For the second week in a row I didn't do any birding on Thursday despite being off work on holiday. On Friday morning as I lay in bed, a text message arrived from Lainy asking if I fancied a trip to Broughty Ferry for some birding. It would be around 1000 or so before we would be able to get there but with a relatively small high tide at around 1300 it wasn't particularly a big deal. After a bit of discussion of possibilities, I suggested we could maybe walk from Balmossie to Craigmill Burn, just on the far side of Carnoustie, via Barry Buddon, to potentially increase our chances of running into something good. Lainy was amenable to the idea so I got out of bed to have some breakfast and to get organised. When I looked out of the window it was rather a dreich day, with slight drizzle. Looking at the weather forecast suggested that it should stay dry where we would be, so as long as we were dressed accordingly we would hopefully be fine.
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Sandwich Tern
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Lainy messaged me around 1015 to say they were on their way. I waited outside noting Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Herring Gull, Carrion Crow, Robin and Magpie. As we passed Swannie Ponds on the way to Broughty Ferry, Mallard, Coot and Black Headed Gull were seen from the car. A Starling was the only other addition before we were dropped off at the eastern end of the esplanade around 1040. The Tay was flat calm and there was a lot of beach to check for birds. House Sparrows were in the hedge behind us and scanning gave us Sandwich Tern, Oystercatcher, Goosander, Guillemot, Eider, Mute Swan, Razorbill, Bar Tailed Godwit, Great Black Backed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Cormorant, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Grey Heron, Curlew, Common Gull and Pied Wagtail as we slowly made our way eastwards. Wigeon was added off the mouth of the Dighty.
Goldfinches were added near the caravan park and I managed to find a Red Throated Diver well out on the river among the Cormorants, gulls, auks and Eider off Barry Buddon. A Collared Dove was seen perched on a TV aerial. A Blue Tit was seen flying over. A Grey Seal was spotted quite far out on the estuary. There was no obvious sign of any Little Gulls at the burn mouth unfortunately before we headed into the Barry Buddon army ranges. We were able to add Reed Bunting, Linnet, Wren and Blackbird quite quickly but it was another 10 minutes walking before we added the next bird - a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling from the conifers on the golf course. Although Barry Buddon covers a large area birds can be harder to find than you'd expect and sometimes it can feel like there are practically none around.
Whitethroat and Long Tailed Tits were in bushes by the road, while a Sparrowhawk hunted a little to the north and a few Swallows passed overhead. A Moorhen was heard calling at the Yeomanry Ponds and a few Mallards were seen on the water there. A Willow Warbler was in the trees. A Sand Martin passed overhead westwards. Greenfinch, Coal Tit, Siskin and Chaffinch were noted as we wandered along the cycle path by the railway line at the golf course. A House Martin was seen flying around some of the houses to the north of the railway line. As expected there was still lots of the shore exposed despite our arrival at Carnoustie only being around 30 minutes after high tide.
Just as on the other side of Barry Buddon there were lots of birds out on the water with good numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills - though the Razorbills seemed to be in the majority on the eastern side, whereas the Guillemots outnumbered them on the Monifieth side. Jackdaw, Redshank, Common Tern, Stock Dove and 2 Bottlenose Dolphins provided us with some variety. Much further out we could see Gannets and more gulls. We watched the waders feeding at Westhaven - Dunlin and Bar Tailed Godwit plus a few Oystercatchers and Redshanks before continuing on to the mouth of the Craigmill Burn where we could see there were lots of gulls bathing and roosting. A few Rooks and a lot of Rabbits were seen before we made it to the burn.
Scanning through the gulls proved surprisingly disappointing with no Mediterranean or Little Gulls to be found. A Red Breasted Merganser flew past as we did a spot of seawatching. Another Red Throated Diver, a few small flocks of Common Scoter, a flock of Knot and a few Fulmar, as well as the aforementioned Gannets were as good as it got, other than a decent sized flock of Wigeon flying by close to shore. We had a slowish wander back to Carnoustie after adding a pair of Buzzards heading into Craigmill Den. It was more of the same on the walk back with most birds other than the waders and a few others worth attempting to get a photo or two of. At Westhaven a Common Tern, with a youngster nearby, took exception to the Herring Gulls perched on the posts and gave two of them a torrid time until they left.
We wandered along to check a flock of gulls by the mouth of the burn at the golf course but again this proved disappointing though a pair of Sanderling and a Dunlin did land by the water's edge in front of us, giving us one last species for the day. There was some rain starting to blow through so Lainy messaged Adam to arrange for him to collect us. We decided to walk to Barry Station to simplify things and also to give us something to do rather than just standing about waiting. This worked out very well and we were headed for home not too long after.
Although we didn't manage to see anything too unusual and the weather wasn't brilliant we did end up walking 10.4 miles and noting 63 species of bird, plus 3 of mammal. As Lainy had never been to Barry Buddon or the Craigmill Burn mouth before it gave her the opportunity to see these places for herself as well as see where some of the more productive areas along the route were. A decent enough day out with good company and also a few reasonable photos to show for our efforts and far better than the likely alternative of sitting editing photos at home.
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Cormorant
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Dunlin & Ringed Plover
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Wigeon
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Red Throated Diver
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Wigeon
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Eider
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Razorbill
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Eider, Guillemot, Razorbill etc
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Goldfinch & Linnet
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Sand Martin
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Razorbill & Herring Gull
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Curlew, Redshank & Linnet
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Common Gull & Dunlin
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Common Scoter, Gannet & Eider
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Bottlenose Dolphin & Gannet
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Common Gull & Sandwich Tern
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Dunlin
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Common Tern
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Common Tern
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Common Tern
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Common Tern
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Common Tern
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Common Tern
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Dunlin
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Bar Tailed Godwit & Dunlin
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Bar Tailed Godwit
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Dunlin
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Dunlin
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Razorbill
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Razorbill
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Goldfinch
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Stock Dove
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Stock Dove
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Red Throated Diver
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Gannet
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Common Scoter
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Buzzard
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Knot
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Turnstone
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Common Tern
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Grey Heron
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Sandwich Tern
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Grey Heron
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Grey Heron
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Grey Heron
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Grey Heron
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Common Tern & Herring Gull
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Common Tern
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Common Tern
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Common Tern
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Dunlin
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Dunlin
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Oystercatcher
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Sandwich Tern
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Sandwich Tern
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Sandwich Tern
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Pied Wagtail
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Sandwich Tern
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Gannet
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Sanderling & Dunlin
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Birds - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Fulmar, Gannet, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Knot, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Razorbill, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Red Throated Diver, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Sanderling, Sandwich Tern, Siskin, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Turnstone, Whitethroat, Wigeon, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals - Bottlenose Dolphin, Greay Seal, Rabbit.
