I've been lucky enough to spot 2 White Billed Divers as they flew past Fife Ness - both in Autumn, 1 in 2013 and 1 last year. However, seawatching at Fife Ness as a means to see the species can hardly be guaranteed or predicted with any degree of accuracy. There is a slightly more reliable way to see the species however. The north Aberdeenshire/Moray coast in April and May has been discovered to be a stop-off for the birds on their way back to their breeding sites. You're still not guaranteed to see them but you will have a better chance than a random seawatch. With that in mind, Ian suggested a trip north on Saturday to try for them . We arranged to meet in Forfar just after 0800. Ian's pal, Kenny would also be coming along.
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| Spoonbill |
Thankfully the weather forecast for Saturday was dry though strong winds from the south were unlikely to be overly helpful. I headed out at around 0720 to make sure I managed to catch the bus at 0734. Starling, Feral Pigeon, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon and Blackbird were noted almost as soon as I stepped outside. Magpie was added a little further on. Carrion Crow was seen from the bus stop. The bus journey was slightly more fruitful than usual with Buzzard, Jackdaw, Skylark, Oystercatcher, Linnet and Grey Heron all seen as well as the first Roe Deer of the day. I managed to bump into Ian as he was turning the car a short distance from our arranged meeting point.
We headed for the A90 and northwards. As I was sitting in the back of the car the opportunities to add to the list were somewhat limited. House Sparrow, Black Headed Gull, Pheasant, Rook, Mute Swan and Pink Footed Geese were noted as well as a few more Buzzards and a few more Roe Deer before we reached Portsoy around 1015. We scanned from the harbour wall out over the sea. There were plenty of birds around with Long Tailed Ducks, Guillemots, Razorbills, Eider, Shag, Red Throated Diver, Gannet, Fulmar, Mallard, Kittiwake, Rock Pipit and Pied Wagtail all seen before we decided to try elsewhere.
Elsewhere was Findlater Castle a little further along the coast to the west. Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer, Skylark and Meadow Pipit were added on the short walk down to the cliff top where Jacqui and I had managed to see a White Billed Diver last year. Despite lots of searching using scopes by Ian and I, we drew a blank with only a fly-through by a distant Red Throated Diver to briefly raise the expectation levels. Otherwise it was broadly similar species seen out on, and over, the water offshore. A Corn Bunting was heard singing from the Oilseed Rape field on the walk back to the car but not seen.
We had a discussion as to where to try next. My suspicion was that the White Billed Divers were well out offshore having drifted out on the tide, as sightings from the previous days appeared to be around high tide. There had been birds reported further west at Cullen on Thursday and Friday. There were reports of 2 Spoonbills at Loch of Strathbeg as well as Cranes and Great White Egret there also. An Avocet had been seen at the Ythan Estuary on Friday too. I thought that attempting to see these birds had a higher chance of success rather than more scanning out over lots of slightly choppy sea but as Ian was the driver it was ultimately his call as to where we would go. In the end, Strathbeg it was, with another scan from Portsoy first just in case.
We unsurprisingly drew a blank at Portsoy again. By now it was around 1300 and with an hour to get to Strathbeg we were running out of available time as Ian wanted to be home by around 1800 at the latest. A few Great Black Backed Gulls were seen at the mouth of the river Deveron as we passed through Banff and Macduff. A flock of Whooper Swans was almost missed as we drove past a field further on. We reached Strathbeg at around 1350 where Goldfinches were seen around the car park. From the visitor centre we quickly spotted the
Spoonbills to the north nearer the Dunbar hide.
Shelduck, Teal and Lesser Black Backed Gull gave us a few more species for the day before we set off for a better view of the Spoonbills from the Dunbar and Tower hides. Blue Tit and Chaffinch were the only additions on the walk. We were much closer to the Spoonbills from the hide and with the low temperatures I was finally able to get reasonably good photos and video of 2 breeding plumaged adults without any heat shimmer causing distortion. Wigeon, Curlew, Greylag Geese, Swallow, Reed Bunting and Sand Martin were also noted. A young Peregrine shot through at low level but failed to catch anything.
A couple of familiar faces from Fife - Darell and Nat, arrived in the hide. A quick chat with them clarified that there was no sign of the Avocet on the Ythan which was a relief as we were now out of time for a stop there on the way back down the road. From the Tower Hide we had a slightly better view over the area and Common Gull, Tufted Duck and a distant Cormorant were noted before we headed back to the car and homewards. The lack of view from the back seat meant that the only addition on the way back to Forfar was a Lapwing over a field somewhere around Brechin. A Robin showed on a wall opposite the bus stop where Ian dropped me off in time to catch the bus back to Dundee, which was running a few minutes late (though we would have been cutting things very fine had it been on time).
Although we failed to see the target bird I managed to add 1 new species (in bold) to my year-list among the 56 species seen, as did Ian - though his was the Swallow. As we were en route to Strathbeg after lunchtime, we found out via RBA that 2 White Billed Divers had been seen off Cullen at 1000 which was rather frustrating as it had been an option after Findlater Castle. However, as there was around 3 hours between the sighting and the time we would have been there we could still have missed out, so on balance we probably (just) made the right choice by heading east and not west, though obviously we can't be certain of that. Ian is going to try again for the birds later this week, and I have another attempt pencilled in with Susan for early next month. Fingers crossed.....otherwise it'll have to be an October seawatch again.
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Long Tailed Duck & Razorbill |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Red Throated Diver |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Herring Gull & Great Black Backed Gull |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Spoonbill & Mallard |
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| Spoonbill & Jackdaw |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Buzzard & Jackdaw |
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| Peregrine |
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| Peregrine |
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| Peregrine |
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| Peregrine |
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| Spoonbill & Teal |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Spoonbill & Teal |
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| Greylag Goose & Mute Swan |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Eider, Fulmar, Gannet, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kittiwake, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Duck, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Razorbill, Red Throated Diver, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sand Martin, Shag, Shelduck, Skylark,
Spoonbill, Starling, Swallow, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Whooper Swan, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Yellowhammer.
Mammals - Roe Deer.
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