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Pomarine Skua & Arctic Skua
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Having lacked motivation to make it all the way to Balmossie over the course of the long weekend at the start of the 'Dundee Fortnight', my mind was made up to head there on my mid-week day off. Little Gull or Mediterranean Gull were my likeliest additions for my Dundee145 list, though it still felt a little too early. Nothing ventured, nothing gained though... The weather forecast was to be rather warm. Despite that I was determined that I was heading to Balmossie.
I set off at 0745 with a direct route in mind to get me to Broughty Ferry for around high tide, so that I could be in position for the birds returning to feed along the shore at Balmossie as the tide receded. I also hoped that some birds might venture a little further upriver than usual around high tide. There was, of course, also a chance of the dolphins putting in an appearance. House Sparrow, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Herring Gull and Swift were spotted as I stepped outside. Feral Pigeon and House Martin were seen as I neared the Dura Street car park and Carrion Crow and Dunnock were noted on the walk from there to Baxter Park. As I cut through the park, Blue Tit, Treecreeper, Great Tit, Woodpigeon and Goldcrest were all added to the morning's list. A Starling was perched on a chimney just outside the park. There weren't too many new finds between there and the Stannergate except Greenfinch and Magpie. Unusually the Rabbits were nowhere to be seen at the Stannergate, though I did spot a youngster among the rock armour.
A flock of 14 summer plumaged Turnstones along the water's edge provided a spot of colour. There were a couple of Black Headed Gulls around, while the local Herring Gull flock roosted out on the river. Much further out, a Grey Seal surfaced for a second or two before disappearing back below the calm water. A Curlew and a sleeping Goosander were next to be encountered further along the shoreline. There were a few Oystercatchers in the same general area and a female Eider was seen offshore. A Cormorant flew upriver, closer to the Fife side than to the Dundee side. Continuing on to the lifeboat station I was slightly surprised to find a few Sandwich Terns (2 of which were ringed, but unreadable), a Common Gull and a few Black Headed Gulls along the top rail as well as, most surprisingly, an adult Kittiwake. On the lower level, below the walkway were a few roosting Turnstones, a single Redshank and a Grey Heron.
Rock Pipits were noted near the castle before I had a wander out towards Balmossie. I spoke to 2 Australian tourists who I told about the possibility of seeing dolphins, before meeting another 2 women who said they had actually been seen a little earlier as the tide came in. I had a few distant sightings of something appearing to break the surface but due to heat distortion and distance I couldn't say with any certainty if they were dolphins or not. I picked out a few distant Gannets before I reached the closed section of the beach where I found a relatively comfortable flat topped rock to sit on to watch the tide recede. A Wren called from within the rock armour nearby and a few Pied Wagtails wandered among the exposed seaweed on the beach. Beyond them were lots of Mute Swans as well as Herring Gulls, Carrion Crows and a few Oystercatchers by the burn outflow.
I scanned through every bird I could see adding some distant Goosander and Eider towards Monifieth and a much closer rather dark winged Lesser Black Backed Gull. I had brief views of a few Linnets relatively close to where I was sitting. I spotted a few distant gulls out over the river as well as 1 or 2 Cormorants. Around 1015, I noticed a bird quite far out across the river flying downriver from around the Lucky Scalp area. It looked rather unusual with the look of a gull with something like the extended rear end of a Grey Heron. I had an idea of what it more or less had to be but it wasn't a species I'd expect to see in the Tay at all, and certainly not in late July. I managed to get the camera to focus (more or less) on the bird and was able to confirm that the bird was indeed, as suspected, an adult Pomarine Skua, complete with 'spoons'.
I followed its progress downriver till it was just past directly out from me, where it was joined by a second slightly smaller, but distinctly differently shaped bird which seemed to check it out from a little to the rear. The second bird had to be an Arctic Skua and the photos I managed to get confirmed the ID of my second Dundee145 tick of the morning. I put word out on both the Fife Bird Club chat group and the ADBC grapevine - Fife, as one to watch out for around Tentsmuir Point, and Angus in case it continued up the coast. Over the course of the next 90 minutes or so I was able to add Jackdaw, Rook, Grey Wagtail, Sand Martin, Great Black Backed Gull, Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Swallow before the tide had extended the sand out far enough that I was unlikely to spook anything if I moved on again.
I wandered back along the beach. Near the eastern end of the esplanade I found a single Bar Tailed Godwit. While I was trying to get a photo which wasn't against the light, a few more appeared along their usual stretch of beach, a little beyond the lone bird. A second Kittiwake was seen among the smaller gulls nearby. Despite much searching I failed to find either Mediterranean or Little Gulls. A few Swallows flew past, heading west. I popped into the local nature reserve for a look which added Chiffchaff and Robin to the day's haul as well as views of a couple of grasshoppers, now much larger than when I had found them a bit earlier in the summer. I then headed along to the castle to use the raised position to scan out over the river. A surprise before I got there was a flock of around 25 Kittiwakes heading upriver, relatively close in to shore. They vanished out of sight behind the castle so I'm not certain if they just kept going, or not.
The sky had clouded over a bit by this time and it didn't feel quite as warm as the forecast had predicted it was going to be. The more exposed position didn't help with countering that dip in the temperature but it did help a bit for spotting birds out over the river and beyond. I picked out a circling Buzzard over Tentsmuir Forest and around 10 minutes later found a hovering Osprey hunting over towards the Fife side of the Tay. I then managed to pick up a lone tern flying low over the water. I was hoping for an Arctic but the few photos that had enough detail showed that it was a Common Tern. I spotted an Osprey low above the waves much closer to the Dundee side of the river but failed to find it with the camera and lost it completely while trying to relocate it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of white as a bird made a quick, short flight. I quickly looked for it, in the direction of the entrance where a party of people were about to enter. I had a suspicion I was looking for a Wheatear, and I quickly spotted and grabbed a few photos before it made a short sequence of short flights around the castle, stopping for only a few seconds at a time before it dived over the edge of the wall and out of sight. Right place at the right time for my 3rd Dundee145 tick of the day, and another that I really wasn't expecting. After an hour or so from watching from the former gun emplacements within the castle, I decided to head homewards. A Yellow Shell moth struggled with the wind strength and landed down among the grass where I was able to grab a few photos of it.
The walk back along to the Stannergate was uneventful with nothing new added. Cutting up through Eastern Cemetery got me Long Tailed Tit, Stock Dove and Chaffinch with 2 species of butterflies as a bonus - Small White and Red Admiral. I popped into Swannie Ponds to try to get a few more species for the day. This proved semi-successful with Mallard, Coot and Moorhen plus Coal Tit taking the day's total to 60 species of which 3 (in bold) were unexpected additions for the year and for my Dundee145 list. All in all, a very unexpected and rather successful day's birding. July has been remarkably productive for a month when I don't usually do much birding - though the lower weight of the OM-1 has made it less of a struggle to carry my gear longer distances in the summer heat than my previous camera kit did.
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| Turnstone |
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| Goosander |
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| Curlew |
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Kittiwake, Black Headed Gull & Sandwich Tern
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Grey Heron
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Rock Pipit
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| Starling |
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Pomarine Skua
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Pomarine Skua
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Pomarine Skua & Arctic Skua
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| Kittiwake |
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| Rook |
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| Goldfinch |
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Carrion Crow
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Bar Tailed Godwit, Common Gull & Black Headed Gull
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Grasshopper sp.
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Pied Wagtail & Earwig
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| Kittiwake |
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Yellow Shell
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Common Gull
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| Wheatear |
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Grey Heron
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| Eider |
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| Cormorant |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Buzzard |
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Stock Dove & Woodpigeon
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House Martin
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| Moorhen |
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Lesser Black Backed Gull
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Birds - Arctic Skua, Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider, Gannet, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kittiwake, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pomarine Skua, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Treecreeper, Turnstone, Wheatear, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Butterflies - Red Admiral, Small White.
Mammals - Grey Seal, Rabbit.
Moths - Yellow Shell.
