Before I get started on this latest blog I'd like to point out a new addition to my blog page (although given how sharp-eyed those reading this are, you'll already have noticed, no doubt). On the right hand side there is now a link to a few more birding blogs that I regularly read myself. Kosice Patch Birding is a blog from Slovakia, put together by a guy from Dundee and I always find it interesting to see the similarities and the differences between what we're both seeing. You can also find his twitter account at @KPBblog. Second on the list is Boulmer Birder. This one is by a birder from Northumberland who is also a very talented bird artist, whose work you may have seen in relation to the Giant Petrel sighting from last year off Northumberland. Twitter account is @Stewchat. Lastly at least for now, is Alex Shepherd's Aberbrothock blog. Alex is an Arbroath based birder who visits a lot of the same places as me - in lots of cases running into birds I don't get to see because I'm stuck at work. As far as I'm aware, Alex isn't on Twitter. Hopefully more blogs will be added to the list as I find them. Once you've read this post all the way to the end, be sure to check them out....
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Wheatear
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Ian messaged me to see if I fancied a spot of seawatching on Sunday. As seawatching is something I always enjoy - mostly due to the possibility of almost anything appearing, from passerines arriving in off the sea, to raptors and owls, to seabirds both rare (such as Cory's Shearwater and White Billed Diver) and less rare, or passing waders and wildfowl, I immediately said yes. We arranged for an 0730 departure from Dundee. The weather forecast was for it to be a bit colder than some days recently, though not as cold as sometimes September can be. When Ian arrived we had a bit of a discussion about doing the Angus coast instead of our intended plan of Fife Ness as things appeared to have quietened down. With Roseate Tern and Black Tern plus 3 species of Skua still on my 'needed' list, it made sense to give it a go.
Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon, Robin and Starling had been noted as I wandered round to meet Ian at 0730, and as we set off we quickly added Woodpigeon, Blackbird and Magpie. House Martins were seen circling near Dura Street with Collared Dove, Carrion Crow and Coot seen as we passed Swannie Ponds. Black Headed Gull and Common Gull were seen on the football pitches just before the Claypotts junction. A Grey Heron overflew the road as we headed out of the city. Rook and Jackdaws were in a roadside field near Carnoustie.We arrived at Westhaven just after 0750.
Immediately apparent was a surprising lack of Terns compared to the numbers that we had expected to see. Howevere, there were still plenty of birds around and we quickly racked up a good amount of species. Cormorant, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Turnstone, Guillemot, Razorbill, Redshank, Goosander, Eider and Great Black Backed Gull were all either on the water or on the rocks with a few Gannets visible much further out. Overhead a stream of Meadow Pipits, Grey Wagtails and Pied Wagtails passed westwards, while the local Goldfinch flock flitted around nearby. Rather than spend too long in one spot as we have done previously we decided to continue on to Arbroath in the hope of catching up with a few Terns there.
We bypassed Elliot choosing instead to head for the area just west of the pizza restaurant. However, as the tide still had a bit of receding to do we decided to head back to Elliot to check the gulls and other birds there and to return once there was more of the shoreline uncovered. We checked the beach to the west of the burn mouth first, finding a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover. I found the first of the day's Red Throated Divers offshore among more auks. Ian then spotted an adult Mediterranean Gull on the beach near some Herring Gulls and Great Black Backed Gulls. A few Sandwich Terns flew past us just a little offshore. More scanning found a Shag out on the sea. A pair of Sanderling dropped in near the burn mouth and a pair of Common Terns flew by.
A Wheatear was on the beach by the side of the burn and as we wandered back to the car we added a single Linnets to the list. I spotted a Sparrowhawk flying around as if it was displaying over the houses to the north at Elliot. There was a Mute Swan, a Moorhen and a Mallard on the water among the reedbeds. A pair of Stonechats popped up onto the fence bordering the railway line seconds after Ian had mentioned that there should be Stonechats around asthey are usually to be found in that area. House Sparrows were seen as we drove back along to the pizza restaurant to check the now exposed shoreline.
Lesser Black Backed Gull, Swallows, Fulmar, and Kittiwake were all spotted along with 2 further Mediterranean Gulls and a yellow ringed Black Headed Gull (2BC8). We had a brief chat to Martin Scott who was also birding the area, before heading along to the harbour. A pair of Wheatear were found there, one on the rock armour, the other down on the sand. I spotted a distant skein of Geese along towards the cliffs. There were 2 birds among them that looked paler than the rest. Photos were used to get an ID - the majority being Canada Geese with 2
Barnacle Geese. We headed along to the cliffs next and tried a spot of seawatching from the raised viewpoint they offered up. There seemed to be good numbers of Red Throated Divers heading south with at least a dozen noted in just a short space of time. A few Common Scoter were also seen, along with a Rock Pipit and another Shag.
Although there appeared to be a lot of Red Throated Divers moving through there didn't appear to be much of anything else so we discussed our options for where to try next. We decided to pop into Boddin Point and see how things looked from there before deciding whether to try elsewhere or to stay and watch from there. A Little Grebe and a possible Corn Bunting, as well as 2 Reed Buntings were seen on the way there. A flock of Linnets were on the wires by the farm at Boddin. There was a small flock of Common Scoters at the northern end of Lunan Bay along with a few Velvet Scoters as well as the expected auks. A small flock of Teal dropped in too. Red Throated Divers, a few Sandwich Terns and some distant Gannets were noted during a brief seawatching attempt.
With a Black Scoter and a few Surf Scoters having been seen recently off the mouth of the North Esk at Kinnaber, Ian suggested we have a go at finding them. It did mean a bit of a walk but there was a chance at a year-tick at least, if not two, with Surf Scoter being far more obvious than the Black Scoter, where you're searching through large numbers of very similar birds looking for a just barely larger than tiny blob of yellow on the bill. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Great Tit, Blue Tit and Coal Tit were noted on the long walk out through a largely birdless landscape.
When we reached the dunes near the river mouth we stopped to check the large numbers of birds just a little bit offshore - there were good numbers of Red Breasted Mergansers together in a large flock as well as maybe 100 or so Common Scoters and at least another dozen Red Throated Divers as well as a few auks and Eiders. With very little way of pin-pointing a particular bird on the water we scanned through the birds. Ian picked out a bird that he was certain was the Black Scoter but I couldn't get onto the bird before it disappeared underwater and we failed to refind it again. I did succeed however, in finding a drake
Surf Scoter which was lacking the white patch on the back of the neck.
It too proved tricky to keep track of and I failed to find it with the camera and it doesn't appear in any of the random group shots I took either but it was a welcome year-tick for us both. More scanning found us a flock of Wigeon off the river mouth as well as a small group of Tufted Ducks. There were many more Scoter to the south of us, though further out from shore than those closer to us. As we had to go that way to get back to the car we decided to take a look at these birds too. However, the birds proved to be mostly just a bit too far offshore for us to pick out that one particular tiny bit of yellow among lost of other tiny bits of yellow on the male Common Scoters of which there were many more that bit too far offshore for it to be a simple task to scan through even at full zoom. Eventually we had to call it a day and head in the direction of home.
A Buzzard, a Jay, a few Wrens, and a Common Darter dragonfly were noted on the walk back to the car. We made one last brief stop at Montrose Basin to check through the waders on the rising tide at Rossie Spit. Unfortunately we were still at least around an hour too early. Seals were hauled out on a sandbank in the Basin. Among the waders strung out along the edge of the mud was a single Lapwing and a number of Black Tailed Godwits taking our total number of species for the day to a reasonably decent 71 (72 for Ian with the Black Scoter) of which 2 were year-ticks for me (in bold). Despite the surprising lack of Terns or much variety in the offshore movements during our two short seawatching stints it was still an enjoyable day out birding.
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Meadow Pipit
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Grey Wagtail
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Razorbill, Guillemot, Herring Gull & Black Headed Gull
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Razorbill, Guillemot, Black Headed Gull & Herring Gull
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Red Throated Diver
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Herring Gull, Oystercatcher & Meditteranean Gull
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Mrditerranean Gull & Black Headed Gull
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Dunlin
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Sandwich Tern
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Goosander
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Herring Gull, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull & Great Black Backed Gull
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Mediterranean Gull
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Mediterranean Gull & Black Headed Gull
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Black Headed Gull (yellow 2BC8)
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Wheatear
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Wheatear
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Wheatear
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Wheatear
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Wheatear
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Red Throated Diver
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Red Throated Diver
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Fulmar
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Feral Pigeon
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Red Throated Diver
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Shag
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Reed Bunting
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Linnet
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Teal
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Common Scoter
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Grey Heron
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Velvet Scoter
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Red Breasted Merganser
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Kittiwake & Red Breasted Merganser
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Red Throated Diver
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Common Scoter
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Common Scoter
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Common Scoter
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Common Scoter
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Common Scoter, Red Breasted Merganser & Tufted Duck
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Common Scoter, Eider & Red Breasted Merganser
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Gannet & Red Throated Diver
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Eider, Common Scoter & Red Throated Diver
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Common Scoter & Eider
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Red Throated Diver & Kittiwake (?)
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Wigeon, Eider & Razorbill
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Red Breasted Merganser & Common Scoter
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Cormorant
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Common Scoter
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Red Breasted Merganser
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Black Tailed Godwit
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Black Tailed Godwit
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Cormorant, Herring Gull & Seal sp.
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Oystercatcher, Lapwing & Redshank
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Herring Gull
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Birds -
Barnacle Goose, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Fulmar, Gannet, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Kittiwake, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Little Grebe, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mediterranean Gull, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Razorbill, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sanderling, Sandwich Tern, Shag, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stonechat,
Surf Scoter, Swallow, Teal, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter, Wheatear, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Dragonflies - Common Darter.
Mammals - Seal sp.
