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| Rook |
I'm not a huge fan of Christmas, so I usually head out birding on the 25th of December, rather than do anything festive. I will often use Christmas Day as a test run of my plans for my route for the 1st of January when I try to get my new yearlist off to a good start. However this year I didn't particularly feel in the mood to get out, with a strong westerly wind once again likely to limit what I might hope to see. With 1 more species still required for me to reach my target figure of 150 for the year, I knew I couldn't really afford to sit at home. I decided to head out along the river to Broughty Ferry and Balmossie once again, as this is usually what I do, with a few add-ons, on New Year's Day. Although there wasn't anything particularly likely, the relative quiet of the early part of the morning, meant that there might be a few more birds either close in to shore, or even along the beach, than would ordinarily be the case.
I headed out at 0915. Herring Gull, Magpie, Feral Pigeon, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Blue Tit and Goldfinch got things under way. Jackdaw and Pied Wagtail were added on Park Avenue. Blackbird, Chaffinch, Carrion Crow, Black Headed Gull, Dunnock, Robin and House Sparrow made for a relatively productive walk through Baxter Park. Woodpigeon, Great Tit and Wren were noted as I wandered on along Bingham Terrace. A few Oystercatchers overflew Eastern Cemetery as I passed by there. The next stretch of the walk down to the Stannergate failed to add anything new. Continuing on along the river turned out to be even quieter than my previous visit the week before with only a couple of Rabbits, a flock of Long Tailed Tits, a couple of Common Gulls and a pair of Turnstones seen between the Stannergate and Broughty harbour.
My mood hadn't been particularly great before leaving the house, but with very little to distract me on the walk out along the river, it had actually got worse. I was even considering turning round and heading back home. As I walked along the edge of the harbour towards the castle, I got a shout from Dana, who was sitting in her car, overlooking the harbour. We had a chat for 15 minutes or so, which definitely improved my mood a bit. A Rock Pipit landed close by and we watched a Mute Swan (likely the same bird from the previous week's sighting, off Douglas Terrace) before we went our separate ways again. I had a few minutes of scanning from the side of the castle which proved to be as fruitless as I had expected it to be, so I continued on out towards Balmossie.
A detour into the local nature reserve added Greenfinch, Coal Tit and Redwing. I stopped to photograph a flock of around 100 Linnets near the shelter on the small hill opposite the rock garden, and had got quite close without spooking them when a couple crossed the road and inadvertantly sent the whole lot skywards. I headed on out to the burn mouth at Balmossie to see if there might be somtheing of interest there. Although there was nothing out of the ordinary, I did manage to add a few new species - Wigeon, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Eider, Goldeneye, Rook, Great Black Backed Gull, Bar Tailed Godwit and Curlew. I had a brief chat to a North American couple who were scanning through the waders on the beach and the ducks just offshore.
By this time, there were quite a lot of walkers around, though I knew things would start to quieten down soon as people began to head home for their Christmas Dinner. On the walk back, I added Goldcrest at the rock garden and a flyover Stock Dove a little further on. A Meadow Pipit flew up from the fenced off dunes as I neared the castle again. I had close views of a Rock Pipit, as it picked food items from the piled-up sand and debris by the ramp down to the beach. A trio of Red Breasted Mergansers and a Grey Seal were seen out on the river on my walk back along the river. I realised I hadn't seen a Cormorant, and considered continuing on to City Quay to see if there were any there but my legs were feeling quite heavy so I decided to try Swannie Ponds and Eastern Cemetery instead.
A few Mistle Thrush and a Grey Squirrel were found within the cemetery and a quick passing visit to the ponds added a final five species to the day's list with Tufted Duck, Coot, Mallard, Goosander and Moorhen taking my total for the day to a relatively underwhelming 49 species. It was yet another fairly run-of-the-mill selection of birds and once again, I had failed to add anything new to my #Dundee150 list. This meant that I only had another 3 potential birding days left (having discovered that I wasn't actually meant to be off work on Friday, as I had thought). As things turned out, Boxing Day was rather wet and my mood was even worse than Christmas Day so my attempt to head for Riverside Nature Park made it as far as Arklay Street where I decided to try Trottick Ponds instead but after a few minutes more of rain, I decided to head back home instead...
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Common Gull
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| Turnstone |
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Pied Wagtail
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Pied Wagtail
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Long Tailed Tit
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| Linnet |
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| Linnet |
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| Wigeon |
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| Wigeon |
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Ringed Plover
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Black Headed Gull (Green 2N59)
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Great Black Backed Gull
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| Dunlin |
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| Curlew |
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Bar Tailed Godwit
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| Wigeon |
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Long Tailed Tit
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Rock Pipit
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Mute Swan
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Herring Gull
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Common Gull
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Red Breasted Merganser
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| Rabbit |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Woodpigeon |
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Grey Squirrel
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| Sparrowhawk |
Birds - Bar Tailed Godwit, Black Headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch,
Coal Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Eider, Goldcrest, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Herring
Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle
Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Redwing,
Ringed Plover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Tufted Duck, Turnstone,
Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals - Grey Seal, Grey Squirrel, Rabbit.
