Thursday was my first opportunity to get out and about birding with Susan for 2019. There wasn't any particular plan other than to try and get some new birds onto her year-list, and hopefully some new ones onto mine too. We had arranged to meet at Guardbridge around 0930 and then move on elsewhere from there, though without travelling too far. The area around St Andrews offered a few opportunities so it was likely our efforts would be focussed around there. As with the previous day I decided to head out to try and add another local bird that I was unlikely to get later in the day.
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| Whooper Swan |
I headed out at 0825 to walk to Swannie Ponds to try for Goosander. Herring Gull and Magpie were immediate day-ticks followed by a Feral Pigeon. I had decided to take the 'low road' route and as I walked along the street I heard a familiar call and turned to see the bird fly over - a
Grey Wagtail, my first of the year. I added Blue Tit and Woodpigeon before I arrived at the Ponds. Mute Swan, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Black Headed Gull, a few Common Gulls and a single Coot and also a few Herring Gulls were seen. A Pied Wagtail was noted. Unfortunately there was very little open water as the low overnight temperatures had frozen the top pond completely and most of the lower pond. There was no sign of any Moorhens or Goosander.
I headed to the bus station to catch the bus over to Fife. A fly-over Starling, a small flock of Pink Footed Geese in a field near Pickletillum, some Rooks near St Michaels, a lone male Pheasant, a few Carrion Crows and a couple of pairs of Jackdaws were all added to the list from the bus. The hide at Guardbridge was empty when I arrived. A Blackbird and lots of Tree Sparrows were around the feeders along with Blue Tits and Great Tits. Out on the mud were plenty of Lapwings, Redshank, some Black Tailed Godwits and a large number of Dunlin. A Robin visited the bird table. A female
Pintail on the water opposite with a few Teal was a nice surprise, and my second year-tick of the day. A Red Breasted Merganser was swimming upriver with a small group of Goldeneye.
I was joined by Susan and we quickly added Curlew, Chaffinch, an unidentified swan (seen from behind and below), Dunnock, Shelduck and Coal Tit before deciding to head for Balgove Bay and the George Evans Hide to see what birds the tide pushed in with it. Before we left Guardbridge we added Great Black backed Gull, Buzzard and a Redwing in the park on the way to the car. I was hoping to add Brent Geese at Balgove Bay as well as maybe the White Tailed Eagle. Pintail had been one of the hoped for species but the female at Guardbridge had crossed that one off the list already.
As we left the car park at the golf course to walk to the George Evans Hide a small flock of Bullfinches flew out from the trees and across the fairways. Other than a few Woodpigeons there was little seen on the walk out. The tide still had a while to go before the majority of birds would be close enough for good views. There were Teal and Wigeon fairly close, Dunlin by the hundreds, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Carrion Crows but also some more distant birds that were just too far away to safely identify.
A
Peregrine rocketed past the hide causing chaos and putting up clouds of birds. Among these were a number of
Knot and Bar Tailed Godwits. We found a few Grey Plover on the mud. A Grey Heron flew past. A Moorhen foraging along the edge of the sea-wall most likely came from the reedy pond on the golf course which was frozen over. A Wren was seen as we walked back to the car for the short drive round to the Golf Museum car park to scan through the Scoter flocks out in the bay trying to find Surf Scoter among 100s of Common Scoters.
Rock Pipits and Fulmar were noted but most of the Scoters were relatively distant. There were 3 distinct groups as well as a smaller flock of Eider closer in. In addition there were Long Tailed Ducks in decent numbers not too far away. With no luck among the closest Common Scoter flock we decided to try from a higher viewpoint further out towards the harbour where hopefully we would have better views of the other 2 large congregations. As we arrived and got out of the car I could see the 100s of birds out in the bay. Within a few seconds at least 3/4 of that flock took flight and flew back towards where we'd just come from.
There were still 100s of birds to scan through anyway so we concentrated on these. The constant comings and goings as well as birds actively diving all the time made it a frustrating task and no Surf Scoters were found, though a few Velvet Scoters were picked out in flight. Purple Sandpiper, a Grey Heron and a number of Redshanks were roosting down below the cliffs near the Abbey ruins. A small group of Turnstones were also noted as were a few Cormorants in flight over the water. After a bit of discussion we decided to pop back up to Cameron Reservoir which offered a variety of species for Susan's list.
It was a similar spread of species on the Reservoir when we arrived with a mix of ducks and swans including Pochard and Whooper Swan and also some Coot. A flock of geese flew over and photos showed them to be
Greylags. Another year-tick for me. We added Crossbills including a singing male and soon managed to see a Smew which promptly flew up towards the western end. A surprise was a Tawny Owl heard calling and we had an idea where the call seemed to be coming from. A small flock of Siskins and
Lesser Redpoll fed high in a tree nearby while we checked the waterfowl. We decided to explore the complete route around the site. Although there wasn't a huge amount of birds to be seen we did manage to find Long Tailed Tits, Wren and also Grey Heron among the wide variety of habitat surrounding the water.
Further round we decided to try to find our calling Tawny Owl which we'd heard again as we got closer. With a lot of luck we stumbled upon the bird which flew off a short distance through the tree-tops, thankfully visible enough to confirm it was a
Tawny Owl we could see. We managed to get below the bird and I decided to attempt a record shot. With the clicking of the camera shutter the bird peered downwards at us, improving the rather poor photo immensely, despite the branches in the way. As Tawny Owl is a bird I don't see every year (and haven't in the past 3, though I have heard calling birds most years) I was very pleased to get this one on my year-list and so early in the year. With the light rapidly failing we called it a day and headed for home.
Another successful day out with 7 year-ticks (in bold) among the 67 species seen. Once again the St Andrews Bay duck flocks had defeated our attempts to find their hidden treasures, though checking photos later at home suggests the Surf Scoters were not among them when we were looking anyway. This also tallies with last week's sighting when we scanned and scanned but drew a blank but after an influx of more birds just as we were about to give up the birds put in an appearance. They are either spending some of their time much further out in the bay or perhaps further up towards Kinshaldy.
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| Lapwing |
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| Dunlin & Lapwing |
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| Dunlin & Lapwing |
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| Carrion Crow |
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| Magpie |
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| Goldeneye |
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| Black Tailed Godwit, Lapwing, Herring Gull, Black Headed Gull |
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| Pintail |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Jackdaw |
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| Black Tailed Godwit |
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| Bullfinch |
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| Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Pintail, Shelduck, Redshank |
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| Wigeon |
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| Dunlin & Redshank |
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| Redshank |
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| Wigeon |
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| Wigeon & Teal |
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| Teal |
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| Teal |
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| Wigeon & Redshank |
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| Teal & Redshank |
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| Dunlin |
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| Teal, Dunlin & Redshank |
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| Dunlin & Wigeon |
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| Dunlin |
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| Teal |
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| Curlew, Shelduck, Dunlin, Redshank |
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| Moorhen |
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| Eider, Common Scoter, Long Tailed Duck, Herring Gull |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter & Fulmar |
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| Common Scoter |
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| Redshank & Purple Sandpiper |
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| Common Scoter |
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| Crossbill |
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| Crossbill |
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| Lesser Redpoll |
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| Lesser Redpoll & Siskin |
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| Smew & Goldeneye |
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| Whooper Swan, Coot & Goldeneye |
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| Whooper Swan |
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| Tawny Owl |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Coot, Cormorant, Crossbill, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider, Fulmar, Goldeneye, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Grey Plover,
Grey Wagtail,
Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Jackdaw,
Knot, Lapwing,
Lesser Redpoll, Long Tailed Duck, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher,
Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose,
Pintail, Pochard, Purple Sandpiper, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Shelduck, Siskin, Smew, Starling,
Tawny Owl, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter, whooper Swan, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
