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| Little Egret |
I couldn't decide where to go on Saturday morning but with reports of a handful of Waxwings further north I decided I might as well check one of their seemingly preferred haunts in Dundee, as well as a few other spots, rather than sit at home when I really should be out birding. I wasn't overly enthusiastic but eventually got organised to head out and was ready to go around 1045. As is so often the case, my expectations were rather low but staying at home wasn't really an option. Other than checking for Waxwings I didn't really have much of a plan for wwhere I was going, or where I was likely to end up.
Feral Pigeon, Herring Gull, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Magpie, House Sparrow and Jackdaw made for a fairly slow start to the day's birding as I headed up Court Street. As I reached Mains Loan, a message came in of a possible White-rumped Sandpiper in Invergowrie Bay with Dunlin, visible from Riverside Nature Park. Given that I've never seen an American wader species in Dundee, and have only ever seen this particular species once before (and not up close), it was a no-brainer to go for it. Head home, collect the scope and tripod and make my way to Riverside Nature Park to try to see the bird. Given that I'd managed to mis-identify a Dunlin not that long ago as the species, I also needed to get more familiar with the bird from an ID standpoint too.
Around 10 minutes later I was on my way up past the football grounds, noting Starling perched up on the floodlights. Blue Tit and Goldcrest were found at Canning Street. Pied Wagtail and Robin were next on Loons Road, then Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Coal Tit were added as I checked along Old Muirton Road, in case of any Waxwings there. Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls were on the football pitches at Lochee Park. Blackbird, Great Tit and Mistle Thrush were spotted on my way through the cemetery. A surprise there was a moth which I was able to photograph with my phone which is most likely to have been a November Moth (or something very similar). Skylark and Redwing were both heard as I hurried on down Ninewells Avenue to cut through the hospital grounds. As I reached the Arboretum a skein of Pink-footed Geese flew over northwards. Bullfinch, Dunnock and Wren were my final finds before I bumped into Keith near the underpass.
We headed round to the hide at the park to scan from there. Little Egret, Common Gull, Redshank, Carrion Crow, Teal, Moorhen, Black-headed Gull and Mallard were all quickly seen but the majority of waders were taking their time to return as the tide receded. Eventually a few Dunlin began to trickle back in. Other birds noted from the hide were Starling, Skylark, Woodpigeon, Wren, Song Thrush, Feral Pigeon, Oystercatcher, Jackdaw and Herring Gull. We were joined by another birder visiting Dundee from Rugby in England and we pointed out a few birds and gave her some advice to help her find her target species - Treecreeper, nearby. A Grey Heron was seen down on the pipe. A Sparrowhawk then flushed a lot of the birds down in the bay. We found a single Turnstone, a few Curlews, Black-tailed Godwits and Cormorant before a message came through from Mark who had the White-rumped Sandpiper in view from across the bay.
We made the decision to head round to the Invergowrie side to try to see the bird from there, despite it meaning I wouldn't be able to count it for my #2025Dundee150 list. We joined Mark round at the Invergowrie side and were soon on the White-rumped Sandpiper, though it was still a bit of a distance away. Over the next wee while we were joined by Fraser Todd, who I've followed on twitter for years but had never met previously, and then Lainy and her husband, Adam. This may well have constituted one of Perthshire's biggest 'twitches' (away from Loch Leven) - though sadly there are many more photographers reportedly crowding out the Bearded Tits a few miles to the west, in search of social media 'likes' and the same picture as everyone else has (but even closer!). In contrast to the fieldcraft-lite Beardie crowds, we stayed put and let the birds come to us, which they did (though on a receding tide they were never particularly close).
In addition to getting the White-rumped Sandpiper, we had good views of a couple of Little Egrets, and also managed to get Dunlin, Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-headed Gull, Black-tailed Godwit, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Curlew, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon, Wren, Teal, Oystercatcher, Mallard, Knot, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Moorhen, Cormorant and Pink Footed Geese (including a neck collared bird - Silver XJF - which had been 'collared' in England at Martin Mere as a juvenile in December 2023). As well as those, the Spotted Redshank was also picked out. Unfortunately the light quickly began to 'go'. I decided to have a quick look at the Nature Park before heading home and was able to add a few more species - Kingfisher (heard only), Mistle Thrush (5 at the eastern end), Magpie, Jackdaw, Goldfinch and Long-tailed Tit. The walk home as the sun set proved to be rather light on birds (not unexpectedly). I finished the day with a total of 48 species of birds - made up of 27 species in Dundee outwith Riverside Nature Park, 31 from the park, and 22 species from the Perthshire side of the bay. A single unexpected moth species was the onlt non-avian find for the day.
The White-rumped Sandpiper was the 172nd species for the Riverside Nature Park list (we lost 2 this year when Lesser and Mealy Redpoll, and also Teal and Green Winged Teal were 'lumped', and Siberian Chiffchaff is only a subspecies despite being rather distinctively different). Of the most recent 25 species, 15 of those have been found by Keith Edwards (including the White-rumped Sandpiper - which was also his 150th species at the park). I've managed to find 5 new species, Mark Wilkinson has found 3 and Ian Ford has 2. My expectations when the park opened back in 2011 was for somewhere around 90 species, so it is rather incredible that we are now approaching double that number and are still missing a few 'should surely be possibles' (like Redstart and Pied Flycatcher) and a few 'surely sooner or later' birds (like Glossy Ibis and Caspian Gull) too. Who knows what will be next...
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| Dunlin, Redshank, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull |
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| Little Egret |
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| Little Egret |
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| Little Egret |
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| Little Egret |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper & Dunlin |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper & Dunlin |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper & Dunlin |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper & Dunlin |
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| Redshank & White-rumped Sandpiper |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper |
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| Dunlin & Knot |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper |
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| Pink-footed Goose |
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| Pink-footed Goose |
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| Pink-footed Goose |
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| Pink-footed Goose & Black-headed Gull |
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| Pink-footed Goose |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Mistle Thrush |
Birds (Dundee, outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Black-headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Magpie, Mistle Thrush, Pied Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Siskin, Skylark, Starling, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Moths (Dundee, outwith Riverside Nature Park) - November Moth(?).
Birds (Riverside Nature Park) - Black-headed Gull, Black-tailed Godwit, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Goldfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Kingfisher, Little Egret, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pink-footed Goose, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Teal, Turnstone, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Birds (Perthshire) - Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-headed Gull, Black-tailed Godwit, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Knot, Little Egret, Mallard, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pink-footed Goose, Spotted Redshank, Teal, White-rumped Sandpiper, Woodpigeon, Wren.
