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| Blackcap |
I tend to take my annual leave from work to tie in with migration times, though mostly in the Autumn. This year however, I decided I would take a couple of weeks worth in Spring too. As I don't work Wednesdays and there is a holiday Monday to start off May, I decided that for the use of 3 days of my annual leave entitlement I could have 8 days off (including the weekend and 2 Wednesdays). Wednesday the 27th of April would be the first of those days. I wanted to try and add something new to my Dundee 140 list and with Keith having seen Whitethroat at Riverside Nature Park earlier in the week, I decided it made sense to try for what should be an easy 'tick'. Lack of sleep at the weekend however had hit me harder than expected so the early start ended up being a bit later than I had initially intended. I was still out the door by 0810 though.
I decided I would change my route to the park though I suspected it would mean a bit of a hit to the number of species seen but there was a slight chance of something a little different to what I would expect if I took one of my usual routes. I decided I would walk to City Quay and then walk out along Riverside Drive from there. Not unexpectedly, there wasn't a huge amount to see at City Quay (or on the way there). Mallard and Oystercatcher were seen at City Quay and there were a few Cormorants at Submarine Rock. Walking along between the bridges a Swallow flew over northwards. Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Blackcap and Pied Wagtail were seen at the football pitches. A lone Greylag Goose flew upriver. Chiffchaff and Skylark were added before I reached Riverside Nature Park.
It was a fairly typical mix of species around the eastern end of the park with Goldcrest, Willow Warbler, Buzzard, Yellowhammer and Lesser Black Backed Gull the main highlights before I bumped into Keith who was just on his way out of the park. We had a very short chat before going our separate ways. A Rook flew over and a Bullfinch was seen in flight towards Buzzard Wood. A Meadow Pipit passed overhead as I wandered along for a look at the bay. There were a few Black Tailed Godwits still around as well as a Curlew or two, some Redshanks and a single Dunlin with a black belly patch.
A
Whitethroat (105) sang from the bushes overlooking the bay, near the southwestern corner of the park and I eventually managed to get a look at the bird as it perched briefly at the top of a small bush. Despite lots of scanning I failed to add anything else too exciting and the rest of the visit to the park proved to be fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. I did manage to find 3 species of butterfly around the park - Orange Tip, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell. I left the park around 1320 and headed for Balgay Hill. Stock Dove, Jay, Nuthatch and Coal Tit were all seen there as well as a very showy Treecreeper near the bridge, as well as a Green Veined White butterfly. I then continued up to the top of the Law though I was distracted for a while by a Dark Edged Bee Fly by the top set of steps.
I didn't linger too long there and called it a day around 1530 and headed for home having seen or heard a total of 54 species including one (in bold) which was new for the Dundee 140 list taking me to 105 for that particular list. Looking at additional possibilities later at home I think that last year's total of 135 may be repeatable but I am definitely going to need some good fortune to reach the 140 - which is what I thought anyway when I set the target figure. Hopefully there will also be a few unexpected species along the way too as there were in 2020 (Long Eared Owl, Nuthatch etc) and also in 2021 (Ring Ouzel, Spotted Flycatcher etc). Time will tell what those might be, and you'll be able to read about them here in these blog-posts.
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| Cormorant |
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| Bullfinch |
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| Yellowhammer |
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Black Tailed Godwit, Redshank & Teal
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| Whitethroat |
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Common Gull
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Dunlin & Redshank
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Black Headed Gull
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Buzzard & Carrion Crow
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| Skylark |
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Green Veined White
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Stock Dove
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Carrion Crow
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| Jay |
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Orange Legged Furrow Bee (?)
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Dark Edged Bee Fly
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| Swallow |
Birds (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Cormorant, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jay, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Magpie, Mallard, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Skylark, Song Thrush, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Treecreeper, Woodpigeon.
Butterflies (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Green Veined White, Orange Tip.
Birds (at Riverside Nature Park) - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Shelduck, Skylark, Song Thrush, Teal,
Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Wren, Yellowhammer.
Butterflies (at Riverside Nature Park) - Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell.
Mammals (at Riverside Nature Park) - Rabbit.
