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Grey Heron
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One of the major downsides to (mostly) restricting my birding to 'within Dundee' is that things can easily get a bit repetitive with visits to the same places over and over again. This can be exacerbated to a degree by the time of year where different places offer different species depending on the season. This does mean that some places can go months without a visit while others are sometimes visited a couple of times a week. Having done a lot of birding over the previous 6 weeks or so, I was feeling just a little jaded. With geese back in numbers I decided I should probably try to find a flock on the ground to scan through looking for Barnacles, White Fronted and Bean Geese.
Although a colleague at work had said that the Dykes of Grey geese were back again, I decided to head eastwards instead to the area around Clearwater Park where I found a Barnacle Goose last year in a flock of Pink Footed Geese. I headed out at 1040 to Feral Pigeon, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Herring Gull, a flyover Lesser Redpoll, some Redwings, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Jackdaw all within the first 5 minutes outside. Mains Terrace was very quiet with only Dunnock and House Sparrow found there. A stop at Swannie Ponds added Mallard, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Coot, Goosander, Moorhen, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull and more Herring Gulls. In addition, I also saw Goldcrest, Robin, Song Thrush and Grey Wagtail while a Sparrowhawk circling overhead upset the local Feral Pigeons, which alerted me to the likely presence of a raptor.
I headed through Eastern Cemetery next though things were much quieter than just a few days earlier with Chaffinch, Blackbird, Stock Dove, Mistle Thrush, Meadow Pipit, Wren, Siskin and a few Rooks as well as Redwings. Both Grey Squirrel and Rabbit were easily found too. I crossed the Kingsway and headed through Asda car park then down to the Dighty Burn opposite Drumgeith Park. Being a bit later than usual by a few hours I found things rather quiet there too. A pair of moto-cross bikes had roared down onto the path by the water on the western side of the road as I'd approached the roundabout just south of the burn. Thankfully they kept going in the opposite direction to the one I was going..
There were Long Tailed Tits around the usual area near the (lack of) information board. A bit further on I caught a glimpse of Dipper flying off downstream. A Buzzard flew out from the trees by the new school construction site, and further on again, a Jay collecting acorns was tenpted into view by some mimicry from me. Overall though, there wasn't very much to see, or even hear along the path though I did eventually find a Chiffchaff and a Pied Wagtail. I crossed the main road at the other end of the path and went exploring. A surprise there was a Small White butterfly which I disturbed from the edge of the path. I wandered up along the back of West Pitkerro industrial estate where I flushed a Grey Heron near the end of Barlow Avenue.
I debated crossing the fields to Clearwater Park but as I couldn't see any stubble fields at all, I abandoned that idea to try to find some geese and headed back to the Dighty. This proved to be equally as fruitless as earlier with only a Great Tit, a Red Admiral butterfly and another Buzzard sighting to keep things remotely interesting. Starlings were noted on East Kingsway as I checked the trees for their berry crop in advance of the hoped for arrival of Waxwings sometime soon. A quick look at Swannie Ponds failed to add anything new though I did manage to see the Grey Wagtail a bit closer than earlier. I ended the day's birding with a total of 42 species.
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| Moorhen |
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Tufted Duck
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Tufted Duck
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| Goosander |
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| Sparrowhawk |
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| Rabbit |
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Grey Squirrel
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| Robin |
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| Redwing |
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| Redwing |
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Lesser Redpoll
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| Rook |
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| Rook |
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Long Tailed Tit
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Carrion Crow & Buzzard
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| Jay |
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| Jay |
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Buzzard
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| Buzzard |
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| Buzzard |
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Grey Wagtail
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Common Gull & Black Headed Gull
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Herring Gull
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Birds - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Coot, Dipper, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Lesser Redpoll, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Siskin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Tufted Duck, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Butterflies - Red Admiral, Small White.
Mammals - Grey Squirrel, Rabbit.
