My original plan for Saturday was to head for Fife Ness to do some seawatching as the winds were out of the north and looked to be full of potential for the likes of Little Auk and maybe White Billed Diver. However, as Saturday got closer the weather forecast looked a little less favourable with rain for much of the morning and into the early afternoon. With a 2 mile walk out from Crail to get to Fife Ness, rain is never good. Instead I chose to have a long lie and to try some seawatching from Arbroath cliffs instead. Unfortunately if there had been anything good passing by in the morning it had stopped by the time I arrived there around 1245.
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| Dipper |
I bumped into Alex Shepherd who had already had a look but hadn't seen very much and as we chatted a pair of Goosander flew over along the line of the cliffs and then a flock of Golden Plover headed inland in the direction of Cliffburn. Unfortunately that was really as good as it got with very little other than Gannets and some Guillemots to be seen offshore in the few hours I spent at the cliffs. There were some birds in the field behind me but nothing out of the ordinary. As I headed back to the bus station around 1500 I spotted a Dipper feeding along the top of the wall at the Brothock burn which was in spate and stopped to take a few photos before catching the X7 back to Dundee. Only 30 species seen in total.
Species seen - Dundee - Magpie, Feral Pigeon, Starling, Herring Gull, Grey Wagtail, Carrion Crow.
Dundee to Arbroath (from bus) - Woodpigeon, Common Gull, Curlew, Rook, Black Headed Gull, Jackdaw, Coot, Tufted Duck.
Arbroath - Pied Wagtail, Rock Pipit, Oysteractcher, Goosander, Gannet, Turnstone, Shag, Guillemot, Skylark, Golden Plover, Cormorant, Great Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Redshank, Grey Heron, Dipper.
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Golden Plover |
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| Skylark |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Cormorant |
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| Cormorant |
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| Guillemot |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Guillemot |
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| Feral Pigeon |
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| Goosander |
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| Curlew |
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| Grey Heron |
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Dipper
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Species seen - Black Headed Gull, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dipper, Gannet, Golden Plover, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Guillemot, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Linnet, Magpie, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Shag, Skylark, Starling, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Woodpigeon.
