Late last week Willie Irvine and Angus Duncan found a Common Rosefinch
at Kilminning which led to Ken Shaw popping down for a look and running
into a much rarer and much skulkier bird - a Siberian Thrush - a first
for mainland Scotland and a very much wanted bird for twitchers who descended en masse from all points of the compass. Ian was
able to go across to see it on Friday while I was stuck at work. Sunday
brought in even more 'good' birds as a supporting cast to the Thrush
and Rosefinch. Holy Island in Northumberland was also inundated with
'good' birds and with Ian off on Monday he offered me the chance to get
out somewhere. His preference was Holy Island but travel time would have
meant that we would not have had time to see everything, even if it was
all still around and showed well within a few minutes. So we decided on
an 0730 start and a visit to Fife instead.
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Barnacle Goose
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Although the Siberian Thrush was the only lifer around for me, I was actually more interested in seeing the supporting cast as it was very likely I could mop up those while others stood around waiting for a glimpse of the Thrush, so my plan was to concentrate on the others and if I saw the Siberian Thrush, great, if not, no big deal. A Mistle Thrush perched on a pole at Gussie Park as I waited on Ian was a decent bird to kick off the day's birding. A Sparrowhawk as we passed through Guardbridge was a decent bird on the way to our first stop at Denburn Wood - which we had to do given the date was the 4th anniversary of my second Red Flanked Bluetail find in the same wood.
Unfortunately things were relatively quiet in the wood with Wren and Song Thrush being noted. We were joined by Matt Jackson and the 3 of us wandered through the wood to the top end where a few Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests were found. As we were seeing if we could see anything else I spotted a Snipe in flight and called it out to alert the others. Matt got onto the bird but Ian missed it. Photos that I managed to get showed it to be a Jack Snipe, which was a year-tick for Matt. We headed out to Kilminning and searched around the eastern side of the top end first. There was steady passage of migrants overhead but not in any great numbers. Yellowhammer, Meadow Pipit, Tree Sparrow, Redwing, Song Thrush and Skylark were all seen and a
Brambling was heard as I looked for something a bit better than the Chiffchaffs that kept catching our eyes.
A distant skein of
Barnacle Geese were seen over Crail as I tried to get onto another possible Jack Snipe but it got away. Having only checked the eastern side of the road we ventured into the western part where a couple of
Spotted Flycatchers eventually showed well during a rain shower. A relatively unexpected Hawfinch flew over and I managed a couple of reasonable photos. A potential Dusky Warbler had been heard in the southwest corner so we had a listen there but a 'chacking' bird which we heard turned out to be a Blackcap but a better surprise, and a fourth year-tick for me (after the Brambling, Barnies and SpotFly), was a young
Ring Ouzel. By now it was after 1100 so we headed for the bottom end where a Redstart was reportedly showing well and a few Yellow Browed Warblers had also been seen. Both would be new for the year-list.
The
Redstart didn't take too long to find and gave reasonable views before my attention turned to trying to find a Yellow Browed Warbler. I had an idea of where to search and disappeared in below the Sycamoress at the northwest corner of the lower end to stand and wait. A few Goldcrests were seen before a
Yellow Browed Warbler called and within a minute or so I got onto the bird which showed reasonably well though always above me. Ian was having a look for the Siberian Thrush with the mass of twitchers and Carolyn Hargest. I stood around for a while but having added Grey Heron and Great Spotted Woodpecker to the day's list I decided to do some more hunting of my own. Garden Warbler was attempted but there was no sign before Ian shouted to me that the Thrush was showing. Needless to say it was a brief sighting and I missed it. There was no sign of the Rosefinch either and a Red Breasted Flycatcher on the coastal path seen on Sunday had relocated elsewhere.
After another spell of standing around looking at Blackcaps and Greenfinches I decided on a wander around the rest of the bottom end. A Bunting popped up in front of me but disappointingly was only a showy Reed rather than a Rustic or Little which had been seen elsewhere on the east coast. Offshore I picked up a few Little Gulls relatively close in with Black Headed Gulls as well as Guillemot on the water and a number of passing Gannets and Shags. A Stock Dove flew past me and down to the shore. Grey Wagtail and Siskin were added to the list before Ian and I decided to head back to re-check the top end rather than wait for the skulking Siberian Thrush to show itself.
We added the first couple of Buzzards of the day before I found another Great Spotted Woodpecker which looked quite 'white' and had a stubby-ish bill which made me consider a Northern bird (checking at home later it didn't have all the features to 'clinch' it). We bumped into John Anderson and Beth (no surname!) and told them about the Woodpecker and the Ring Ouzel before debating between 25 minutes or so of seawatching at the Ness, Denburn Wood or another attempt at the skulking Thrush.
We decided on the seawatching. Lots of Kittiwakes and some Gannets made up the bulk of what we saw but a couple of Sandwich Terns were slightly unexpected. On the rocks were Redshanks and Oystercatchers with the Cormorants and Shags as well as a Grey Heron. A Curlew landed closer to us and a male Eider flew past followed a few minutes later by a female. Two distant dark dots out on the horizon seen just before we had to pack up acted like Skuas and were likely Arctic but were too far out for any sort of ID even with scopes. We called it a day at 1530 having seen 60 species of which 5 (in bold) were year-ticks with 1 heard-only bird also a year-tick. A couple of the birds which had been seen previously were no-shows (Red Breasted Flycatcher and Common Rosefinch in particular, but also Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat) but I can't complain given I caught up with quite a few birds I'd missed out on having not made it to the Glens this summer.
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Song Thrush
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Skylark
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Siskin
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Goldcrest
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Skylark
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Herring Gull
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Jack Snipe
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Chiffchaff
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Meadow Pipit
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Yellowhammer
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Mistle Thrush
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Hawfinch
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Rook
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Pied Wagtail
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Song Thrush
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Barnacle Goose
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Wren
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Blue Tit
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Yellowhammer
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Spotted Flycatcher
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Spotted Flycatcher
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Spotted Flycatcher
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Linnet
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Redstart
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Skylark
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Yellow Browed Warbler
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Yellow Browed Warbler
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Yellow Browed Warbler
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Robin
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Greenfinch
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Blackcap
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Redwing
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Barnacle Goose
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Grey Heron
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Robin
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Blackcap
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Barnacle Goose
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Goldcrest
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Goldcrest
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Goldcrest
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Meadow Pipit
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Barnacle Goose
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Reed Bunting
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Great Black Backed Gull
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Goldfinch
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Greenfinch
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Black Headed Gull & Little Gull
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Guillemot & Little Gull
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Stock Dove
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Carrion Crow
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Buzzard
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Grey Wagtail
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Great Spotted Woodpecker
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Great Spotted Woodpecker
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Buzzard & Carrion Crow
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Song Thrush
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Pied Wagtail
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Kittiwake & Herring Gull
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Redshank, Oystercatcher, Cormorant, Grey Heron & Great Black Backed Gull
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Curlew
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Sandwich Tern
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Gannet & possible Arctic Skuas ?
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Species seen -
Barnacle Goose, Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit,
Brambling (heard only), Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Eider, Gannet, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Guillemot, Hawfinch, Herring Gull, Jack Snipe, Jackdaw, Kittiwake, Linnet, Little Gull, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Redshank,
Redstart, Redwing, Reed Bunting,
Ring Ouzel, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sandwich Tern, Shag, Siskin, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk,
Spotted Flycatcher, Starling, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Tree Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Wren,
Yellow Browed Warbler, Yellowhammer.
Butterflies - Red Admiral.
