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Mediterranean Gull
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With wader numbers starting to build again across the country, I decided that I would visit Balmossie on Saturday, hoping to finally catch up with Sanderling for my Dundee 140 list. Unfortunately the list seems to be lagging a little behind schedule. The tide times weren't ideal but with a bit of luck and an early enough start I figured there was a reasonable chance of catching up with at least a few of these small waders. There would hopefully be other possibilities, with Guillemot and Razorbill dispersing from their breeding colonies as well as perhaps a Mediterranean or Little Gull.
I headed out a little later than I had initially intended, at around 0640. This still gave me a decent chance of getting to Balmossie before the majority of dog walkers did. Assuming I had judged the timing of the tides correctly, which isn't always easy, I hoped to see the birds pushed closer on the rising tide. I headed first for Swannie Ponds with nothing out of the ordinary seen either on the way, or when I got there. I continued on down the Kingsway and onwards to the Stannergate where a Linnet was spotted in flight. Whitethroat was heard from the bushes by the railway line and I picked out a few Goosander out on the river. I managed close views of a Stock Dove wandering along ahead of me before it realised I was there and flew off.
The first surprise of the day was a Tufted Duck seen flying upriver as I neared Douglas Terrace. Distant Sandwich Tern and Cormorant were both added. Redshank, Curlew and Oystercatcher were not surprisingly also noted. A Grey Wagtail flew over near the lifeboat station and a single Ringed Plover aborted a landing on the shoreline pebbles when it spotted me. There were a few Turnstones around at their roost on the lifeboat jetty structure. Out on the river, I spotted a Grey Seal. Swallow and Pied Wagtail were both seen at the Castle Green park. As I scanned from beside the Castle I spotted some very distant Bottlenose Dolphins and hurried round for a better view from the sandy beach. There seemed to be at least 10 or so Dolphins, all rather active, with lots of breaching going on. They were initially off Lacky Scalp, the pebble island off Tayport but they continued out towards Tentsmuir Point before I eventually lost sight of them - though they were reported later off Arbroath on twitter by one of the regular readers of this blog (twitter handle - @dmsk1313 ).
I eventually made it Balmossie 3 hours after having left the house, rather than the usual 2, largely due to once again being distracted by the Dolphins. This meant the tide was further in than I had hoped and that there were far fewer waders around. There were a dozen Canada Geese with the Mute Swans at the mouth of the burn. Eider, Mallard and Goosander were also seen offshore. I checked the gull roost but couldn't conjure up anything unusual among them. An Osprey put in a brief appearance, hovering just west of the burn mouth, before being spotted and chased off by one of the roosting Herring Gulls. Almost immediately after, I heard a Carrion Crow sounding rather agitated and turned to see a Sparrowhawk gliding over towards the railway line. The Crow made a bee-line for it but the Sparrowhawk easily evaded the attentions of the less manouevrable corvid. I kept checking and re-checking the vanishing beach as well as the river which gave me Rook and Gannet for the day.
Ian messaged me at 1045 to say he was heading for Fife to try for a Bonaparte's Gull which had been found at East Wemyss and did I want to join him. Of course I did, though I did have to say that I was in Broughty Ferry but that I would head back in the direction of Dundee to save some time, if he didn't mind the detour. I was able to get all the way to the end of Douglas Terrace to wait for Ian and as I waited another message came through to say that the gull had just flown off high to the northwest. Although this wasn't great news, it didn't necessarily mean we were doomed to fail before we'd even got out of Dundee.
Ian took me home to collect my scope and tripod before we set off for Fife just before noon. A Buzzard was seen from the road a mile or so from Letham Pools where we stopped for a look. There were a few birders around - Angus Duncan, Jim Hain and Doug Milne, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary on the bird front. Shoveler, Gadwall, Snipe, Ringed Plover, Teal, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, Black Tailed Godwit, Little Grebe and a Lesser Black Backed Gull seen carrying off and then swallowing a Moorhen chick were just some of the birds around. One of the ducks helped me pick out a Sparrowhawk high overhead by tilting its head to keep an eye on the raptor and in doing so, alerting me to there being something of interest up above. We eventually packed up and headed off to East Wemyss from where there had been no further news of the Bonaparte's Gull.
We arrived just after 1400 and discovered that the rocks were full of Sandwich Terns, Black Headed Gulls and plenty of Mediterranean Gulls (in a mixture of ages/plumage). Among them were at least 2 ringed birds - white B6KN and a yellow ringed juvenile which I couldn't get a clear enough view of the whole ring but the last 2 characters were ZL. Hopefully someone will succeed in reading the whole ring soon enough. A ringed Sandwich Tern (white LJK was also seen and photographed). Out on the river I found a few Guillemots, a flock of Velvet Scoters and a few Manx Shearwaters, which were a nice bonus bird to get. There were also plenty of young Eiders hauled out on the rocks and a Redshank flew in and landed. Further scanning also produced Gannet, Fulmar, Kittiwake, Shag and a single Common Tern.
Another welcome find was my second cetacean species of the day - a small group of Harbour Porpoises which were seen relatively well, albeit distantly. Among their number was what appeared to be a recent addition to the group - a very small individual with only a hint of a dorsal fin, which was seen resting at the surface a few times, and I even managed to get a photo or two of it, as well as the adults. As we were about to pack up, Ian spotted a large flock of 'waders' out over the river. I had a quick look through my scope and realised that they were actually a flock of around 40 Manx Shearwaters - the largest flock of this species I've seen so far on the east coast. Heading back to Dundee a Kestrel overflew the car. I finished the day's birding having noted 70 species of bird, as well as 3 of butterfly and 5 of mammals. 48 species of bird were seen or heard in Dundee and 53 in Fife. All in all, despite missing out on the Bonaparte's Gull, it was a pretty good day. Thanks once again to Ian for giving me a chance to get another lifer (the previous one was also a gull - Yellow Legged, way back in February 2020 - also thanks to Ian).
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Grey Heron & Oystercatcher
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Stock Dove
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| Curlew |
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Tufted Duck
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Ringed Plover
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Bottlenose Dolphin
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Mute Swan & Canada Goose
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| Osprey |
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Osprey & Herring Gull
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| Sparrowhawk |
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House Sparrow
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| Goosander |
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| Lapwing |
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Common Sandpiper
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Roe Deer & Shoveler
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Lesser Black Backed Gull & Moorhen
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Sandwich Tern
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Sandwich Tern & Black Headed Gull
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Mediterranean Gull
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Harbour Porpoise
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Manx Shearwater
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Mediterranean Gull
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Birds - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Eider, Fulmar, Gadwall, Gannet, Goldfinch, Goosander, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Greylag Goose, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Kittiwake, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Little Grebe, Magpie, Mallard, Manx Shearwater, Mediterranean Gull, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Sedge Warbler, Shag, Shoveler, Snipe, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Teal, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Velvet Scoter, Whitethroat, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Butterflies - Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White.
Mammals - Bottlenose Dolphin, Grey Seal, Harbour Porpoise, Rabbit, Roe Deer.
