As we were struggling to come up with a worthwhile plan for this Wednesday's birding outing, Paul and I decided to defer our usual trip for a couple of days (trying for Hawfinches at Scone Palace instead on Friday). This meant that I had a lie-in on Wednesday and still had no real idea of where I wanted to go for some birding once I got out of bed. After some consideration I decided on a spot of bus-hopping along the Angus coast with Little Gull at Carnoustie/Westhaven the only remotely likely addition to the year-list.
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| Purple Sandpiper |
I headed out around 1050 to walk to the Arbroath Road to catch a 73 bus. A Grey Wagtail was the only thing of any great interest before I reached the bus stop. I decided to try Balmossie first. The bus windows were all steamed up so there was nothing much seen on the bus journey. Arriving at Balmossie a Goldcrest flew across from one garden to another. Things were relatively quiet compared to other recent visits. The most notable observation was a count of at leat 230 Bar Tailed Godwits between the burn mouth and the outflow pipe along to the east. Beyond that were at least another 150 or so, though I can't be certain there wasn't any movement between the 2 groups as I was counting them.
A small flock of Redwings passed northwards. Other birds of interest were Grey Plover, Red Breasted Mergansers, Wigeon and lots of Eiders out on the river. I wandered along towards Monifieth noting 14 dogs on one part of the beach, being 'controlled' by only 2 women. One with 10(!) mostly off leads, and 1 with 4 (on leads). Needless to say this part of the beach was bird-free so I headed for the bus to Carnoustie, and only just made it in time. At Carnoustie Beach I found a small group of Purple Sandpipers feeding on the rocks just a few feet offshore and managed to watch and photograph them (with the P900 - travelling light) and even tried out my Viking Optical phone scope adaptor with a bit of video, for around 15 minutes until a dog walker flushed them all (there were 7 - though I could only ever see 3 at 1 time) before she headed up off the beach anyway.
A distant Red Throated Diver was seen out in the bay and Ringed Plover was spotted out among the rocks on the beach. I decided to wander along to the Craigmill Burn mouth to watch the tide coming in, bringing the birds closer in - with hopefully a Little Gull or 2 included. Unfortunately, a dog walker was around a minute ahead of me and flushed all the gulls and waders before I was able to scan through the gulls. I hoped they would come back to the same place and sat down a 100 metres or so from the burn. Unfortunately the same dog walker then managed to clear the few remaining birds (mostly Wigeon) as he headed back along the beach.
A few birds eventually drifted back in, with 9 Grey Plover and a few Dunlin the best of the now limited numbers. The gulls had all moved on elsewhere - across the burn towards Easthaven. Within a few minutes another dog walker came past, scattering everything again. By now I was resigned to the fact I'd more or less wasted my afternoon. A handful of birds did return and I managed to see that one of the Grey Plovers had a metal ring but I was unable to read it. Had I taken a DSLR with me I suspect I would have been able to get some detail. The birds that had roosted along the beach towards Easthaven were all flushed by another dog walker but headed further away rather than come back to the burn mouth.
Rather fed up, I wandered back along the edge of the field and past a large flock of Sanderling and Turnstone feeding by the water's edge. By walking as far up the beach as I could and not stopping to look at the birds I managed to get by them without moving the birds (bar a couple of Redshanks that moved a short distance). I sat on the first bench by the swings and watched the birds feeding nearby including another couple of Purple Sandpipers. I also attempted to read the metal ring on a Cormorant perched out on the brickwork drain(?) not far offshore, but the wind made it impossible to keep my scope steady enough. Within a few minutes the sound of excited barking came from my left and a cloud of Sanderling and Turnstones rocketed past pursued by two small dogs, which ran back and forwards along the beach never letting the birds settle on the shoreline for more than a second or two.
Eventually a woman appeared and having ascertained that the dogs were hers a discussion was had about why allowing the dogs to chase the birds wasn't good for the birds and even potentially their survival. After some discussion which echoed other rather frustrating conversations I've had in the past with dog owners whose dogs are chasing waders, she said there was nothing she could do to stop them chasing the birds (training suggestions are available on YouTube to curtail the behaviour). I suggested she put them on the lead she had in her hand. Which she did but clearly wasn't happy about it. Later I posted a short video of one of the dogs chasing the birds on Twitter and it turned out the owner was a friend of a follower of mine on Twitter who proceeded to argue the "dogs' side" while I did likewise for the birds. This I tried to do as diplomatically as I could, and just about succeeded (she hasn't blocked me on Twitter anyway).
A Stonechat posed nicely at the western end of the beach and a distant Long tailed Duck was seen well out in the bay before I headed for home. A Common Scoter (most likely from the small flock I saw earlier well out on the water) was seen near some of the gulls offshore. I scanned through the gulls that were roosting near the golf course but succeeded in only finding Black Headed and Herring Gulls. The windows on the bus back to Dundee weren't steamed up as the morning's had been but the only addition were half a dozen Roe Deer were seen in a field near Monifieth.
A really frustrating day with only 40 species of birds seen and a reminder of the selective blindness of some dog owners when it comes to the needs of wildlife attempting to survive in their own increasingly limited habitat. Sadly I think it will take the likes of Chris Packham/David Attenborough highlighting the issue publicly for their to be even a remote chance of any sort of positive change happening. As far as I can determine the only undisturbed beaches in Angus and Fife where waders can actually roost and feed undisturbed most of the time are those on the edge of Minisrty of Defence land at Leuchars and Barry Buddon. This must also have a knock-on effect on birds that used to nest on beaches (terns, plovers etc) - even the roped off area at the Ythan estuary tern colony is ignored at times. For a supposed 'country of animal lovers' the UK is actually a bad joke, and seems to me to be getting rapidly worse.
Species seen - Dundee and Balmossie - Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon, Grey Wagtail, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, House Sparrow, Goldcrest, Starling, Bar Tailed Godwit, Common Gull, Curlew, Dunlin, Redshank, Black Headed Gull, Rook, Wigeon, Oystercatcher, Eider, Cormorant, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Goldeneye, Grey Plover, Mute Swan, Redwing, Great Black Backed Gull, Jackdaw, Turnstone.
Carnoustie/Westhaven/Craigmill Burn mouth - Purple Sandpiper, Red Throated Diver, Mallard, Common Scoter, Rock Pipit, Sanderling, Stonechat, Long Tailed Duck.
Carnoustie to Dundee - mammals seen - Roe Deer.
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| Purple Sandpiper |
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| Purple Sandpiper |
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| Sanderling |
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| Sanderling |
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| Redshank |
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| Grey Plover |
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| Redshank |
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| Wigeon |
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| Purple Sandpiper |
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| Cormorant |
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| Stonechat |
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| Stonechat |
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| Stonechat |
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| Stonechat |
Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider, Goldcrest, Goldeneye, Great Black Backed Gull, Grey Plover, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Linnet, Long Tailed Duck, Mallard, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Purple Sandpiper, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Redwing, Ringed Plover, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sanderling, Starling, Stonechat, Turnstone, Wigeon, Woodpigeon.
Mammals seen - Grey Seal, Roe Deer.
