Having successfully avoided the bad weather on Saturday while out birding (though catching up with it once back in Dundee) the chances of avoiding it for a second successive day were rather slim. I didn't fancy staying in all day so decided that a short walk to Swannie Ponds would be just the thing to get a bit of fresh air and possibly even find a Mediterranean Gull in among the Black Headed Gulls that usually frequent the ponds. As I hadn't been to the ponds too often this year it was also an opportunity to see what sort of breeding season the resident species have had.
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I headed out at around 1210. There was the slightest hint of rain blowing through and I considered turning round and going back inside. Feral Pigeon, Carrion Crow and Herring Gull were seen picking around on a grassy drying green behind some tenement blocks. A few Starlings flew over. Blackbird and House Sparrows were seen in gardens on Court Street. A Jackdaw was on the roof of one of the tenements on Clepington Road. Further along the road a Lesser Black Backed Gull dropped down behind a parked car to pick up something unseen from a driveway. A Woodpigeon flew over before I reached the ponds.
The local Mute Swan pair and around 20 or so Mallards were on the water with a few more feeding around the path and a House Martin hawked around over the water near the island. Unusually there were no gulls on the water, or round about, though there were a few Lesser Black Backed Gulls around on lamp posts and roofs nearby. There was a recent furore in the local papers over Herring Gulls snatching a Mallard duckling at the ponds. That there were no Black Headed Gulls, Common Gulls or the usually ubiquitous Herring Gulls was rather concerning and may be a sign of either council action or 'vigilante' action of the type seen further south. Given that Mallards, Coots, Grey Herons and Mute Swans can all be rather aggressive to other birds including their own species it seems unfair to single out the 'seagulls' for what is natural behaviour while ignoring the other residents propensity for similar acts. After all, they are behaving in a perfectly natural way.
There was a pair of Coots with 4 youngsters feeding on the upper pond and a second pair with one youngster round the other side of the island as well as a third pair of adults on the lower pond. I counted around 30 Mallards in total but there was no sign of any Tufted Ducks or Moorhens. A single Grey Heron fished round the other side of the island at the small 'ramp' and just round from the steps I found a Woodpigeon sitting on a nest about 10 feet up in a tree by the road. A few lingering Swifts and some Swallows passing over were seen near the bottom of Mains Loan as I wandered home.
A very disappointing total of only 16 species seen though I did have some nice close views of the grey and white young Coots providing me with some reasonable photo opportunities despite the overcast conditions.
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| Mallard |
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| Grey Heron |
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Species seen - Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Coot, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Mallard, Mute Swan, Feral Pigeon, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Woodpigeon.
