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| Turnstone |
Having not got out birding due to windy weather on Thursday and an appointment at the Opticians (my eyesight hasn't got too much worse at the birding end of its range), and then a day's wait in for a parcel which arrived wrongly addressed thanks to Parcelforce, at a neighbour's door. Thankfully, I was able to intercept it before the driver headed off with it again. By the time the parcel showed up there wasn't much point in even having a wander up to the Law to look for migrants. The conditions got increasingly foggy and I decided I might have a look at the Law on Saturday morning as it was meant to be foggy again, following on from some overnight rain.
I headed out at 0725 with low expectations for the relatively short walk up to the hill. Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Blue Tit, House Sparrow and Herring Gull were noted almost immediately. A few minutes later Carrion Crow and Magpie were added by Tannadice Park. Starling, Goldfinch and Blackbird were then found as I wandered up Canning Street, with Greenfinch near the top of Leng Street. A Wren was heard as I was about to walk along the track at the bottom end of the eastern allotments. I caught a glimpse of an orange animal just before it leapt up onto the wall as I tried to get the camera to focus. As I have seen a Fox in that area quite regularly, I expected it had been that, but when I got closer to where it had leapt onto the wall I found a rather large ginger cat staring back at me (maybe the Opticians were wrong about my eyesight...).
More slow wandering added Dunnock, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest and Blackcap, as well as a Grey Squirrel. As the cloud was rather low over the top of the hill, there was a lot of water dripping from the trees as I searched in below them. I had taken the thermal imager with me to help with skulking birds and it did come in relatively handy. A singing Willow Warbler and a pair of Long Tailed Tits were found before I wandered round the north side of the hill. A Robin was the only addition on that stretch. I headed down the large grassy slope down from the picnic tables and discovered that my boots were no longer waterproof, which was annoying. The thermal imager found something grey and rounded on a branch through the trees that I thought might potentially be a Tawny Owl youngster. As I then had to find the correct tree from further down the slope it took a little while to discover that it was in fact a resting Grey Squirrel.
A Song Thrush was heard singing and as I wandered along the track by the western side allotments I found a few more Grey Squirrels among the trees. A Jay was mobbing a Carrion Crow which I think was trying to raid a Blackbird's nest in the allotments. The crow was seen eating something atop one of the allotment sheds a minute or two later. A Bullfinch was heard among the trees but as it was by this time clear that there hadn't been anything at all resembling a migrant fall at the hill overnight I decided to head for home, adding Lesser Black backed Gull and Jackdaw on the walk back which gave me a total of 26 species for the few hour's relatively hard work. I hadn't really taken any worthwhile photos because of the poor light so the photos for this post will all be from the following day's efforts.
Species (Saturday) - Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Song Thrush, Starling, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals (Saturday) - Grey Squirrel.
The foggy weather continued through Saturday and into Sunday. From what I could see online it appeared that Whimbrels were on the move. They aren't the easiest of birds to catch up with in Dundee and on those rare ocassions when I have the bird hasn't lingered long. Visibility wasn't great and would only be even worse down by the river. My options were either to head for Riverside Nature Park to check the bay, or head to Balmossie and hope that I could find one there. The former would require less effort to get there but the latter seemed to offer a marginally better chance of actually seeing a Whimbrel, so I chose the trip to Balmossie.
I headed out at 0930. It wasn't very warm and certainly didn't feel much like May. Starling, Feral Pigeon, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Blue Tit, Robin, Blackbird, Carrion Crow and Herring Gull were all noted within the first 2 minutes despite the conditions. Lesser Black Backed Gull and Jackdaw were found on Clepington Road and a detour to Mains Terrace added Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Wren and Great Tit. Before I reached Swannie Ponds I found a Collared Dove. Things were relatively quiet at the ponds though Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Mute Swan and Grey Heron were all there as usual. In addition there were still 3 Goosander - 1 female and 2 male, which seems rather late in the year for them still to be around at the ponds.
Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Magpie were also about, in the trees. I had decided to check Baxter Park and then to head down to the cycle path by the docks. Goldcrest was the only new species for the day in the park and a couple of Swallows appeared out of the mist heading inland as I walked down Dalkeith Road. A Sparrowhawk caused a bit of panic near the start of the cycle path, upsetting some Long Tailed Tits amongst other things. Further on, the first Blackcap of the day was seen on the north side of the railway line. A surprise was a Kestrel which flew out to hunt over the docks as I neared the eastern end of the cycle path.
There were a few Rabbits as usual at the Stannergate and Whitethroat was heard near the small car park at the beginning of the esplanade. There were a couple of Oystercatchers seen down on the beach and a Swift zipped over as it hunted by the railway line. Visibility was, as expected, even worse by the river than it had been at home. It looked like Fife no longer existed as the river and fog merged into one pale grey mass, giving the impression of a sea view. A Cormorant was seen out on the river and a Black Headed Gull was on the pebbles at the Grassy Beach. Rock Pipit was heard at Beach Crescent and Common Gull was seen just offshore from the castle. A Pied Wagtail was heard there too.
I found a single Bar Tailed Godwit as I headed along to Balmossie. I found a place to sit on the rock armour by the 'beach closed' markers and scanned through what birds I could see. There were some gulls and a flock of Mute Swans. A few Wigeon were still about, just offshore. A pair of Curlew and a Grey Heron were by the water's edge, a little to the west of the burn. A Linnet was heard flying over. I kept scanning as the tide came in further. I heard a few Sandwich Terns somewhere out in the mist - a new Dundee145 tick for me, even if only a 'heard only' one. More scanning found a few Eider on the water and a small flock of Turnstone among the seaweed on the shore. A pair of Shelduck which dropped in were also rather unexpected. There were a few Rooks on the fenceline behind me with the Carrion Crows.
A young Great Black Backed Gull towered above the Herring Gulls at the burn mouth. I was starting to feel the cold with the damp air not helping. It wasn't looking like I was going to find what I was looking for after all and I was just about to give up and head homewards when the scope landed on a single Whimbrel out by the water's edge. I watched it for a few minutes, and even shot a short video clip before the bird suddenly took flight and headed off eastwards into the fog, calling as it went. Mission accomplished. I headed back towards the castle. The fog started to lift a little, though not to any great degree. I still couldn't see any hint of Fife, but there appeared to be a little bit more of the river visible. Near the castle I could hear Sandwich Terns again, and spotted a couple of them perched on the 'cross' marker pole not too far offshore. Another few appeared out of the mist briefly.
As I was watching the terns, a small group of ducks flew past low over the water. Surprisingly, they were
Common Scoter, yet another Dundee145 tick and a fairly tricky bird to catch up with from within the city. I added a Grey Seal sighting near the lifeboat station and a pair of Red Breasted Merganser flew upriver. As I wandered back along towards the Stannergate a kid down on the beach flushed a flock of Turnstones which flew off eastwards near the 'eagle feathers'. As they did so, I heard a Common Sandpiper call, and saw it tailing along behind the Turnstones low over the water. Out on the two orange buoys nearby were a pair of Sandwich Terns on each. I took plenty of photos and even some video before continuing homewards. Despite the conditions I had somehow managed a total of 55 species of which 3 (in bold) were new for the year/Dundee145 list which was a much better return than I had expected for the day's efforts. (All photos are from the 7th of May).
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Grey Heron
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Song Thrush
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| Cormorant |
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| Goosander |
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| Shelduck |
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| Whimbrel |
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| Whimbrel |
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| Linnet |
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| Wigeon |
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House Sparrow
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Common Scoter
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Sandwich Tern
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Rock Pipit
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Rock Pipit
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| Eider |
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Grey Seal
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| Swallow |
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| Turnstone |
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| Swallow |
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| Turnstone |
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| Turnstone |
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| Rabbit |
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Herring Gull
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Lesser Black Backed Gull
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Feral Pigeon
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Birds (Sunday) - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Common Scoter, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Eider, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Hering Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sandwich Tern, Shelduck, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Whimbrel, Whitethroat, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals - Grey Seal, Rabbit.
