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Spotted Sandpiper
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I had to wait in for a parcel on Wednesday the 6th of November which arrived around the time that made it impossible to get anywhere worthwhile for the amount of remaing light. I did end up going up the Law for a couple of hours which did mean I got some phone video of a Pipistrelle Bat whizzing around in the dark (brightened considerably by the phone), and a couple of moon crossing Pinkies photos, though the exposure required to get detail on the moon meant the pics appeared to have been taken in the dark. Ian messaged me on Thursday night to say he had Saturday afternoon free for a trip to Angus or Fife, if I fancied a change of scenery (which I did). My plan was to head out for the morning and then meet Ian around lunchtime. However, as things turned out, I didn't go out in the morning.
I headed out to walk down to Tay Street at 1130 to wait for Ian, near The Rep. The walk down did provide a reasonably varied selection of birds with Feral Pigeon, Herring Gull, Magpie, House Sparrow, Carrion Crow, Long Tailed Tit, Blackbird, Redwing, Jackdaw, Goldfinch, Sparrowhawk and Woodpigeon noted on the walk down to Victoria Road. The rest of the walk from there only added Blue Tit and Wren. Ian arrived around 1210 and we headed for Fife and Cameron Reservoir a few miles out beyond St Andrews being our initial destination. A Spotted Sandpiper, which would be a lifer for me, was our target bird there. From the car, Cormorant, Buzzard and Roe Deer were all noted before we reached St Andrews. The sky grew greyer the closer we got to Cameron Reservoir, and it was drizzling when we arrived there.
This wasn't ideal and visibility and the light for photography was relatively poor. A quick look from the car park picked out Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Goosander and Little Grebe. Ian managed to find the Spotted Sandpiper on the fishing club wooden jetty and we watched it for a few minutes before it flew onto the east dam. More scanning got Rook, Wigeon, Mallard, Teal and Goldeneye. We had a brief chat to a dog walker who was a first time visitor to the site, Corinna (hopefully the correct spelling!) who had a bit of an interest in birds. Unfortunately, the Sandpiper proved tricky to photograph as it fed along the edge of the dam, as my camera kept focussing on the vegetation between me and the bird. After a few minutes it flew back to the wooden jetty, which meant I was able to get a few reasonably decent flight shots. It flew back to the south-east corner but we failed to see it among the thick vegetation there. However, while I was chatting to Corinna again, on her way back to the car park, Ian relocated the bird back at the jetty.
We decided to try Fife Ness, as I don't really get the chance to do any 'proper' seawatching from Dundee. The drive to Crail got us Mistle Thrush, Starling, Pheasant and Curlew. There were a few Golden Plovers in the fields just to the east of Crail, which were a new bird for the year (though I'm not really keeping a year-list again, this year). At Fife Ness, things were as quiet as I've ever seen it, with hardly any birds passing by. We did still manage to add Shag, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Purple Sandpiper (another new year-bird) and Rock Pipit before calling it a day. The only other birder in the hide turned out to be Jared Wilson (though we didn't recognise him at the time), who has had some great birds passing the Ness, on seemingly quiet days many times previously. There had been a few more species than those we'd seen but nothing particularly exciting.
Robin, Oystercatcher, Stonechat and Dunnock were added on the walk back to the car before we set off back to check St Andrews Bay. Linnets were seen (and photographed) from the moving car, as they were circling over the field by the road on our way down the hill into St Andrews. We scanned from beside the castle ruins. Although there weren't too many birds around offshore there was a reasonable mix of species. Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter (another year-tick), Eider, Great Crested Grebe, Red Throated Diver and Red Breasted Merganser. With the light starting to go, we moved round for a look from the Golf Museum car park. This got us Pied Wagtail but nothing else new for the day, before we headed out to the car park at the West Sands. There were a number of Stonechats perched on the wooden fence by the dunes as we drove along.
As the light got progressively worse, we managed to pick up a flock of Sanderling down on the beach and a good number of Pink Footed Geese flew over as it got much darker. A Grey Plover was heard but not seen, and a Short Eared Owl was around (seen by a couple of dog walkers) but despite plenty of looking for it there was only a possible sighting of a wingtip disappearing behind a bush to be had. There were a couple of unidentified calls heard as the light faded, but they went quiet when I tried to get a recording to help with the ID. We headed back to Dundee for around 1700, having managed to find a total of 54 species, including a lifer (in bold). A change of scenery was a bit of a novelty, with it being only my second trip outside Dundee this year (both thanks to Ian).
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Tufted Duck
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Spotted Sandpiper
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Spotted Sandpiper
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| Rook |
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| Cormorant |
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| Cormorant |
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Golden Plover
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Golden Plover
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Golden Plover
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| Linnet |
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Common Scoter
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| Sanderling |
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Pink Footed Goose
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Pink Footed Goose
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Birds - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Eider, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Grey Plover, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Linnet, Little Grebe, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Purple Sandpiper, Red Breasted Merganser, Red Throated Diver, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sanderling, Shag, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Starling, Stonechat, Teal, Tufted Duck, Velvet Scoter, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
Mammals - Roe Deer.
