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| Chiffchaff |
To round off July's birding, I wanted to get to Riverside Nature Park early on the Wednesday morning. One of the reasons was that a French Air Force 'Special Forces' Caracal helicopter was night-stopping at Dundee Airport with an 'early morning' departure on the cards. As I wanted to see it and the winds were from the east (though rather light), I decided to head down towards the river, in case the helicopter departed as I was walking out towards the airport, rather than use one of my more usual routes. I messaged Lainy to see if she fancied joining me, but she had a trip planned though she said that if for any reason it didn't happen, she would give me a shout.
I headed out slightly later than intended, at 0710. Herring Gull, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Feral Pigeon, Chaffinch, Carrion Crow and Swift got the day's list off to a relatively normal sort of start - though Chaffinch isn't particularly common so close to home. Not unexpectedly, given my route, further additions were rather limited with only House Sparrow, Blue Tit and Chiffchaff noted before I reached 'the town'. Goldfinches were heard as I passed The Howff. I spotted a bird flying over towards the DC Thomson's building tower - an unexpected Peregrine. From street level, I couldn't see whether or not the bird had flown over, or perched up on the building.
I added Dunnock, Wren and Robin as I headed along behind the Science Centre. As I passed the Tesco bridge, a Greenfinch overflew and I could hear Sandwich Terns calling from the Tay and contemplated crossing the bridge and the road to see how many there were, but decided against it and continued on to Magdalen Green instead. Crossing the railway bridge there, I spotted a few Black Headed Gulls. Once across the road again, a flock of Starlings flew up from the football pitches. A Pied Wagtail was heard near the University playing fields and a couple of House Martins could be seen high above the railway line.
Reaching the airport, I found the helicopter I was hoping to see, as it was being prepared for flight. My pal, Garry and his partner, Judith were already there, also waiting patiently for the Caracal to depart. Garry and I stood on the back of their large pick-up truck, which allowed us to photograph over the fence. As we waited for movement, a pair of Linnets landed on the fence in front of us, and a few Swallows swept past over the airfield. Once the helicopter did depart, I continued on to the Nature Park, finding a pair of Bullfinches at the end of the Riverside Inn car park.
I reached the Nature Park just before 0845. Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Feral Pigeon, Robin, Herring Gull, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Whitethroat, Magpie, Wren, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chiffchaff, Meadow Brown butterflies and a few Rabbits made for a fairly busy first few minutes. Swift, Pied Wagtail, Yellowhammer and a flyover Tree Pipit were all added as I headed further into the park, along the north side of Buzzard Wood. A visit to the Lochan added overflying Starlings, a lone Lapwing and some of the Moorhen families. Continuing on again, House Martin, Stock Dove, Swallow, Reed Bunting and calling Sandwich Tern were next onto the list.
As I reached the fork in the path, taking me to the left to check the bay, I spotted an Osprey with a freshly caught fish climbing out from the bay with a gull in pursuit. Within a minute they were both much higher in the sky and a bit further to the north, before the gull apparently lost interest. Over the next 10 minutes or so, I had 2 further Osprey sightings over the bay, and as the day progressed there were more, taking me to around 7 or 8 individual sightings of the species....though I haven't compared the photos to see how many individual birds there actually were.
From the raised banking, I scanned out over the bay adding numerous species to the growing list for the day - Cormorant, Redshank, Dunlin, Mallard, Black Headed Gull, Knot, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Common Gull and Mute Swan. Much closer were Dunnock, Blackbird and Carrion Crow. Out on the river I found a few Goosander. More scanning eventually found Black Tailed Godwit, just before a Sparrowhawk flew up from within the bushes in front of me. Across the bay, the pair of Little Egrets wandered along the edge of the reeds. Lainy phoned me to see where I was, as her plans had fallen through, and not long after that she'd joined me to scan out over the bay. A Willow Warbler was heard singing from nearby.
It was a warm morning and butterflies were beginning to appear. A Green Veined White fluttered by and soon after a Comma did likewise. We had a bit of a wander round before returning to overlook the bay. An orange butterfly landed among the vegetation in front of us, and we both expected it to be the Comma seen earlier. Surprisingly it wasn't, it was a Dark Green Fritillary - a first for me in Dundee, and at the park, though both Lainy and Ian Ford had both previously seen the species there. I messaged Keith to let him know, in case it was a species he needed for his park list. We heard a Bullfinch and did a bit more slow wandering, chatting as we went. A Grey Wagtail flew over and Lainy found a July Highflyer moth.
We eventually added a Buzzard to the day's list. A Red Admiral and another Comma were spotted near the bench at the half-way path as we had lunch. Long Tailed Tit and Song Thrush were noted as we wandered towards the Lochan. A Common Darter dragonfly was seen there. More wandering got us House Sparrow and Linnet. We were surprised to not have found any Six Spot Burnet moths but we eventually managed to find a small group of them in the general area west of the bench on the path up to the hill from the western side. I discovered that Keith had emailed me and was surprised to find that he had found a White Letter Hairstreak butterfly in his garden - a new butterfly species for Dundee - the third addition in 3 years. Unfortunately it had flown off.
Lainy's original plan for the day had been to head through to Edinburgh for that very species - which had only been discovered within that city a few days before. We discussed the possibilities of where Keith's butterfly had most likely come from as we wandered round the park slowly again, being tormented by Comma butterflies that would land nearby and then take off as soon as either of us attempted to get a photo. We added Common Sandpiper to the list for the day's visit to the park before receiving another message from Keith saying the butterfly hadn't returned and that he had to go out. As it happened he was on his way to the park to meet Ian Ford to deal with a problem and we happened to be passing through the car park as they both arrived. Keith told us more details of the White Letter Hairstreak sighting and his thoughts on where it might have come from.
As we'd pretty much exhausted the likely sightings at the park, we decided to pay a visit to Western Cemetery as it offered a more workable area than Balgay Hill (the 2 likeliest source of Keith's visitor). As we left the park, a male Common Blue butterfly flew past the car and across the main road towards the railway line. We headed up to the back of Western Cemetery when we arrived as that seemed to offer the best chance of any butterflies (except those that like Dandelions such as Large White, which we also saw on our walk up to the top end). A couple of Holly Blue butterflies were a welcome surprise as we searched for Elm trees and any other butterfly species we could see. A Sparrowhawk flew over and as we headed back to Lainy's car later we stopped to watch a large flock of Long Tailed Tits near the entrance. A Grey Squirrel was also noted nearby.
Lainy dropped me off at home just after 1800. It had been a fairly lengthy but successful day out with plenty of good luck and fortunate timing involved. I finished the day with a total of 55 species of bird, 7 of butterfly, 1 of dragonfly, 2 of mammals and 3 of moths. The bird list was made up of 54 species at the park and 26 from outwith, while the butterfly list was made up of 5 species at the park and 3 outwith. We also now a new butterfly species to try to see, as well....
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| Linnet |
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| Lapwing |
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Stock Dove
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Reed Bunting
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Herring Gull & Osprey
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| Curlew |
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| Knot |
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Black Headed Gull
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Black Tailed Godwit
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| Redshank |
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| Sparrowhawk |
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Black Tailed Godwit
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| Curlew |
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| Osprey |
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Dark Green Fritillary
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| Osprey |
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| Osprey |
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Common Darter
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| Chiffchaff |
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| Buzzard |
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| Buzzard |
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| Osprey |
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Long Tailed Tit
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Birds (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Black Headed Gull,
Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Dunnock,
Goldfinch, Greenfinch,
Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Linnet,
Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Peregrine, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Feral Pigeon,
Sandwich Tern, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Butterflies (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Common Blue, Holly Blue, Large White.
Mammals (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Grey Squirrel.
Birds
(at Riverside Nature Park) - Bar Tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black Headed
Gull, Black Tailed Godwit, Blue Tit, Bullfinch,
Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common
Gull, Common Sandpiper, Cormorant, Curlew,
Dunlin, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Goosander, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Knot, Lapwing, Lesser
Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Little Egret, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Osprey, Oystercatcher,
Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon,
Sandwich Tern, Song Thrush,
Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Tree Pipit,
Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
Butterflies (at Riverside Nature Park) - Comma, Dark Green Fritillary, Green Veined White, Meadow Brown, Red Admiral.
Dragonflies (at Riverside Nature Park) - Common Darter.
Mammals (at Riverside Nature Park) - Rabbit.
Moths (at Riverside Nature Park) - Common Carpet, July Highflyer, Six Spot Burnet.
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Bonus French Air Force Caracal photos...
