Well, 2018 was a successful birding year for me with by far my best ever total of 224 showing what is actually possible birding with folk who want to see the same birds as I do, as well as trying new routes via public transport on my own, including using the trains more. So I couldn't wait to start my 2019 list off. In a break from 'tradition' rather than my usual long walk in Dundee which usually gets me around 50 or so species I was heading out and about with Paul who had also had his best ever year last year, though his was rather hampered by being stuck in the middle of the North Sea for half of it. I had a plan of sorts that would hopefully get us a decent total - I reckoned around 70 was possible.
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| Buzzard |
My first bird when I opened the back curtains in an attempt to avoid it being the usual Herring Gull was..... a Herring Gull. Then when I headed out to go and meet Paul the sky was full of Herring Gulls. It felt a bit like they were taunting me. Eventually a Starling flew past breaking the spell. Feral Pigeon was next on the fledgling list followed by a Carrion Crow. A Blackbird and a Blue Tit were in the same tree by Wallacetown Health Centre. Paul arrived a little later than usual but still early - I'd left early as Paul is always early. I suggested we head to Swannie Ponds then Caird Park to try for Kingfisher, then Dipper on the Dighty Burn at Trottick.
Swannie Ponds provided a fairly typical spread of birds - Coot, Moorhen, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Mute Swan, Mallard and Tufted Duck. Disappointingly no Goosander though. I suggested a quick detour down the section of Kingsway East where the Waxwings had been lately but we drew a blank though as it was still around sunrise it wasn't really a surprise. The ponds in Caird Park were next. A Wren was seen at the bottom pond and a Jay was in a tree above. Chaffinch, Coal Tit and Siskin were all seen before we headed back to the car. No sign of Kingfisher at all.
We headed next to the Dighty Burn at Trottick Ponds. My plan was to check from the bridge and then hurry on to Riverside Nature Park to catch the tide on its way in. As I opened the car door I heard a Dipper head down the Dighty but when we got to the bridge there was no sign of it. I suggested we try the road bridge and as we got to it we could hear a Dipper singing. Looking over the parapet we easily saw the bird perched on some rubbish in the burn. Heading back up to the Kingsway we added a Mistle Thrush in a treetop by the road.
At Riverside Nature Park we added Magpie quite quickly then headed round towards the Lochan as this was the quickest route out to the hide. Woodpigeon and Carrion Crow were the only additions before we found only a couple of Black Headed Gulls at the Lochan. Blackbird, Goldfinch and Chaffinch were noted before we hurried along to hopefully find our main target - Spotted Redshank. A Great Black Backed Gull was on the pipe with Herring Gulls. The tide was already quite far in and a mass of waders were congregated just over the pipe - Redshanks, Black Tailed Godwits and Dunlin.
A small flock of Teal were over near the reeds and a Grey Heron was along the railway banking. A few Mallard were further out in the bay and a few Feral Pigeon milled around. Paul tried to find the Spotted Redshank with his scope but had no luck. I had a go and found it quite quickly. As we headed back out to the path I heard Long Tailed Tits calling and we saw these plus a Blue Tit and Great Tit feeding in the weedy patch near the entrance and railway bridge. Jackdaws were seen among the Carrion Crows feeding on the hill. A single young Mute Swan was in the outer part of the bay.
A Robin popped out a little further on and a Starling headed over towards Invergowrie. A Cormorant flew past and from the hill we could see Curlews on the grass at the airport. A Mistle Thrush flew over us quite low. A skein of Pink Footed Geese passed over rather higher in the sky. We heard Redwings calling and had a look for them, managing to see a few feeding along the back of the bushes on the hillside. A Siskin flew over and I spotted a Song Thrush in the bushes by the car park but Paul missed it.
Greenfinch and Wren plus a few more Chaffinches were all seen as we headed over to the marshy area to search for Snipe and Jack Snipe. A Yellowhammer was seen perched in a bush on the way there. I spotted another Song Thrush that Paul missed again. It was beginning to look like a cointender for bogey bird when he managed to see it fly off through the brambles at Buzzard Wood. Things were very quiet in the marshy area but a single Snipe was seen before we headed back to the car having managed 34 species in the park, which wasn't a bad haul - though some were duplicates of species we'd seen earlier.
Arbroath was to be our next stop but I suggested detouring through the city centre where Ian Laird had found Waxwings a few days previously. There were plenty of berries on the trees so it was likely the birds were still around but we saw no sign of them. Oystercatcher and Collared Dove were noted on the way out of Dundee. Near Dobbies, a Kestrel flew up out of tree and up to the road where it flew parallel with us for a few seconds. A few hundred metres on and a Sparrowhawk was seen higher up above the road. A few miles on and we had our 3rd raptor species - a Buzzard. Rooks were also seen along this stretch.
We stopped off at Arbroath golf course at Elliot to see if there was any sign of Short Eared Owls. We added Stonechat and Dunnock and saw another Wren. House Sparrows were heard but not seen. A Snipe was flushed from one of the boggier areas by the track. The bird didn't call, flew a short distance and dropped again. When we tried to see if it was a Jack Snipe as the behaviour suggested it did the same again. I managed a few photos but these appeared to show a typical Snipe length bill. Later at home, via Twitter, my suspicions were confirmed that it was indeed only a Common Snipe.
We headed along to the harbour to see if we could find the Black Redstart. Keith Edwards, Graham Smith and Philip Cohen were all looking for the bird but nobody was having any success though apparently a woman had seen it a short while before Keith and Graham arrived. We had a quick look but had to settle for Pied Wagtail, Rock Pipit, Purple Sandpiper and Turnstone. I mentioned the Spotted Redshank at Riverside to all 3 of them but none of them were even aware of it - despite it featuring on my twitter a few times, my blog, Birdforum, Rare Bird Alert, Birdguides and Angus Bird News twitter feed. Keith and Graham had already tried and failed to get the Shorelark at Barry Buddon which vindicated my decision not to waste a couple of hours attempting it, given the state of the tide at the time we would have been looking.
Rather than hang about I suggested we head on up to Boghead Farm to try for Corn Buntings via the area near the cliffs first. House Sparrows were seen flying across the road near the harbour junction. We found Ringed Plovers down on the shore and a Reed Bunting up on the wall by the cliff path. Things were quiet in the stubble edge to the field and offshore so we headed back to the car. The ringed Herring Gull yellow T:524 was in his usual spot again.I spotted a pairof Red Throated Divers quite far out over the sea and watched them land. Thankfully, Paul had also managed to see the birds. Things were a lot quieter when we arrived at Boghead Farm than they had been when I visited with Jacqui recently which didn't bode well.
A few Skylarks flew over and we eventually found a small flock of birds some of which landed on the wires at the far end of the field. These turned out to be the hoped for Corn Buntings plus a few Yellowhammers and a Chaffinch. A small flock of Stock Doves and Feral Pigeons were seen flying up from the weedy field and a small group of Woodpigeons perched up on the wires as we were leaving. We decided to head for Montrose Basin to try to add Little Egret, Kingfisher, Water Rail and anything else we could find. We passed a field full of Pink Footed Geese on the way downhill towards the centre but there was nowhere to stop safely. Photos were grabbed from the moving car later as we headed out of Montrose.
Although the visitor centre was closed we headed in to the Bank of Scotland Hide adding Tree Sparrows in the bushes behind the centre. The tide was quite well in and the birds were rather distant. Eider, Shelduck, Red Breasted Merganser and Wigeon were all noted and a trio of Pink Footed Geese flew over. A few distant Grey Seals gave me my first mammal sighting of the year. Paul spotted a raptor tussling with an Oystercatcher before it headed out low across the Basin. It was either a Merlin or a Sparrowhawk but given the lighting conditions, distance and rear views it was impossible to tell from the photos though the flight style was reminiscent of Sparrowhawk, though flying out low over the water seemed an odd thing for a Sparrowhawk to do. Whatever it was stirred up the waders across the far side when it got closer.
The sky had by now darkened considerably so instead of our idea of trying for Twite over the far side of the Basin we decided to head back to Arbroath to try again for the Black Redstart and Short Eared Owls. There had been no sign of the Black Redstart since we'd left and we drew a blank on Short Eared Owl though we did have nice views of a Buzzard near the car park and a Kestrel which landed in a tree rather close to where we were standing. A Little Grebe was seen with some Mallards and Mute Swans in a pool at the reedbeds.
We headed next to Carnoustie for a very quick check for the Ring Necked Parakeet. This like the rest of the 'twitchable' birds for the day, bar the Spotted Redshank, proved fruitless though a Great Spotted Woodpecker as we were about to leave was some compensation. By now the light was beginning to fade a bit so we tried a quick stop at Westhaven for Bar Tailed Godwits but only succeeded in adding a Grey Plover or 3 to the list. It was a bit of a race against the light by now so we made one quick stop along Broughty Ferry esplanade off Bridge Street where we succeeded in getting Bar Tailed Godwit taking our total to exactly 70.
All in all, despite the lack of the 'star' birds we reached the target number of species for the day giving us both a nice start to 2019's list. As I had set myself the probably unattainable target of getting 120 species before going back to work on Monday (or as close as possible) it was a good start. Birds in italics are those species seen at Riverside Nature Park.
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| Redshank, Dunlin, Black Tailed Godwit |
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| Cormorant |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Stonechat |
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| Snipe |
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| Kestrel |
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| Kestrel |
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| Kestrel |
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| Buzzard |
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| Buzzard |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Herring Gull (T:524) |
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| Reed Bunting |
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| Red Throated Diver |
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| Feral Pigeon & Stock Dove |
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| Chaffinch & Yellowhammer |
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| Reed Bunting |
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| Corn Bunting |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Unidentified raptor |
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| Buzzard |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Grey Plover |
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| Common Gull, Bar Tailed Godwit, Herring Gull, Black Headed Gull |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit,
Blackbird,
Black Headed Gull,
Black Tailed Godwit,
Blue Tit, Buzzard,
Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Coot,
Cormorant, Corn Bunting,
Curlew, Dipper,
Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider,
Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Spotted Woodpecker,
Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Plover, Herring Gull, House Sparrow,
Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Little Grebe,
Long Tailed Tit,
Magpie,
Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail,
Pink Footed Goose, Purple Sandpiper, Red Breasted Merganser,
Redshank, Red Throated Diver,
Redwing, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover,
Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Shelduck,
Siskin, Skylark,
Snipe, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk,
Spotted Redshank,
Starling, Stock Dove, Stonechat,
Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Wigeon,
Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
Mammals seen - Grey Seal.
