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Meadow Pipit & Cuckoo
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I posted photos from my trip out with Paul on Wednesday on my twitter feed (@SFbirding). These piqued the interest of Matt Jackson, a young English medical student studying in Fife, who messaged me. When Matt made his first visit to St Andrews for his University interview he messaged me about what he might hope to see in the remaining daylight. We kept in touch when he was accepted to St Andrews University and I provided him with a lot of info on where to bird around Fife. Unfortunately, Matt and I only managed to get out birding together twice, once with Ian, and once with Susan, before Covid arrived on the scene. We've run into each other once or twice since but had never actually got out birding together. With Matt moving to Edinburgh in the summer, time to actually do so was rapidly running out. Matt asked where he might see some of the birds I posted pics of, and to let him know if I fancied squeezing in some birding at some point between now and June.
As it would be easier to show Matt where we'd seen the species we had on Wednesday, rather than try to give directions to some very hard to describe places (or to even find them on Google Earth), I suggested that if Matt fancied it we could have a trip up the Angus Glens and I'd try to help him get the species for his year-list that he'd asked about. We arranged to do so on Saturday as the weather forecast for Monday (another possibility) was fairly dire. Matt arranged to pick me up at 0800 from home. We would head for the same 2 Glens as I had visited with Paul but in reverse order. Black Grouse would be a lifer for Matt, so I decided that should be our first target bird, then we could hopefully mop up the rest during the remainder of the outing.
As I waited for Matt to arrive I had my first views of 'my' Swifts - those I watch, and listen to, from my window for the few months they are around. We set off for the A90 quickly adding Swallow, Magpie and an unexpected Jay. We turned off the A90 to go along some minor roads to the first Glen, though I was navigating from memory, which did mean we took a wrong road at one point though we still got to where we were going. We stopped when Matt saw a bird on a wire which turned out not to be the hoped for Spotted Flycatcher, but a Whitethroat (not a bird we were likely to run into in the Glens, so it was still welcome for our day list). Another stop got us Skylark, a close Red Kite, Pheasant, Buzzard, Meadow Pipit and a Brown Hare.
A little further on we stopped again and added Yellowhammer, Siskin, Wheatear (4 of them), Reed Bunting, Willow Warbler and Stonechat as well as a pair of Roe Deer. We set off into the Glen en route to the site I find most reliable for Black Grouse in Angus. Sand Martin, Pied Wagtail, Lapwing and Raven were all noted at our first stop in the Glen. We could hear a Cuckoo calling so we stopped again a little closer to where we suspected it might be. This proved to be a good decision as we found a Cuckoo on an electricity pole being mobbed by a pair of Meadow Pipits. As we watched this going on, a Whinchat started singing and we had good views of that too. A second Cuckoo appeared giving us some nice interaction between the two birds. Another Stonechat showed nearby on the wires along with a Linnet, before we moved on again.
There seemed to be Common Heath moths everywhere along the roadside though they didn't seem to want to settle for any length of time. There were fewer Red Grouse around than expected though. Our next stop gave us Lesser Redpoll, Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush. Unfortunately, there was no sign anywhere of our target Black Grouse for the second time in 4 days. Given the amount of trees which have been removed along the length of the Glen over the past few years, I wonder if this might have resulted in the birds moving elsewhere. We did add Common Sandpiper and Grey Wagtail though. A Red Squirrel was seen from the car as we neared the end of the Glen road. There was no sign of any Ring Ouzel seen despite a short walk further on. With time required to try for Redstart, Spotted Flycatcher, Tree Pipit and Ring Ouzel in our second Glen we decided to head there.
Red Legged Partridge and a heard only Redstart were noted from the car as we made our way up the second Glen. A Kestrel tussled with a Buzzard over the road, our only sighting of raptors in the second Glen despite favourable soaring conditions. We eventually made it to the end of the Glen for our walk further on to try for the same species Paul and I had managed to get on Wednesday. It was rather busy, given the sunshine and the fact it was the weekend. A parking spot was hard to come by though we lucked into someone leaving as we were trying to find one. More Redpolls and a few Long Tailed Tits were noted as we headed along the track. We were quite fortunate to catch up with Tree Pipit shortly after finding what was surely the same Redstart Paul and I had seen mid-week. That left us Ring Ouzel to get of Matt's target species for the day.
A Treecreeper was spotted by Matt as we searched for a Spotted Flycatcher we could hear. We had brief views of the Flycatcher but as it wasn't a priority so we continued on. A Cuckoo was picked out perched on some wires to the north. Ring Ouzel proved very tricky to find but Matt eventually spotted a single male high on the hillside as we were on the verge of giving up, though it did eventually come closer. A young Dipper was spotted on the burn as we headed back to the car. Matt, being a Liverpool fan, was keen to be back in St Andrews for the FA Cup Final kicking off, so with most of our targets for the day in the bag, we set off back towards Dundee. A Chiffchaff was heard as we exited the Glen and a Sparrowhawk overflew as we reached Dundee taking our total number of species seen or heard to 64, as well as 4 of mammals. All in all, a really good day out even if I didn't manage to add anything to my year-list, with Matt happy with his haul, despite missing out on the potential lifer.
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Red Kite
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| Wheatear |
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Wheatear, Willow Warbler & Stonechat
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| Buzzard |
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Cuckoo & Meadow Pipit
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| Whinchat |
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| Linnet |
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Common Heath
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| Stonechat |
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| Lapwing |
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Lesser Redpoll
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Mistle Thrush
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Common Sandpiper
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| Treecreeper |
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Ring Ouzel
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Meadow Pipit
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| Goldcrest |
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Stock Dove
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| Dipper |
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Grey Wagtail
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Birds - Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Cuckoo, Curlew, Dipper, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Redpoll, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Raven, Red Grouse, Red Kite, Red Legged Partridge, Redstart, Reed Bunting, Ring Ouzel, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Siskin, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Flycatcher, Starling, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Swallow, Swift, Tree Pipit, Treecreeper, Wheatear, Whinchat, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
Mammals - Brown Hare, Rabbit, Red Squirrel, Roe Deer.
