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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
It has been a long time since my last 'on foot commute' round-up - actually it has been more than 5 months. We've gone from the sunny highs of summer to the dark mornings and early sunsets of winter in that time. The summer migrants have long since departed and the winter visitors have arrived once more to spend the next few months somewhere 'warmer' than where they have arrived from. I had my Autumn migration holidays to try to add a few more species to my #2025Dundee150 list, with fairly limited success, which did mean I was only working 2 days per week for the best part of 2 months. September proved rather good in the first half but October did not provide a single new addition, though other than the expected migrants on the move things were even quieter on my walks to and from work in the same time-frame. This post covers the period between June 9th and November 14th - a total of 22 weeks.
The summer migrants proved to be quite a mixed bag, with Blackcap being mostly heard fairly often up until the 11th of July, whereas Chiffchaffs were still relatively regular until mid-September and more sporadically between then and the final calling bird being heard on 20th of October, which felt rather late. Willow Warbler was only heard a couple of times in mid-August with the final encounter occuring on 14th of August. Hirundines don't crop up too often along my route to work but I did manage to get a few House Martin sightings with the last one being on 1st of September. Swallow sightings were also fairly sporadic right up until the 18th of September. Swifts usually move on in early August but a flock of around 40 over my work on the 12th of August was exceptional for the time of year, and the final sighting, of 2 birds together, was 2 weeks later on the 26th.
Tree Pipits were not as much in evidence as previous years, though the first was heard on the 7th of July, with a peak of 4 a month later on the 7th of August but it wasn't until the 8th of September before the final sighting. Meadow Pipits started to appear on the 25th of August with 9 (mostly singles) noted while on my way to work. The 22nd of September saw the year's final 'on-foot commute' view of the species. Black-headed Gulls began to reappear on the 4th of July though it wasn't until the 16th before multiple birds (4 in this case) started to show up at Lochee Park. This proved to be a bit of false dawn though numbers did eventually start to build up there from late that month. Common Gulls were a bit later before they showed up at the football pitches though they were fairly regular from then on, though as always, in lower numbers than their slightly smaller cousins. The final sighting of a Lesser Black-backed Gull came on the 9th of October.
Winter visitors began to arrive from around mid-September with the first few Pink-footed Geese being noted on the 18th then being semi-regular after that, some being seen departing from their roost on the river in the morning, and others seen returning as I headed home after work. Redwings were the most obvious of the 'winter thrushes' with the first being heard as early as the 2nd of October, though it wasn't until almost the end of the month before they became more numerous, though the numbers remained fairly low. I had a few encounters with Mistle Thrushes around the same time but Fieldfares failed to appear. Whooper Swans were seen on Halloween with a small flock in flight as I neared work. Siskins however were very much in evidence from June onwards, although some Coal Tits did a good job of mimicking these finches calls at times.
Birds of prey were in relatively short supply though the Sparrowhawk family (at least 3 fledged youngsters at Balgay Hill were noted a few times from around mid-July until late in the month when things finally quietened down though sightings of the species continued into September, with 1 final sighting on the 4th of November. Buzzard sightings were far less predicatable though July delivered these birds on 5 days between the 8th and the 22nd (with at least 1 vocal youngster heard a few times), and 2 more Buzzards were seen in August. There was only a single Peregrine noted, on the 25th of July as I headed home after work having looked for butterflies at Balgay Hill, with an adult circling over Pentland Avenue. Kestrel was only seen once with a single male perched briefly on a lamp-post on Dens Road before being chased off by Magpies. A Tawny Owl youngster was spotted on the 19th of June as I headed home after work close to where I'd seen 2 youngsters and an adult the day before.
Unusually I managed a couple of Curlew sightings (13/6 and 25/8) as well as 2 sightings of Grey Heron (27/10 and 10/11). Great Spotted Woodpeckers showed up 10 times (mostly in July and August) though Jays seemed to be very elusive, even at Balgay Hill with only 5 individual encounters. Nuthatches were found 13 times, including a pair on 25th of August and a few suspected family parties in mid-June. Treecreepers were noted from time to time, with 15 observations, Stock Doves 11 times, Collared Doves just 6, and Rook just twice. Bullfinches were fairly regularly encountered, Grey Wagtails showed up 14 times - some likely migrants on the move, and some probably 'locals'. Pied Wagtails were heard or seen on a total of 26 days up until 13th of October. Crossbills had proved to be very elusive in the first half of the year in Dundee, but I did still manage 8 individual encounters on my way to work in July and August, with 2 afternoon encounters in October.
With warm and sunny weather for much of the summer, I did spend a bit of time on my way home on a few Friday afternoons armed with my camera gear, following early finishes, looking for butterflies - mostly White-letter and Purple Hairstreaks. The former were noted 3 times in mid-July, and the latter twice around the same time. I did get roped in to trying to rescue a cat from a large tree while looking for butterflies around the same time, which wasted an hour or so before I had to head homewards. A Painted Lady butterfly on Main Street was a surprise on the 8th of September. Other butterflies encountered were a Common Blue on the 25th of July, the trio of 'Whites', and a few Red Admirals and Speckled Woods. A Pipistrelle Bat was a bit of a surprise behind the tenements where Harcourt Street meets Strathmartine Road on the 27th of October.
While I failed to find anything particularly unusual during the 22 weeks worth of walking to and from work, it was still reasonably decent with a total of 56 species of birds noted as well as 9 species of butterflies and 2 of mammals. The highest total of species on any one day was 33 on Friday the 13th of June and the lowest was just 7 on Thursday the 23rd of October. Although I'm now into the 'zero daylight' period of the year, there will be still a slight chance of finding wildlife using the thermal imager (and a couple of weeks of Friday afternoon's early finishes) though most days are likely to be the regulars (Robin, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Herring Gull, Wren and Magpie) and a few others (Woodpigeon, Redwing, Pink-footed Geese) with the odd slight surprise. However, the shortest day is only around 6 weeks away thankfully and it would be nice if the weather behaves (not cold, not wet, not snowy, not icy)...but as always, time will tell. Hopefully, it won't be another 22 weeks before the next 'round-up' post, but I say that all the time and still the times between posts gets longer and longer.
All photos are from my archives.
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| Great Tit |
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| Grey Squirrel |
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| Carrion Crow |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Jay |
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| Chaffinch |
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| Dunnock |
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| Nuthatch |
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| Robin |
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| Whooper Swan |
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| Rook |
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| Sparrowhawk |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Coal Tit |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
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| Jackdaw |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Song Thrush |
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| Swift |
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| Swallow |
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| Kestrel |
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| Buzzard |
Birds - Blackbird, Blackcap, Black-headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Crossbill, Curlew, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher, Peregrine, Pied Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Siskin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Tawny Owl, Tree Pipit, Treecreeper, Whooper Swan, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Butterflies - Common Blue, Green-veined White, Large White, Painted Lady, Purple Hairstreak, Red Admiral, Small White, Speckled Wood, White-letter Hairstreak.
Mammals - Grey Squirrel, Pipistrelle Bat.
