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| Moorhen |
One of my colleagues at work had mentioned in passing that he'd seen an owl in Caird Park while walking his dog one evening recently. His description sounded very much like a young Tawny Owl and the timing and behaviour also sounded like a good fit. His decsription of exactly where he'd seen it however, wasn't quite as specific, though I had managed to narrow it down to a particular area. With no real plan in place for Saturday the 10th of June, I decided I should make a bit of effort to try to see the bird to confirm my suspicions (and there's always the chance it could be a Long Eared Owl - having found one in 2020 at Balgay Hill). Although Tawny Owl is already on my Dundee145 list, I haven't seen one in actual daylight for a few years.
Although 0900 was a bit late for avoiding dog walkers, I would just have to make the most of the opportunity and see what I could find. Sometimes 'Cairdie' can be very disappointing but at other times it does throw up some reasonably good birds. Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Swift and Feral Pigeon made for a very typical 'my street in summer' sort of start to the day's list. Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Dunnock were also fairly typical finds as I wandered up Court Street. Song Thrush and House Martin were seen at Mains Loan followed quickly by Magpie, Chiffchaff, Collared Dove and Jackdaw as I did a lap of Mains Terrace, just in case a Marsh Warbler (or a Bee-Eater) had somehow found its way to loitering among the scrubby parts there. If there was actually anything rare there it was keeping a low profile.
A young Carrion Crow which hadn't learnt to avoid humans yet, Goldcrest, Chaffinch and a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker were the next onto the list as I wandered down for a look around the ponds. A Buzzard with a (moulting?) primary feather dangling from one wing glided over. Great Tit, Blue Tit and Coal Tit were all in the greenery by the top pond and a Moorhen showed relatively well. There were quite a lot of Sticklebacks (100+) all together in one sunny patch of water. I spent some time trying to get reasonably good photos of them. A pair of Mallards stood nearby almost hidden by the path-side vegetation.
Robin, Bullfinch and Goldfinch were noted before I crossed the small stone bridge over the Gelly Burn at the eastern edge of the golf course. Looking down over the side I could see a dark blue-grey backed bird stood in the water. As I raised the camera for a photo and pulled back the lens to try to fit the bird in, the male Sparrowhawk spotted me and flew off. Despite not getting what would have been quite an unusual photo it was great to have stumbled upon such a close view of one of my top 20 favourite birds. My next wee while was spent trying to locate the owl(et). This proved to be rather fruitless, at least for owls, though as I stopped at one point that looked potentially promising, a Roe Deer and a Grey Squirrel looked back at me for a second or two before both departing in no great rush.
Back at the ponds a bit later, the Grey Heron had arrived and I was able to get some quite close views as it waded around in the relatively shallow water. Blackcap and Long Tailed Tit were my final additions at the park as I heded back towards the Kingsway. As I crossed the dual carriageway, a Jay flew over the houses on the south side of the road. It was a nice morning weather-wise but it was already getting a bit too warm for my liking (I don't handle heat particularly well with anything over about 15C edging into 'find shade and hide' territory). However, I decided that having been stuck in a room without any windows all week, I should get some Vitamin D into my system, so having weighed up the options I decided to see what I could spot from the top of the Law.
Both the time of day, and the time of year did suggest this might be rather futile, but sometimes the unexpected happens. This wasn't one of those days though with hardly any birds at all seen from the top of the hill. Lesser Black Backed Gull was the only thing new in almost 2 hours of looking. House Martin was the best of the rest, though what constituted 'the rest' could be counted on one hand. Small White and Orange Tip butterflies were seen around the lower slopes and I spent a brief spell photographing insects around the paths by the allotments. A Black Headed Gull was the final addition for the day as I headed for home taking the total number of bird species for the day to 36, with 2 species of butterfly and 2 of mammal also noted. Not a classic day, but still with enough of interest to help the time pass.
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Great Spotted Woodpecker
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| Buzzard |
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Three Spined Stickleback
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| Moorhen |
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| Mallard |
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| Bullfinch |
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Grey Squirrel
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Grey Heron
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Grey Heron
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Hoverfly sp.
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Carrion Crow
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| Wren |
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| Magpie |
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House Martin
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Click Beetle sp.
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Wasp sp.
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Bug sp.
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Beetle sp.
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Spider sp.
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Birds - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Swift, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren.
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The following Wednesday the RAF were carrying out a 'farewell flight' for their Hercules transport aircraft and the route map which was shown online seemed to suggest the formation of 3 aircraft would pass over Barry Buddon. With a back-log of blog-posts and photos to be edited already at the 'why did I let it get to that point?' stage and some of the highest temperatures of the year so far forecast, I decided that I would head out to try for photos of the formation rather than go birding. When I'm outside (and sometimes when I'm inside too), I'm always birding, though this would be one of those days when the birds were largely incidental and I wouldn't make too much effort unless something caught my eye. As it was already 1110 when I headed out, I would be cutting things fine for making it to Balmossie in time for the flypast anyway.
Herring Gull, Jackdaw, House Sparrow, Feral Pigeon, House Martin, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Swift were the first birds of the day as I hurried towards Stobswell. Goldfinch, Magpie and Dunnock were noted as I cut down towards the river to route along the Docks Way cyclepath. Starling, Pied Wagtail, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Greenfinch and Wren were all to be found along the railway line. A pair of rather noisy Oystercatchers overflew as I neared the Stannergate. A Cinnabar moth, my first of the year, flew along ahead of me before flying through the fence and into the docks. A few Linnets were also noted in the same general area. The usual Rabbits were in their usual spots though the numbers were down on recent visits. There was nothing of note found among the gulls.
I was annoyed to see that the bushes and trees between the fence and the railway line leading along towards the small car park had all been removed since my last visit despite it being the middle of the breeding season. Having looked into the reason it appears that a 64-room care home is being built there. Red-listed Linnets, Greenfinches and House Sparrows and amber-listed Dunnock, Wren and Song Thrush are (were?) all regular sights at the Stannergate and I would expect given the undisturbed nature of the fenced off area some might have normally nested in that area, something which will no longer be as attractive an option for some of those species. Given the smell of rotting seaweed from the shore and the very vocal local Herring Gulls (and the lower profile Rats), as well as the 24-hour industrial noise from the docks and the passing trains and cars behind, I'm not sure the 'view' alone will make the site attractive enough for potential residents unless they have no other options - though granted, they don't always get much of a say.
Unsurprisingly given the time of year, the river was very quiet and it took until I had reached Broughty Castle before I added anything else to the birds list for this non-birding day, with a Swallow zipping past low over the water at the harbour. I bumped into an old childhood friend who was also hoping to catch the Hercules on their way past and we had a brief chat before I continued on towards Balmossie. Collared Dove was seen at the end of the rock garden. Scanning towards the burn mouth I could see Mute Swans and Herring Gulls. Checking the Flightradar24 app on my phone I could see the Hercules had made their flypast at Lossiemouth and were headed south. I decided on the bridge over the railway line at Balmossie as my vantage point as I would be able to see the planes approaching from the north even if they were at low level. Checking my phone again however suggested that they looked to be heading in the direction of Perth.
It soon became apparent that was indeed what was happening which meant my long walk had been a waste of effort. I was joined by a couple with binoculars who it turned out knew who I was - thanks to reading this blog (thanks again for subscribing, Colin), and we had a brief chat while adding Eider and Goosander to my list for the day. Disappointed from the lack of flypast I headed along to the local nature reserve where I photographed some of the insects including Small White butterfly, while Blue Tit, Chiffchaff, Long Tailed Tit, Robin and Bullfinch were all seen or heard. I also had a chat with a lady who showed me a phone photo of a Beaver she'd had a very close view of at Forfar Loch recently. On the walk back along to the Stannergate I was able to add Blackbird and Black Headed Gull to the rather short list of sightings and bumped into a woman I know from work and the older couple I'd chatted to recently at Swannie Ponds.
Once back at the Stannergate, I chose to head for Eastern Cemetery where again a Kestrel was seen, first hovering over the gardens to the south of the Arbroath Road before flying off over the site northwards. Things were otherwise rather quiet at the Cemetery. With the list for the day understandably looking rather short on species I continued on for a look at Swannie Ponds. Although this wasn't overly productive either it did give me Coot, Moorhen and Mallard for the day and finally a Peacock butterfly was spotted as I neared home. Although it hadn't been a birding outing I'd managed to see or hear a total of 37 species of bird, as well as 2 species of butterfly, 1 of moth and 1 of mammal. To top off the rather depressing feel to the day, a letter was waiting for me highlighting plans for a block of flats which will not only block what little view I have of anything other than buildings but will also mean the removal of the only tiny piece of something resembling wildlife habitat I can see from my window without binoculars and turn the surrounding streets into even more of a overfilled car park than they already are. Not the greatest day ever....
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Cinnabar Moth
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| Rabbit |
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| Blackbird |
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Volucella pellecens
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Kestrel |
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Long Tailed Tit
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| Swallow |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Coot |
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Herring Gull
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Black Headed Gull
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Coot, Feral Pigeon & Mute Swan
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| Coot |
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House Martin
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Birds - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch,
Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Collared Dove, Coot, Dunnock,
Eider, Goldfinch, Goosander, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lesser Black
Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Feral
Pigeon, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Whitethroat,
Woodpigeon, Wren.
Butterflies - Peacock, Small White.
Mammals - Rabbit.
Moths - Cinnabar.
