 |
| Cormorant |
Although Wednesday's trip to Broughty Ferry and Balmossie had been much better than expected, I was still struggling to get motivated when Saturday came around. Procrastination took up most of the very unproductive morning. What I should have been doing with the time was catching up with blog-posts and photo-editing but neither really got going. With Sunday not looking too promising weather-wise, I didn't really want to spend the whole weekend slowly going 'stir-crazy' at home, so eventually I forced myself to go out for a walk and to see what I could find. Rather than either Balmossie or Riverside Nature Park, I decided to pay City Quay a visit, then from there possibly head out to the Stannergate then home via Baxter Park, Swannie Ponds and Eastern Cemetery (though not necessarily in that order).
It was 1235 by the time I headed out. Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon, Robin and Blue Tit were the only birds noted as I made my way down to City Quay via Dens Road and Dens Brae. The relative lack of birds did not appear to bode well for my chances of any sort of success. I added House Sparrow to the rather short list as I walked through Thorter Loan to view the river and 'Submarine Rock'. There was a Great Black-backed Gull amongst the Cormorants roosting out on the rocks and 1 or 2 more Cormorants down on the river but otherwise things were similarly quiet. A Pied Wagtail was spotted as I wandered along the front of the blocks of flats to the broken lock-gates.
A Grey Heron was looking as fed up as me across the far side of the quay and a bit of scnning found a Red-breasted Merganser on the water. A few Starlings were perched up on the roofs. I crossed the footbridge and wandered round on my way to head along to the roadbridge over the railway line as I had decided against continuing on to the Stannergate. I heard what sounded like a Kingfisher call as I walked along towards the Sea Cadets buildings, so I retreated back to where I could view the whole area of water unimpeded by Buddleia bushes. I managed to catch a glimpse of the Kingfisher as it flew in to land on one of the small rowing boats berthed by the buildings. I set off to try to view these from the fence on the eastern side where I could see there was a potential place to photograph the bird from.
Carrion Crow and Magpie were both noted as I walked quickly to the Sea Cadets corner. The Kingfisher spotted me before I spotted it and took off, flying low and fast across the quay away from me. Despite the fence I was able to get a just about identifiable photo of the bird but it was firmly in the 'very bad record shot' category. I headed back to the opposite corner to try to relocate the bird but drew a blank. A Common Gull circled round over the water before flying back out to the river and a Grey Wagtail flew past, and across the railway line. A Meadow Pipit was heard flying over as I made my way along East Camperdown Street. A Greenfinch overflew as I trudged up Kenilworth Avenue on my way to have a look at Eastern Cemetery.
Pardon the pun, but Eastern Cemetery was rather 'dead' with nothing much to be seen except Goldcrest and Woodpigeon. Swannie Ponds provided a few more expected species - Black-headed Gull, Coot, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Mute Swan, as well as a single, less expected Goosander. I had a quick look at Spring Grove in Baxter Park but only a Blue Tit was visible. Heading homewards, the only further addition was a Goldfinch taking the total for the day to 27 species. As things turned out, Sunday (which was the first day of 'winter') did indeed prove to be a bit of a write-off with no birding done.
 |
| Great Black-backed Gull |
 |
| Herring Gull & Great Black-backed Gull |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Grey Heron |
 |
| Red-breasted Merganser |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Red-breasted Merganser |
 |
| Red-breasted Merganser |
 |
| Cormorant |
 |
| Grey Heron |
 |
| Grey Heron |
 |
| Kingfisher |
Birds - Black-headed Gull, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black-backed Gull, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Kingfisher, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Red-breasted Merganser, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Starling, Tufted Duck, Woodpigeon.
