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| Kingfisher |
For my most recent mid-week birding outing I decided I would head for Balmossie again. I figured there was a chance of picking up at least 1 new Dundee 140 list tick, out of at least 5 or 6 possibilities. Mediterranean Gull was probably the likeliest, but Common Tern, Guillemot, Razorbill, Sanderling and Grey Plover were all birds that can reasonably be expected over the next month or so. The weather forecast was for lots of sunshine, so on went the sun-cream and out the door I headed at around 0830 in a short sleeved t-shirt.
I headed for Clepington Road and the Swannie Ponds first of all. House Martins were the best bird noted on the walk to the ponds. The usual suspects were around at the ponds including 2 Grey Herons, 1 of which landed in one of the trees on the island. I decided to cut through Eastern Cemetery which seemed to be full of Rabbits - none of which seemed particularly concerned by me walking by. I did end up getting a few decent photos of them, including an adult chasing off a youngster. Greenfinch, Swallow and Goldcrest were the best of the birds noted there. I reached the Stannergate around 0830. A Linnet flew past as I scanned the gulls down on the shore. Oystercatcher, Curlew, Common Gull, Black Headed Gull and Herring Gull were all noted before I set off along the esplanade.
I hadn't gone too far when I heard a call that seemed a little out of place. It sounded like a Kingfisher. I scanned in the direction of where I'd heard the call come from and sure enough, there on the sewage outflow pipe sat a Kingfisher. I headed down onto the beach to try for a closer view. I took my time so as not to scare the bird off and made it to around a quarter of the way down from the end of the pipe. I was able to watch the bird (a young female) make a few fishing attempts and it even flew closer for a minute or two. Eventually after 5 minutes or so it flew off along to the next pipe, past a summer plumaged Turnstone and I headed off along the esplanade again.
Things were relatively quiet both along the shore and out on the river though I did succeed in adding Goosander and Redshank at Douglas Terrace. Swifts swarmed around above the houses. Out on the river I picked out a very distant Grey Seal and a Sandwich Tern pair. A female Eider was in the water near the lifeboat jetty. Pied Wagtail was noted at Castle Green. A large grey cloud had covered the sun not long after I reached the river and it was a good bit colder than I had dressed for. I hurried on along towards Balmossie. As I reached the car park at the end of the esplanade a dog took off across the beach in the direction of all the birds along the shoreline, including around 10 Bar Tailed Godwits, scattering them in all directions.
It continued on to the burn mouth at pace flushing a few hundred gulls which headed off out over the river, and some up and over the houses. There was no sign of any obvious owner and certainly not any shouts went up to call the dog back. Eventually the dog ran back towards the car park, just in time for the owner to arrive at the car park. By this time the dog was close by and the owner called it back up from the beach below where he was stood. I measured the distance on Google Earth from the car park to the burn mouth at home and found it was roughly 0.4 of a mile from owner to out of control dog. Given that the owner had only shown up once the dog was on its way back from the burn the dog was probably at least half a mile away from the owner when it was flushing (almost) everything. Under control it most certainly wasn't.
Thankfully there were still a handful of birds left including a trio of Bar Tailed Godwits and a small section of what remained of the gull roost. I spent an hour or so checking and rechecking the remaining birds as the tide pushed them closer but the rather cold wind was making it feel a wee bit uncomfortable and with not too much to be seen I decided to head back in the direction of home. I stopped off at the Bar Tailed Godwits first for some photos and added a Rook nearby. I detoured through a very quiet local nature reserve before finding a moth on some Ragwort just at the edge of the dunes. It turned out to be a Smoky Wainscot - a first for me.
Scanning out over the river got me a distant but obvious Osprey hunting off Tayport. The sun had appeared from behind the cloud by this time. I did consider hanging around in case the Dolphins put in an appearance (they did later), but decided I'd had enough. Only Coal Tit was added on the walk home and a quick stop at Spring Grove in Baxter Park proved pointless as the vegetation has shot up since my last visit and it is almost impossible to see anything at all, other than the trickle of water from the Spring. Ther is almost no chance of Wood Mouse or Bank Vole sightings now until the vegetation dies back again. Overall, a slightly underwhelming day out with a total of 43 species seen or heard, though the Kingfisher sighting and subsequent relatively close views were a definite highlight.
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Black Headed Gull
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Black Headed Gull
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| Mallard |
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| Mallard |
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Grey Heron
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| Jackdaw |
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Black Headed Gull
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Grey Squirrel & Rabbit
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| Rabbit |
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| Woodpigeon |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Kingfisher |
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| Kingfisher |
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| Goosander |
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Common Gull
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Turnstone & Redshank
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Lesser Black Backed Gull
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Smoky Wainscot
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House Sparrow
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Bar Tailed Godwit
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Bar Tailed Godwit
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Pied Wagtail
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| Goosander |
Birds - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Eider, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kingfisher, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sandwich Tern, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Turnstone, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals - Grey Seal, Grey Squirrel, Rabbit.
Moths - Smoky Wainscot.
