Once again the weather forecast was the determining factor in my weekend birding plans. Saturday was written off but as sunshine was forecast around the local area in Angus and Fife for Sunday, Ian suggested Fife might be a decent option. With still some relatively reliable birds such as Gannet and Kittiwake at Fife Ness and Mediterranean Gull along the southern coast of the county, as well as plenty of less reliable species - Divers, Grebes etc still required for our year-lists I worked out a route that would hopefully give us a chance to catch up with at least some of these. An 0800 start was arranged.
 |
| Mediterranean Gull |
We headed first for Leuchars railway station where we succeeded in getting Grey Partridge for Ian's year-list in the field between the station and the main road. Next stop was the small reservoir at Guardbridge which was relatively quiet before we popped into the Eden Estuary Centre where we added a mix of species as well as distant views of an Otter down near the Motray outflow. Our next stop was the golf museum car park at St Andrews. The main highlight there was a flock of 21 Scaup relatively close in. I did also find a very distant Velvet Scoter but the majority of Scoters offshore were Commons.
We then stopped off near the Castle and scanned from there. At least 8 Great Crested Grebes were with another flock of Common Scoters and I found another pair of Velvet Scoters. Despite lots of searching no Divers were seen here. Our next stop was at Kingsbarns where a Black Guillemot had been seen sporadically over the past few months. We were out of luck but did manage to finally find some Red Throated Divers (at least 9) and a drake Long Tailed Duck before heading for Kilminning. Things were rather quiet there so we headed for the hide at Fife Ness though with westerly winds and an apparently very quiet sea our hopes were not high.
Fortunately for us things weren't quite as quiet as they appeared, though lots of the movements were rather far out to sea. There were a few Guillemots and Razorbills and I picked up a distant
Gannet passing, my first of the year. A Bottlenose Dolphin was another nice surprise. A Grey Plover was on the rocks and a few rather pale Rock Pipits showed in front of the hide. We decided we would move on again at 1315 and within a few minutes of the decision a
Kittiwake headed northwards, my second year-tick of the day. Mediterranean Gull was our next target species with one reported earlier from Dysart. On the way there I suggested a stop at Buckhaven instead where the species has been relatively reliable for a good few years now.
We stopped first at the mouth of the river Leven where a Bar Tailed Godwit was the best find among the gulls and handful of waders roosting. At Buckhaven, Shore Road was very quiet but driving down to the small car park at the end of West High Street a single gull was seen wandering around on the grass. A quick check and we had our
Mediterranean Gull, a 2nd winter plumaged bird still showing some black at the wingtips. We still had around an hour to play with, so we decided to visit Kilconquhar Loch in the hope of finally finding a Pochard or two. Unfortunately we drew a blank, though 3 Red Breasted Mergansers did seem a little out of place there.
At a rather sodden Barnyards Marsh there were still some Snipe around and a Fox which ran off when it heard us. We added a couple of Sparrowhawks on the way back to Dundee as well as a Kestrel and surprisingly our first Grey Heron of the day. We finished the day on 67 species of bird and 4 of mammals. The 3 year-ticks (in bold) were a decent haul for the day's efforts. As most of our target species for the day were likely to be quite distant I decided to take my scope but dragged along a 70-300mm lens equipped DSLR for some record shots, so there aren't many photos to go with this blog post.
Species seen - Dundee to/and Leuchars - Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Carrion Crow, Oystercatcher, Feral Pigeon, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Blue Tit, Pheasant, Rook, Jackdaw, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Curlew, Black Headed Gull, Grey Partridge.
Guardbridge - Redshank, Shelduck, Starling, Mallard, Teal, Reed Bunting, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Tree Sparrow, Goldeneye, Black Tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Pink Footed Goose.
Mammals seen - Otter.
Guardbridge to/and St Andrews - Skylark, Scaup, Rock Pipit, Common Scoter, Eider, Great Black Backed Gull, Velvet Scoter, Fulmar, Great Crested Grebe, Red Breasted Merganser, Pied Wagtail, Cormorant.
Kingsbarns - Wren, Shag, Red Throated Diver, Long Tailed Duck, Turnstone.
Kilminning/Fife Ness - Buzzard, Grey Plover, Gannet, Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake.
Mammals seen - Bottlenose Dolphin.
Crail to/and Levenmouth - Stock Dove, Bar Tailed Godwit.
Mammals seen - Roe Deer.
Buckhaven - Mediterranean Gull.
Kilconquhar Loch/Barnyards Marsh - Coot, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, Mute Swan, Snipe, Sparrowhawk.
Mammals seen - Fox.
Kilconquhar to Dundee - Kestrel, Grey Heron.
 |
| Rock Pipit |
 |
| Rock Pipit |
 |
| Rock Pipit |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Rock Pipit |
 |
| Rock Pipit |
 |
| Black Headed Gull |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Gannet |
 |
| Gannet |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Mediterranean Gull |
 |
| Mediterranean Gull |
 |
| Mediterranean Gull & Carrion Crow |
 |
| Mediterranean Gull |
 |
| Mediterranean Gull |
 |
| Pheasant |
 |
| Snipe |
 |
| Sparrowhawk |
 |
| Sparrowhawk |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Fulmar,
Gannet, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Partridge, Grey Plover, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel,
Kittiwake, Little Grebe, Long Tailed Duck, Magpie, Mallard,
Mediterranean Gull, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Razorbill, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Reed Bunting, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Scaup, Shag, Shelduck, Skylark, Snipe, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals seen - Bottlenose Dolphin, Fox, Otter, Roe Deer.
