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Slavonian Grebe
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Owing to a bit of a saga with an ongoing issue at home I had to take Friday off to wait for a tradesman to (finally) appear. With a timeframe between 0800 and 1230 having been given as to when they would turn up it was almost inevitable it would be towards the latter end of the 'window' and at 1215 someone did finally show up and the issue was fixed (at long last!). Once done, I wanted to get out for some birding, though the weather forecast wasn't overly promising. Lainy had messaged me to let me know she'd found a flock of Waxwings at Ardler Pond that morning. However, I had another option that appeared to be worth a gamble. A Slavonian Grebe had been reported in City Quay the previous afternoon via the ADBC grapevine by someone called 'Eliza'. As Waxwings seemed more likely to spend a day or two in the same area I decided to try City Quay, with Waxwings my priority for the following day's birding.
I headed out at 1315. I wanted to take a look at Swannie Ponds to see if anything had been blown in there, so I headed there first. Feral Pigeon, Herring Gull, Magpie, Carrion Crow and Robin were noted as I wandered up to Clepington Road. Blackbird and Redwing soon followed with Long Tailed Tits heard as I neared the ponds. The mix of birds at the ponds was much as expected with Mallard, Mute Swan, Goosander, Black Headed Gull (including returning Norwegian ringed bird - white J0214), Coot, Moorhen, Tufted Duck and Herring Gull all noted there. A flock of Fieldfares overflew and a Grey Heron was perched on the fallen tree at the end of the island. Just in case there were any Waxwings on Kingsway East (a regular spot for them) I routed that way next . A Kestrel over Eastern Cemetery was seen but there were no birds at all in the Rowan trees along the front of the houses. Starling and Woodpigeon were found further on as I continued on down Greendykes Road.
A Wren called loudly from by the railway line as I headed into the docks area. A Grey Wagtail then flew over as I walked west along the cycle path towards City Quay. As I passed the Sea Cadets HQ a small flock of Goldfinches circled round overhead. Out on the water were a small group of Red Breasted Mergansers and tacked on the end of their group was the bird I was hoping to see - a Slavonian Grebe. It was my 150th species in/from Dundee this year (EDIT: Except it wasn't - at the time I had an unidentified bird from 22/10/23 at Riverside Nature Park which would turn out to actualy be a Twite, meaning that was actually my 150th species and the Slavonian Grebe was actually 151). When I set myself the target figure of 145 for 2023, I didn't really expect to hit that target and certainly didn't expect to surpass it by 5 more species. Indeed, I had wondered if the combined efforts of myself, Keith, Lainy, Ian and Mark would even make it to 150. Lainy's Waxwings were actually the 160th (EDIT : 161st) species in the city this year (that I was aware of).
I wandered round in the direction of the bridge over the quay to hopefully get a better view of the grebe. I had just started typing up a message for the ADBC grapevine when Alex Shepherd reported the bird as still present but 'never close'. There was a 'Sinensis' race Cormorant on one of the water park pontoons. When I reached the outer part of the quay area a few minutes later, the Mergansers had drifted apart and the Slavonian Grebe was bobbing around in the central part of the quay. There were a couple of Mergansers in quite close to the wall and I took a few photos of these as they dived for food close in to the wall. The Slavonian Grebe looked to be heading towards where I was standing, so I used some Buddleia to break up my shape by crouching down behind it. This actually worked better than expected and the Slavonian Grebe came right in close just below me and allowed to me to get some pretty good photos.
Unfortunately, it then began to rain quite heavily and the Grebe retreated back to the far side of the quay. I watched it for a while and it looked like it was going to head up the channel behind the 'dry dock'. I had a quick look at the river which added a few more Cormorants and Black Headed Gulls but nothing else before returning back to the quay again. It was still raining so I sought the relative cover of the overhanging roof over the walkway on the north side of the footbridge as I tried to refind the Grebe. There appeared to be no sign of it, so I scanned from the same area I'd seen it first but drew a blank. Back at the footbridge I spotted the Grebe close in on the south side and once again managed to use the Buddliea bushes as a bit of cover to once again get some fairly decent photos.
I added a Grey Seal seen briefly as well as a skein of Pink Footed Geese and a Pied Wagtail before deciding to call it a day and head for home. Although it had rained almost constantly while I'd been at the quay, I knew I had some worthwhile photos among the load I'd taken. Despite having not found any Waxwings on the Kingsway earlier, it had been a good decision to try for the Grebe as there were no guarantees it wouldn't just be a one day bird. Having only previously seen the species at the quay once before (3 birds together in March 2013), it was great to catch up with another and although it was indeed a very wary individual it was possible to get good close views by taking my time and using the little cover available, to my advantage. My total number of species for the afternoon was only 28 species but did include a very welcome year-tick (in bold).
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Grey Heron
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Black Headed Gull (white J0214)
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Slavonian Grebe & Red Breasted Merganser
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Cormorant ('Sinensis' race)
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Red Breasted Merganser
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Slavonian Grebe
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Slavonian Grebe
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Slavonian Grebe
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Red Breasted Merganser
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| Red Breasted Merganser |
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| Red Breasted Merganser |
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| Red Breasted Merganser |
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| Cormorant |
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Slavonian Grebe
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Cormorant ('Sinensis' race) |
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Slavonian Grebe
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
Birds - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Carrion Crow, Coot, Cormorant, Fieldfare, Goldfinch, Goosander, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, Kestrel, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Red Breasted Merganser, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Slavonian Grebe, Starling, Tufted Duck, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals - Grey Seal.
