By Friday, I was rather tired and feeling a bit jaded having birded every day since Saturday. Having covered most of the habitat types and sites over the previous 6 days I was struggling to decide where to go. Roadworks in Leuchars and Guardbridge made catching a connection to Crail rather fraught with difficulties which ruled out my first choice of a spot of sea-watching at Fife Ness. With south-easterly winds forecast it made sense to visit the Angus coast so I decided to start at Westhaven and work eastwards possibly as far as Montrose Basin again, or Scurdie Ness. It was far from a concrete plan however.
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| Shelduck |
I headed out at 0935 to walk to Arbroath Road to catch the 73A to Carnoustie. A few species were seen on the walk - Herring Gull, Starling, Carrion Crow, Blackbird and Feral Pigeon. From the bus I was able to add a few others - Blue Tit and Collared Dove, on the way out of Dundee. Rook, Mallard and Swallow were seen between Monifieth and Barry village. I arrived in Carnoustie at around 1025 and walked down to the western end of the waterfront. A Pied Wagtail was flitting around near the Leisure Centre but out on the sea only a distant Guillemot and another closer in, could be seen.
I walked slowly eastwards and stopped to scan at various points. It was a bit colder than I hoped it would be which didn't help my enthusiasm levels. A few Eiders were spotted on the rocks and offshore while further out a young Kittiwake was seen flying away from the shoreline past another Guillemot. Even further out a few Gannets passed by. On the rocks I found a lone Redshank plus Oystercatcher and Turnstone in very small numbers. A Great Black Backed Gull, a small flock of Cormorants and a small group of Sandwich Terns were on the rocky shore nearer to Westhaven.
A Magpie was a new species for me in Carnoustie as 1 stayed a little ahead of me on the path before flying down to the beach where it waited until I had moved on again. A Shelduck pair were seen among the small pools and a Curlew flew in and landed. A few Linnets lifted from the longer grass near the garden wall that feels like the Carnoustie/Westhaven border for me, as a small party of House Sparrows picked around among the shorter grass. Another pair of Shelduck were feeding by the edge of the beach at Westhaven and scanning along the beach I saw a birder walking back towards me. I was sure it was Stuart Green and a text message from him asking if it was me stood at Westhaven confirmed it.
A pair of Sanderling flew past as I waited for Stuart to arrive back so I could ask him if a visit to Craigmill Burn was worthwhile or not, rather than wander along in the hope that it would be. When Stuart arrived he confirmed what I had suspected, there were some birds but it was relatively quiet. There were some birds moving offshore but mostly rather far out, at scope range. I scanned with my binoculars first while Stuart scanned using his scope. Fulmar, Red Throated Diver and Common Scoters were spotted mostly heading north-east parallel to the coast.
I spotted a couple of what I suspected were most likely
Manx Shearwaters and Stuart confirmed it. These were closer in than ones he had seen earlier and were a year-tick for me. I was also hoping for a Skua or 2 but even using my scope I failed to add any, though a few more Manx Shearwaters did pass by. Stuart had things he needed to get done and having got a year-tick I decided to visit a friend from work who is on maternity leave at the moment and lives in the town. Once I'd done that, I'd see if I felt like going elsewhere. I added House Martin (which nest under the eaves on my pal's house) but couldn't muster any further enthusiasm to continue birding and headed for home not long after 1300.
A shorter than intended spot of birding, but a year-tick (in bold) among the 33 species made it worthwhile despite the weather being colder than forecast. Not many photographs were taken.
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| Guillemot & Kittiwake |
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| Eider, Oystercatcher & Turnstone |
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| House Sparrow |
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| Magpie |
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| Magpie |
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| Magpie |
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| Shelduck |
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| Kittiwake |
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| Sandwich Tern |
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| Cormorant, Sandwich Tern & Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Sandwich Tern & Herring Gull (?) |
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| Shelduck |
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| Shelduck |
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| Turnstone |
Species seen - Blackbird, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Collared Dove, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew, Eider, Fulmar, Gannet, Great Black Backed Gull, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Kittiwake, Linnet, Magpie, Mallard,
Manx Shearwater, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sanderling, Sandwich Tern, Shelduck, Starling, Swallow, Turnstone, Woodpigeon.
