new, though Goldcrest was heard more than once.

Nothing else was seen as I headed back into town and then home until I got off the bus around the corner from home. A Blue Tit, a pair of Goldfinches, a Blackbird and a Carrion Crow harassing a Sparrowhawk high over home rounded out the list to a total of 35 species, but no Chiffchaff yet.

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Blue Tit

Redwing

Song Thrush

Snipe

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

Long Tailed Tit

Buzzard

Oystercatcher & Redshank

Oystercatcher

Stock Dove

Stock Dove

Stock Dove

Starling

Black Headed Gull

Herring Gull & Lesser Black Backed Gull

Redshank

Redshank

Magpie

Teal

Black Headed Gull & Common Gull

Magpie

Magpie

Magpie

Curlew


Species seen (1 seen outside park only in brackets) - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Curlew, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Shelduck, Skylark, Snipe, Song Thrush, (Sparrowhawk), Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Woodpigeon, Yellowhammer.