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| Hawfinch |
It can be tricky finding a window of opportunity to squeeze in a wee round-up of what birds (and other wildlife) I've encountered on my walks to and from work. I knew it had been a while since my last round-up post but I hadn't realised just how long ago since that last post it was. When I checked before starting to type up this post, I discovered that it was actually the middle of June. Close to 6 months ago, which is just a wee bit too long. However, in my defence, I did build up quite a back-log of posts over September and October which I'm STILL trying to get caught up with, so it has been rather tricky to fit this round-up post in. Hopefully it won't be quite so long until the next one (I say this every single time...and yet, here we are!).
This post covers a total of 21 weeks, though 11 of these have been either 2 day or 3 day 'weeks' when I've been off on holiday, for a total of 64 individual days between mid- June and early November. A total of 52 species have been seen or heard during that timeframe, including a very welcome #Dundee150 tick (in bold) in the final week of this particular post's coverage. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs featured regularly throughout June and well into July, though there were a few sporadic sightings of Chiffchaff after that - 4 in August, and 2 at the end of September and beginning of October, which were most likely migrants passing through. Swallow sightings were rather few and far between overall on my 'on foot commute' this year with the final one seen on the 10th of September. The final House Martin sighting, of not very many while walking to/from work, was on the 27th of August. The last Swift was noted on the 29th of August.
Other migrants noted included Tree Pipit, the first on the 1st of August, with others on the 6th, 8th, 19th and the final one on the 2nd of September. Meadow Pipits started to appear around the end of August being noted passing over until the 17th of September. A small skein of Canada Geese were seen flying low and noisily overhead, as I arrived at work on the 29th of August. The first Pink Footed Geese showed up not long after, on the 9th of September, with a small skein heading inland from the direction of Invergowrie Bay, as I headed to work in the morning. What was likely the final Lesser Black Backed Gull was seen near work on the 5th of November. Redwings have been in short supply so far this Autumn, with the first only showing up on the 17th of October, though it was another 2 weeks before their calls became more regular in the early morning gloom.
Both Grey and Pied Wagtails have been fairly common over the period covered, some of which will have been passage migrants, while others are likely to have been birds in their usual spots. Bullfinches and Siskins weren't always around but did show up fairly often throughout the period covered here. Raptor sightings featured Buzzards, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Peregrine (plus the semi-resident escaped Saker Falcon). Peregrine sightings ran from the end of June through July with none since, at least while on my way to work, or homewards. Sparrowhawks have been seen in around 75% of weeks, with a young bird perched in a tree being mobbed by Magpies on Ancrum Road being one of the more unusual sightings of the species. Sightings of Buzzards have been around 1 per month, on average, while Kestrel was seen just 3 times - twice in July and once in August. The escaped falconer's Saker Falcon was seen flying around Cox's stack on the 17th of September.
As I didn't spend too much time around Balgay Hill this year, I was only aware of a single Nuthatch nest site, rather than the 3 from 2023, though they may just have been better hidden this year. However, while passing through Balgay Cemetery on the 15th of July there were at least 3 Nuthatches calling and interacting near the driveway from Glamis Road, of which at least 1 was clearly a recently fledged youngster. July, August and September saw further sightings of the species. Treecreepers were heard, more than seen, though not very often overall. Jays showed up in some slightly less expected places, though were mostly noted in their usual strongholds. Great Spotted Woodpeckers were most obvious in July and August, with 3 seen or heard on the morning of 29th of July - with individuals at the Law, at Balgay Hill and another at Ninewells.
There were a few sightings of Collared Dove and Stock Dove though neither could be considered as either expected or regular. Black Headed Gulls reappeared at the football pitches on the 12th of July when 3 were present but it was a while before they became more regular. The first Common Gulls joined them there on the 6th of August. A Cormorant on the 26th of August and a Grey Heron on the 7th of November were other one-off sightings. Other wildlife noted during the period covered included Square-Spot Rustic moth on 1st of August and an Angle Shades on 28th of October. As the mornings got darker in October, prior to the clocks going back, I took the thermal imager with me which helped me to get Roe Deer on 24/10 at Balgay Cemetery. Other pre-dawn sightings, (though neither required the thermal imager), were a Pipistrelle Bat on 1/10 and a Fox on 11/10.
I've saved the very best for last, however. I had been bemoaning the lack of migrants over the course of the Autumn on the evening of the 4th of November. My target figure of 150 species from within Dundee was looking like being a forlorn hope with the list seemingly stuck at 143, 7 short of my goal, with nothing that I could be almost certain of adding. The very following morning, I heard a call that wasn't familiar as I walked round from Balgay Cemetery onto Ninewells Avenue. It was a very short, but distinctive, thin whistling call. I set the Merlin app going on my phone, but although it recorded the calls, no species was suggested. I had an idea what the bird might be and set off towards the tree the call was coming from. As I neared the tree, the bird flew off, unseen, with the call sounding increasingly distant. Still, I had a recording I could check later for an ID.
Halfway down the hill, the bird flew over the road, calling. As sunrise was still around 10 minutes away, and the bird quite high, I didn't manage to get anything particularly obvious with the naked eye. My luck was in though, as the bird chose to land in another tree and was heard calling as I entered the grounds of Ninewells Hospital. I had my small Zeiss binoculars to hand and was also recording with Merlin once again. There were other birds calling, including a Redwing. I spotted a bird on a bare branch at the top of a tree, half-hidden behind another closer tree. As I cleared the closest tree, I raised the binoculars and saw a very large and chunky bill on the rather chunky looking bird. I rasied the phone to try and get a photo but the bird flew off high to the north. I had however, succeeded in confirming my suspicion, the bird was a Hawfinch. The recordings also confirmed this. My 144th species for my Dundee150 list, making the 5th of November, a day to remember.
All photos featured are from my archives, as I don't tend to take a camera to work with me.
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Tree Pipit
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| Swallow |
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| Sparrowhawk |
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Meadow Pipit
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Great Spotted Woodpecker
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| Blackcap |
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| Jay |
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Great Tit
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| Peregrine |
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| Kestrel |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Cormorant |
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| Buzzard |
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Pied Wagtail
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Grey Wagtail
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Stock Dove
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| Swift |
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| Hawfinch |
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| Nuthatch |
Birds - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Cormorant, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Hawfinch, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Meadow Pipit, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Siskin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Tree Pipit, Treecreeper, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Butterflies - Green Veined White, Large White.
Mammals - Fox, Grey Squirrel, Pipistrelle Bat, Roe Deer.
Moths - Angle Shades, Square-Spot Rustic.
