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| Blackcap |
Heavy rain overnight and winds from the east can be a good mixture for producing some nice migrant birds. It does help if you do your birding at coastal hotspots when these conditions occur but sometimes you just have to go with what you have. In my case, it would have to be within Dundee. However, given that I'm needing some unexpected birds to be able to fill in some spaces in my Dundee 140 list, this wasn't really that much of a negative. Having seen a small window of opportunity around dawn when the heavy overnight rain was forecast to stop for an hour or so, before starting again for the rest of the morning, I decided I would visit the Law and see if there was anything of note sheltering up there. I wasn't expecting much but nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the saying goes.
I headed out at around 0640 into the gloom of a wet autumn morning. The sky was leaden grey and although the rain was meant to stay off for an hour or so, things didn't look too promising on that front. There weren't too many birds noted on the walk up to the hill - Herring Gull, Carrion Crow, Dunnock, Robin, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Blue Tit and Chaffinch was all I could rustle up. While checking the trees just down from the allotments on the east side I happened to look up and saw the local Fox standing watching me. I reached for the camera but when I looked again, the Fox had vanished again.
I took my time, stopping and searching with binoculars and thermal imager among te trees and bushes around the hill. House Sparrow, Wren, Goldcrest, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Feral Pigeon and Greenfinch were all I could muster and even some of those were rather hard-earned. Having finished a circuit of the hill around 0745, I decided to head for home in case the rain began before I reached home. I did manage to add Lesser Black Backed Gull on the walk back which took the total for my efforts to just 16 species of bird and 1 of mammal.
Birds - Blackcap, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Magpie, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals - Fox.
I spent the morning editing photos and catching up a little with typing up blog-posts, while keeping a constant eye on the weather outside. The forecast was for the heavy rain to move off around noon, leaving some light stuff to fizzle out sometime before 1300. I was organised to head back out with Riverside Nature Park chosen to be my destination for some migrant-hunting. I was hoping that my luck would be a little better there for finding some grounded passing birds. As soon as the rain looked like it had stopped I would head out. As things turned out I didn't have to wait too long after mid-day.
I set off just before 1215 for the walk to Riverside Nature Park. Although it was no longer raining, it still looked like it might rain again. I had dressed for that eventuality which meant I was much warmer than I needed to be, which was rather annoying. It was a fairly typical mix of birds noted on the walk to the park with Long Tailed Tit, Chiffchaff and House Martin the best of those found along the way. I reached the park around 1345 having spent a bit of time unsuccessfully double-checking the Law to very similar uninspiring results as the morning's attempts.
The time of day, the weather and the tide state all conspired against getting a decent length of list of species. There were birds around but most of those were staying well hidden. Blackcap and Chiffchaff may or may not have been migrants and a Skylark at the hill was probably more likely to be a 'new' bird in rather than a breeder given how scarce they have been lately. The Shoveler was still around at the Lochan though the water level had risen again due to the amount of overnight rainfall. Teal, Mallard and Moorhen were also there. A Whitethroat was added on the walk to the bay.
Unfortunately most of the birds out in the bay were rather distant though Redshank, Curlew, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Black Headed Gull, Lesser and Great Black Backed Gulls and Oystercatchers were all identifiable and went on the list. After around 90 minutes of feeling a bit too hot as well as tired from the late night/early start coupled with not finding anything too interesting, I gave up and headed homewards, adding a Blackcap on the walk home. Only 34 species were noted at the park and just 19 on the walk to and from the park which was rather disappointing. I also didn't end up taking very many photos so this particular post will be rather short on variety from the day.
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| Robin |
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| Robin |
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| Magpie |
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| Magpie |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Teal |
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| Moorhen |
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| Shoveler |
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| Jackdaw |
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| Lapwing |
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Pied Wagtail
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| Redshank |
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Carrion Crow & Lapwing
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| Woodpigeon |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Blackcap |
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| Blackcap |
Birds (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Herring Gull, House Martin, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Robin, Starling, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Birds (at Riverside Nature Park) - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Shoveler, Skylark, Teal, Whitethroat, Wren.
Butterflies (at Riverside Nature Park) - Red Admiral, Small White.
