1341 : Christmas Presence (25/12/24)

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...

Common Gull

Turnstone

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Long Tailed Tit

Linnet

Linnet

Wigeon

Wigeon

Ringed Plover

Black Headed Gull (Green 2N59)

Great Black Backed Gull

Dunlin

Curlew

Bar Tailed Godwit

Wigeon

Long Tailed Tit

Rock Pipit

Mute Swan

Herring Gull

Common Gull

Red Breasted Merganser

Rabbit

Oystercatcher

Woodpigeon

Grey Squirrel

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.

1340 : A Little Crazy (18/12/24)

Mute Swan

I decided that I would head for Broughty Ferry on Wednesday the 18th of December. Just over a year before, on the 20th, I had managed to add a surprise Hen Harrier to my 2023 list, finding one circling repeatedly against a background of nacreous clouds, just east of the castle. While it was rather unlikely that particular lightning would strike twice, I was hoping that perhaps I might find a Brambling or a rare gull somewhere along my route. I wasn't particularly optimistic of either but as I've said often enough, "nothing ventured, nothing gained". It was rather windy, which is never great news, but once past the castle it can actually be surprisingly calm, due to the line of the coast from there to Monifieth.

It was rather a late start, with a departure time of 1115. I had been having a conversation online with a lady about an area of back gardens just off the Arbroath Road, and decided to pop in and have a look on my walk to the Ferry. Blue Tit, Starling, House Sparrow, Feral Pigeon, Blackbird, Magpie and Herring Gull made for what appeared to be quite a busy start. However, that momentum soon ground to a halt and it was almost another 10 minutes before the next additions. Woodpirgeon and Golfinch were added just before I found my way into the nearby back gardens I had been discussing around an hour earlier. Although I had viewed the area on Google Earth, it looked a bit smaller in 'real life'. A small flock of House Sparrows were the only birds seen on what was a very brief visit of around 2 minutes. There was certainly a mix of different garden types and in Spring/Summer a nice mix of the common garden birds looks likely.

I headed for the Docks Way cycle path next, noting a Robin, Carrion Crow and Dunnock on the way down. There were a few additions to be had as I wandered along the Docks Way - Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Redwing and a Rabbit. My first Black Headed Gull of the day was seen at the Stannergate as were a couple of Turnstones. A Buzzard was being pursued by a number of Carrion Crows as it flew along the line of the railway. A Redshank was roosting alongside a small flock of Oystercatchers down on the beach. A Common Gull and a few Linnets were seen on the walk along the river but there wasn't even a Cormorant to be seen out on the river. An unexpected adult Mute Swan was in the small bay on the north side of the pipe at Douglas Terrace being buffeted around a bit by the incoming waves.

A Red Breasted Merganser was finally seen out on the river as I neared the lifeboat station. A Pied Wagtail was feeding on the path by the Beach Crescent steps. I headed round to the east side of the castle to get some shelter from the strong westerly wind. Although things weren't particularly busy, I did finally see some birds out on, and over, the river. A Cormorant flew in and landed atop the marker pole and a Goldeneye flew past. A small group of Eiders could be seen a few hundred metres offshore. A Rock Pipit landed close by before flying back up onto the castle wall. A Shag was fishing near the pole, and a surprise Guillemot - a bird which has been in very short supply in 2024 in the Tay, drifted upriver on the incoming tide.

What was very likely the same Great Northern Diver seen previously there, put in another appearance, though it was mostly keeping its distance, and was a bit further out than previously. I put word out on the ADBC grapevine about the Diver and the Guillemot. I spotted a young Grey Seal relatively close in to the beach and wandered down to get a few photos, by positioning myself ahead of its route, hoping it might surface somewhere near me. I got a few photos then moved ahead of it again, onto the rocks behind the castle. This worked out very well, with the seal coming in very close. It appeared to be wanting to haul out onto the rocks, so I quickly vacated the rocks and moved back up the beach to behind the rocky outcrop on the sand to view it from there, without potentially disturbing it. 

I had to make a phone call about an issue at home and headed up to the shelter of the castle to do so, away from the noise from the river and the wind. As I did so, I noticed Lainy's husband, Adam, about to head up into the castle. Once I'd made the phone call I headed up into the castle where I found both Adam and Lainy. Lainy was hoping for more photos of the Great Northern Diver but it had drifted further out again. We headed back down to the beach, sheltered to a degree out of the wind by the castle, and had another visit from the young Grey Seal, which allowed us both to get a few photos. Unbeknown to me, the ISO on my camera had somehow reset itself to ISO 200, which meant all my photos, into the low sunlight, were underexposed as a result. Thankfully, I was able to get a few fairly decent photos by some fairly extreme editing.

A Stock Dove flew over before we decided to head along for a look at Douglas Terrace, then onto the Stannergate and from there onwards to City Quay. An unexpected Redshank, and an Eider were seen at City Quay but things were overall rather quiet. I ended the day's birding with a low total of just 33 species. Thanks again to Adam and Lainy for their company and the lift home afterwards which saved me having to walk into the strong westerly. The Seal encounter was the main highlight of the day, though it was good to run into a Guillemot (and also the Great Northern Diver) even if I didn't take many photos of either of them, or many photos in general.

Buzzard & Carrion Crow

Redshank & Oystercatcher

Turnstone

Common Gull

Mute Swan

Mute Swan

Red Breasted Merganser

Shag

Shag

Eider

Guillemot

Guillemot

Great Northern Diver

Cormorant

Shag

Grey Seal

Grey Seal

Grey Seal

Herring Gull

Grey Seal

Grey Seal

Grey Seal

Grey Seal

Grey Seal

Birds - Black Headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Common Gull, Cormorant, Dunnock, Eider, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Northern Diver, Greenfinch, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Linnet, Magpie, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Red Breasted Merganser, Redshank, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Shag, Starling, Stock Dove, Turnstone, Woodpigeon.

Mammals - Grey Seal, Rabbit.