Despite the relative success of Saturday's birding I was feeling a bit drained and struggled to get motivated to go birding on Sunday morning. As I had been birding more or less from dawn to dusk on all previous 5 days of the year this was perhaps little surprise. I was much later getting up than intended but still made it out for around 0915. I didn't have a fully formed plan for the day but I was headed for Fife with at least some of Tentsmuir Forest my main focus. What birds I saw would depend greatly on where I concentrated my efforts.
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| Little Egret |
Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon and Herring Gull were first onto the list with Blue Tit and Carrion Crow next followed by Magpie seen on Dens Road. Near the bus station I added Long Tailed Tit. Redwing was the only addition from the bus to Leuchars. Jackdaws, Black Headed Gull and Collared Dove were all noted when I got off the bus in the village. I decided I would head out the Earlshall Road, then into the Forest via the boardwalks, up to the access road and out to the beach, scan offshore for Scoters etc, then walk down past the Goosepools to the end of the military base then back in through Reres Wood.
The walk out to the farm at Earlshall wasn't overly productive with only common garden birds seen - House Sparrow, Coal Tit, Starling, Chaffinch and Blackbird. Rooks were in the field near the farm, and Great Tits were seen in the hedges and trees by the farmhouse. A Curlew flew over. Goldfinch, Robin and Bullfinch were spotted in the trees on the walk past the moto-cross track. A Siskin pair flew over towards the base. Stonechat was seen in the field. Wren and Pheasant were the only additions as I wandered slowly along the wooden boardwalk. A Jay flew off from one of the trees in the field as I neared the track north into the forest.
Greenfinch, Lesser Redpoll and more Long Tailed Tits were spotted in the bushes by the small gate at the southern end of the main forest. The path was much busier than I'd seen at similar times in the past and birds were few and far between. The horse fields proved productive with Fieldfares new for the year along with Redwings and Chaffinches and a few Mistle Thrushes. The road in was very busy and when I finally reached the beach it was very busy with lots of walkers and 2 or 3 times as many dogs. Needless to say, there were no birds anywhere on the beach or relatively close in to shore.
What little motivation I had earlier was rapidly fading but I decided to head in the direction of the Goosepools to get away from the people and dogs. Thankfully things were a bit quieter to the south in the dunes. Unfortunately that also extended to the birds and only a Meadow Pipit and a Reed Bunting were seen. I scanned out to sea but there were only a tiny handful of birds to be found - a few Eider, a few Common Scoter and a pair of Slavonian Grebes. A pair of Buzzards were all that was around at the Goosepools. Long Tailed Duck and a flying Red Breasted Merganser were also seen on the Eden near the river mouth.
I had put in a fair bit of effort and had only managed a relatively short list and only 2 year-ticks but I knew I had a few more miles to go to get back to the bus so there was nothing else to do but keep going. Walking along the north side of the base I was mildly surprised to see a Little Egret powering its way north east, though 1 had been seen on the beach at Monifieth recently. Things were just as quiet on the walk back to the village as they had been on the way out with very slim pickings to be had. I decided I would catch the next bus and head to St Andrews to see if I could see Scaup and Great Crested Grebe among the Scoter flock in St Andrews Bay with both having been reported earlier.
The light wasn't great and neither was my mood. I bumped into Eric and Elsie Peebles and the 3 of us stood at the corner of the golf museum car park solely focussed on what birds we could see. They were photographing the Rock Pipits below us on the rocks and I was concentrating on the Scoter flock. A posh voice from behind us said "I hope you're not going to take photos of my kids". We were all rather taken aback and I said "eh??" in a rather incredulous tone. She repeated her rather accusatory statement. Eric said "If I wanted to take photos of kids I've got 4 of my own". Tongues were bitten and no swear words (though fully justified) were uttered before she and Tarquin and Penelope (probably) wandered off down onto the beach behind us. If she thought it likely that anyone at all would try to photograph her kids she may have been better to focus on all those snapping away with phone cameras all around who would be more easily able to snap sneaky photos than the 3 folk with big lenses on their cameras who weren't even looking at any of the areas where people were, but I'm guessing her paranoia didn't consider that far more likely scenario.
Even more annoyed than previously we continued snapping away at the birds nearby and further away despite the rather gloomy light. To top things off a rowing boat came in right through the Scoters pushing them even further out and making my task of finding anything among the mass of black ducks completely impossible without a decent quality scope. Pied Wagtail, Oystercatcher, Fulmar, Cormorant and Great Black Bcaked Gull were all seen before the light became too dull to use and I called it a day and headed for home.
Just 48 species seen despite a lot of walking and my mood was worse when I got home than it had been before I got out of bed. The 2 year-ticks (in bold) were welcome however but both could have been added for much less exercise.
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| Curlew |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Great Tit |
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| Bullfinch |
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| Bullfinch |
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| Carrion Crow |
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| Great Tit |
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| Lesser Redpoll |
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| Long Tailed Tit |
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| Redwing & Chaffinch |
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| Fieldfare & Chaffinch |
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| Common Scoter, Slavonian Grebe, Eider |
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| Stonechat |
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| Common Scoter |
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| Buzzard |
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| Long Tailed Duck |
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| Little Egret |
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| Common Scoter, Long Tailed Duck, Fulmar |
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| Eider |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Common Scoter, Fulmar, Long tailed Duck |
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| Common Scoter, Long Tailed Duck |
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| Common Scoter, Fulmar, Long Tailed Duck |
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| Fulmar |
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Herring Gull
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Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew, Eider,
Fieldfare, Fulmar, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Lesser Redpoll, Little Egret, Long Tailed Duck, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Redwing, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Siskin,
Slavonian Grebe, Starling, Stonechat, Velvet Scoter, Woodpigeon, Wren.
