0553 : The Sooty Show (25/7/18)

Having just missed out by an hour or so on the chance to see a Sooty Tern at the Ythan Estuary on Monday, it was likely that Paul would be up for a visit to the Ythan to try and see this exotic visitor for our midweek outing. As expected, he was very keen, and with the chance of a Spoonbill (and maybe also Cranes too) there was an added incentive for heading north for him. The potential Cranes would be a nice catch for me too, but the Sooty Tern would be a lifer for me, and one that wasn't on the radar for a bird I was likely to see this year.

Sooty Tern
We arranged for an early start of 0630 and I headed out around 0615 to meet up with Paul at our usual Dundee rendezvous point. There wasn't much to be seen along the walk with only Herring Gull (as always), Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon and Swift seen. Heaing up the A90 we added Buzzard, Swallow, Starling, Carrion Crow, Curlew and a few Roe Deer before reaching the Ythan estuary at Newburgh around 0820. House Martins were seen over the car park and a Yellowhammer was perched atop the gorse bushes. A Blackbird flew across the path as we headed for the beach. A Dark Green Fritillary was spotted and photographed.

Arctic and Common Terns commuted up and down the river with a few Sandwich Terns mixed amongst them. We stopped and scanned repeatedly as we headed for the tin hut. Jacqui had decided to twitch the bird and had arrived around 0600 to find the bird had just left before she arrived. We added Oystercatcher, Eider, Black Headed Gull, Pied Wagtail, Redshank and Grey Heron before we joined Rab Shand and Alex Shepherd at the tin hut. Jacqui was further along the road at the Inches Road car park. More scanning found Common Gull, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, a distant Kestrel, a very smart male Linnet and a few Black Tailed Godwits. A few Lttle Terns were spotted but there was no sign of the target bird.

However, around an hour after we'd arrived, myself and Alex happened to be scanning further down the river when we both spotted almost simultaneously a dark bird among the terns. We quickly got Rab and Paul onto the bird and watched it land. We had our Sooty Tern. I phoned Jacqui to tell her and she managed distant views from whee she was. However, she, and two English birders decided they would come round to where we were. Unfortunately for them, while they were headed our way the SootyTern flew upriver and landed close to where they'd actually been. The bird remained settled for a while and when a dog walker walking along the edge of the golf course didn't spook the terns we all headed along the same route with the 2 English birders striding on well ahead.

They then headed in a straight line towards the birds and fortunately didn't flush the whole flock. Possibly having the burn between them and the birds made the difference given how 'jumpy' terns can be. Rab had headed off to try and see the Spoonbill and Paul, Alex, myself and a birder from Easter Ross called Simon who I'd met at the Great White Egret and Red Crested Pochard in Fife earlier in the year hung around the edge of the golf course so as not to cause the birds to fly off. Given that there were birders arriving from all over the UK to try and see the bird it was imperative that no-one did anything to cause the bird to depart again.

A Whimbrel flew downriver and a short while later I became aware of a strange call that I didn't recognise. The volume of it and the 'quality' of the call sounded artificial and it turned out to be the 2 English birders (one from London and one from Hampshire apparently) playing the bird's call through a speaker to try and tempt it closer. Something caused the whole flock to take flight around this time (I'm not sure if the speaker was in use before or only after the birds took flight, only that it was definitely being used when the Sooty Tern was in the air) and after a couple of circuits the Sooty Tern headed off downriver and out of sight.

Having see our main target we headed back to the car park, stopping to attempt to photograph Common Blue and Meadow Brown butterflies and a small looking Silver Y moth. A Cormorant flew by before we headed in the direction of the Waulkmill Hide further upriver. We stopped at the two small car parks near the bend of the river upstream of the bridge where we bumped into Alex again. This stop gave us a selection of new species for the day - Lapwings, Knot, Greylag and a flock of 14 Greenshanks. Along with the Knot were a few summer plumaged Black Tailed Godwits. The bushes and trees gave us Blue Tit and Goldfinch. Mallard and Mute Swan were seen further round the bend. Rab, having seen the Spoonbill, stopped for a chat and a few directions for sites in Angus that I was able to give him.

Heading on round to the Waulkmill Hide we added Chafinch and Skylark as well as lots of Pied Wagtails. We didn't even have to pop into the hide and were soon joined by Alex again and all 3 of us scanned from the car park adding a flyover Osprey (then a second bird almost immediately after), some Shelduck, a Great Black Backed Gull and the expected Spoonbill opposite. Jackdaws and Rooks flew up from the fields. More scanning found a Sand Martin pair zooming low over the water nearby before we moved on again. An attempt to find the small loch to the northwest of the crossroads without consulting a map led to a journey around lots of single track roads before we arrived at the A90. We did manage to see a Rabbit and a Meadow Pipit or two along the way.

Rather than head north to Strathbeg we decided to head south towards Montrose Basin to try for Ruff and Little Stint for Paul. A Sparrowhawk flew over as we reached the outskirts of Aberdeen but otherwise the journey along the coast road from Stonehaven south gave us no further additions. An inadvertant turn into St Cyrus nature reserve's access road meant a detour for a quick look around. With the tide already in at the Basin, we could afford to spent a short while to allow it to recede a bit further. We decided to try to reach the hide at the mouth of the river. We were distracted behind the visitor centre by an unexpected Comma butterfly flitting around in the sunshine. We were able to get photos though as there was a meeting taking place in the visitor centre I wasn't able to let any of the staff know while we had it in sight.

A rope barrier blocked our way to the hide so we headed down to the beach anyway. A Kestrel hovered over the fenced off area. There were plenty of butterflies around and we added Small Heath, Small Copper and Small Tortoiseshell as well as Small White to the list. Out on the sea we could see a flock of Goosander as well as picking up Guillemot and Gannets and a flyby Kittiwake or two. Heading back through the dunes we spotted Sand Robberflies and Paul attracted the unwelcome attention of a Cleg. One landed on my hand but I managed to brus it off before it bit me, thankfully. Paul wasn't so lucky and was bitten. Back at the visitor centre I spotted the reserve manager and showed her the photo of the Comma, and said I'd post it on twitter later and tag SNH Northeast in the tweet (which I did). Incidentally St Cyrus appears to sit very close to the same latitude line as Killiecrankie where I saw a Comma earlier in the year which suggests they are edging further north across quite a wide front.

We headed next to The Lurgies at Montrose Basin to see if we could find either the Ruff or Little Stint seen on Monday, though preferably both. House Sparrow was added as we passed through Montrose. The tide had receded slightly further than ideal but there were birds to be seen though our  expectation levels for many additions were relatively low. A pair of Stock Doves flew past as we walked along the banking. There were a number of Common Sandpipers and Dunlin dotted around which meant plenty of birds to check through while searching for the hoped-for Little Stint. Redshanks and Greenshanks were checked for any Ruff hidden amongst them but again we drew a blank. There was a small flock of 15 Black Tailed Godwits roosting alongside Black Headed Gulls and Greylags on the pebbles.

Pink Footed Geese stood along the far bank. A Teal flew past and as we headed back towards the car having drawn a blank on both targets I spotted a Red Breasted Merganser with a creche of ducklings strung out behind her on the river. A Great Black Backed Gull across the far side on Miss Erskine's Bank had managed to grab hold of a Mallard which struggled for a while before the Gull's superior strength wore it down. Eventually the Gull managed to break the birds skin on its rump and proceeded to start eating the bird's innards while the duck was clearly still alive. Not particularly nice to see, but nature "in the raw". A few Carrion Crows and Grey Herons watched the proceedings with interest. Myself and Paul headed back to the car and back towards Dundee and Fife. I added a Magpie a few minutes after Paul dropped me off in Dundee on the walk home.

Although the total number of species seen was relatively low with just 62 species seen it was once again a very good day out, with the successful twitching of a lifer (in bold) to top things off. In addition we managed to see 8 species of butterfly, 1 moth and 4 mammals.

Dark Green Fritillary

Common Tern

Arctic Tern

Curlew

Linnet

Black Headed Gull, Sooty Tern & Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern & Sooty Tern

Black Headed Gull, Sooty Tern & Sandwich Tern

Common Gull, Sandwich Tern & Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Common Tern

Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern

Little Tern

Little Tern

Little Tern

Common Tern

Dark Green Fritillary

Meadow Brown

Silver Y

Yellowhammer

Greenshank

Greylag Goose

Knot, Black Tailed Godwit & Black Headed Gull

Black Headed Gull, Spoonbill, Greylag Goose, Redshank & Lapwing

Rook & Jackdaw

Osprey

Osprey & Black Headed Gull

Osprey

Comma

Comma

Small Heath

Carrion Crow

Small Tortoiseshell

Goosander

Kittiwake

Sand Robberfly

Kestrel

Small Copper

Small Copper

Common Blue

Common Blue

Lapwing & Dunlin

Black Tailed Godwit

Common Tern

Osprey

Osprey

Black Tailed Godwit

Great Black Backed Gull, Grey Heron & Mallard

Dunlin & Mute Swan

Greenshank, Mute Swan & Black Headed Gull

Great Black Backed Gull & Mallard, Carrion Crow

Species seen - Arctic Tern, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Gannet, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Greenshank, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Kittiwake, Knot, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Little Tern, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Shelduck, Skylark, Sooty Tern, Sparrowhawk, Spoonbill, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Teal, Whimbrel, Woodpigeon, Yellowhammer.

Butterflies seen - Comma, Common Blue, Dark Green Fritillary, Meadow Brown, Small Copper, Small Heath, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White.

Moth seen - Silver Y (also Cinnibar Moth caterpillar).

Mammals seen - Common Seal, Grey Seal, Rabbit, Roe Deer.