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| Stonechat |
Windy conditions are never my favourite weather for going birding, unless that wind is going to bring birds closer in to shore while I'm seawatching. On any normal day in February, I'd much prefer the wind speed to be below 15mph at the very most. Unfortunately for me, windy weather for a large chunk of the day was the forecast for Wednesday. I couldn't make up my mind on Tuesday evening as to where I wanted to go on Wednesday morning, so instead I had a much needed lie-in. Other than the windy conditions, it didn't look too bad a day outside when I got out of bed so I decided I still wanted to go somewhere. I settled on a trip to Balmossie to check the gull roost for an Iceland Gull, or a Mediterranean Gull. I wasn't overly optimistic but as always, nothing ventured, nothing gained....
It was already after noon when I headed out. Thankfully the wind strength was supposed to decrease a bit as the afternoon wore on, meaning it wouldn't be quite as much of a struggle walking back home later in the day. The list got underway when I got outside with Herring Gull, a heard-only Grey Wagtail, Feral Pigeon and House Sparrow before I had left my street. It took another 5 minutes before I'd added anything else though with Jackdaw and Magpie seen on Clepington Road. Starling and Carrion Crow joined the rest of the birds on the list as I made my way to Swannie Ponds for a quick look at the birds there. A few Goosander were still around, as well as the usual Coot, Mallard, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull and Common Gulls. The drake Wigeon was also still hanging around on the lower pond.
Having also added Blue Tit at the ponds I continued on to Eastern Cemetery where Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Blackbird and Woodpigeon bumped the list up a little further. Rabbit was also added there among the gravestones. I reached the Stannergate around 1305 and soon spotted a Red Breasted Merganser just before it splashed down out in mid-river. The shoreline right along the esplanade walk was very quiet as was the river and it took until I reached Douglas Terrace before I had even managed to find Redshank and Turnstone. Rock Pipit and a trio of Eider were found around the castle harbour area and there were a few Oystercatchers on the grass behind the toilet block at Castle Green.
I sheltered out of the wind on the eastern side of the castle and was able to see a couple of birds on the water near the metal marker pole a 100m or so offshore, just a little further to the east. They looked more like
Shags than Cormorants but the photos I was able to get seemed quite inconclusive when viewed on the small rear screen of the camera. I wandered down the beach for what I hoped would be a better view but the bird's constant diving and the slight chop to the river didn't help much. I was about 90% sure they were Shags, though a Cormorant landed atop the pole and what appeared to be a third Shag flew past. Thankfully, looking at the photos online at home confirmed that the trio of Shags were indeed that species, as I'd thought. A new Dundee145 tick for me, number 88, and a relatively tricky one to get these days in the river. Around the same time last year I had a Shag in exactly the same area which had been ringed at the North Sutor in the Cromarty Firth and given Shags' apparent faithfulness to specific sites, there is possibly a reasonable chance that same bird was one of the trio seen.
There were a few Pied Wagtails down on the beach but very little else. The tide was on its way back out by this time and I was able to find Bar Tailed Godwit, Curlew, Dunlin and Sanderling around their usual areas of the beach. As I wandered along past the football pitches I managed to find at least 2 Stonechat which perched long enough to allow me to get a few reasonably decent photos of the species this winter. A Wren also showed nicely nearby, though not for long. There was a large flock of mostly Dunlin and a smaller number of Ringed Plover in the small 'bay' where most of the sandy shore waders tend to congregate. I was joined by John Campbell(?) the former dentist who I'd met down there recently having not seen him for a good few years previously. Despite checking offshore and through the gulls the only addition we managed at the mouth of the Dighty was a Goldeneye.
The sun was getting lower in the sky and there was a bit of a chill to the wind so we headed back along to the end of the esplanade where John headed homewards up over the bridge and I continued on back along the front. Goldfinch, Long Tailed Tit and Collared Dove were the only new finds before I made it back to the Stannergate where a single Grey Heron was tucked in below the end of the docks and a flock of Curlew flew past on their way to roost. As I headed up towards the Arbroath Road I spotted what appeared to be a Kestrel hovering over Eastern Cemetery, which isn't somewhere I've seen the species before. I struggled for a few long minutes to get across the road due to the 'rush hour' traffic but while I waited 2 Kestrels appeared together before sweeping away out of sight behind the taller trees. It has been a long time since I've seen 2 Kestrels together anywhere in Dundee, so these were a welcome sight - even if I failed to get any photos.
When I finally did make it across the road and into the Cemetery there was another surprise awaiting me. A relatively small Starling murmuration (maybe 1000-2000 birds?) swept overhead and circled round repeatedly. I took some photos and some iphone video clips as I enjoyed the spectacle which I had all to myself. The birds eventually went to roost further into the cemetery. A Mistle Thrush flew over while I was watching the Starlings which took my list for the day to a total of 45 species of bird and just one of mammal. While not a classic afternoon's birding it definitely had its moments with a year-tick (in bold) as well as the Kestrel duo, the Stonechats and the murmuration making it worthwhile getting out for.
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| Wigeon |
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| Redshank |
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| Shag |
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| Cormorant |
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Pink Footed Goose
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| Sanderling |
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| Stonechat |
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| Stonechat |
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Curlew & Common Gull
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Bar Tailed Godwit
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| Dunlin |
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Sanderling, Redshank & Dunlin
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| Eider |
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Common Gull
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Grey Heron
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| Rabbit |
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| Starling |
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| Starling |
Birds - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Sanderling,
Shag, Starling, Stonechat, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals - Rabbit.
