1525 : Two New (8/4/26)

Osprey

As Keith had managed to get a Common Sandpiper at Riverside Nature Park on Tuesday the 7th of April, I decided that was where I would be going (though had been more or less my plan anyway) on the 8th. Other possibilities included Osprey, Wheatear, Willow Warbler and maybe even something unexpected. During migration times you just never quite know what might turn up and even here in Dundee there have been quite a few really unexpected birds over the past few years. I had originally planned on an early start but had managed to sleep in a bit (what's new?) but was still out the door for 0650 which meant it would likely be 0800 before I reached the Nature Park.

Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Herring Gull, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Dunnock, Starling, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Feral Pigeon, Magpie, Blackbird and Wren made for a fairly typical haul as I headed up past the football stadiums and down to Dens Road. Byron Street added Chiffchaff, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Jackdaw with a Sparrowhawk being noted a little further on, just as a Meadow Pipit passed overhead (thankfully, safely). Great Tit, Goldcrest and Robin were all noted near Logie Street. Continuing on up to Balgay Cemetery I was able to get a calling Nuthatch and my first 'Spring' Blackcap singing near the footbridge between the two halves of the hill.

Coal Tit, Oystercatcher, Song Thrush and Treecreeper were also found around the Balgay Cemetery area. I added Greenfinch on the walk down Glamis Road. I reached the eastern entrance to the Nature Park just after 0750, slightly ahead of my estimated time of arrival. Chiffchaff was first onto the list for the park visit, followed soon after by Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Magpie, Blackbird, Pheasant, Robin, Woodpigeon and Wren. The day's first Skylarks were heard singing over the hill. I bumped into Keith as a trio of Black-headed Gulls passed overhead. There were a few Rabbits around and Mallard was noted at the Lochan along with Moorhen, while a Meadow Pipit headed northwards.

Lesser Black-backed Gull and Reed Bunting were next onto the list as we made our way to the hide to check the waders from there. Dunlin, Knot, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Black-tailed Godwit made for a relatively typical mix of wader species for the time of year. In addition, Shelduck, Common Gull, Teal and Goosander were all seen before we wandered round to the raised embankment to get a better view out across the bay. It didn't take very long until my first Osprey of 2026 showed up. With very still and grey conditions I was able to get an unexpectedly good photo of the Osprey just a split second before hitting the water, talons extended. It appears there is about a centimetre between the talon tips and the reflection of the bird, and I doubt I will get a better osprey photo this summer.

More scanning picked up a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers out on the river and an even more distant pair of Sandwich Terns being harassed by gulls. Curlew and Cormorant were next and the first few Sand Martins swept past us and out across the bay towards Invergowrie. A small flock of Goldfinches flew past before we ventured up to the top of the hill. From there we were able to check the grass at the end of the runway where my first Wheatear of 2026 was spotted. An unexpected Little Egret flew upriver. Grey Heron, Starling, Pied Wagtail and Bar-tailed Godwit were also seen from the viewpoint. More wandering added Blackcap, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Linnet, Long-tailed Tit and Feral Pigeon. Back round at the bay, I was slightly surprised to catch a Ringed Plover which flew up out of the bay. Great Black-backed Gull, Grey Seal and Common Seal made it onto the list though things went a bit quiet for the next hour. 

A single Sandwich Tern dropped into the bay for a few minutes. Stock Dove and Song Thrush were found around 1145 and as I headed for the exit around 30 minutes or so later I added Sparrowhawk, Buzzard and Rook which took the list for the park visit to 57 species which is pretty decent for early April. I wandered up through Ninewells Arboretum then on to Balgay Hill. Grey Squirrel and a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly were the only new finds at Balgay. A Peacock butterfly on the pavement near the foot of Tullideph Road rounded off the day's sightings taking my 'outwith the park' list to 29 species of birds, 2 of butterflies and 1 of mammals, for a combined total of 62 species of birds (2 new for my #2026Dundee150 list in bold), 2 of butterflies and 4 of mammals.

Black-headed Gull

Osprey

Osprey

Osprey

Osprey

Red-breasted Merganser

Wheatear

Little Egret

Bar-tailed Godwit

Dunlin

Sandwich Tern & Redshank

Ringed Plover

Cormorant

Meadow Pipit

Pink-footed Goose

Great Black-backed Gull

Robin

Knot & Redshank

Jackdaw

Sand Martin

Pheasant

Skylark

Oystercatcher (1 legged?)

Buzzard

Birds (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Magpie, Meadow Pipit, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Treecreeper, Woodpigeon, Wren.

Butterflies (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell.

Mammals (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Grey Squirrel. 

Birds (at Riverside Nature Park) - Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-headed Gull, Black-tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Knot, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Little Egret, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Red-breasted Merganser, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Ringed PLover, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Shelduck, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Wheatear, Woodpigeon, Wren.

Mammals (at Riverside Nature Park) - Common Seal, Grey Seal, Rabbit.

1524 : Sunshiny Tay (7/4/26)

Little Egret

Having spent the day at home on Sunday and drawn a blank on adding anything new to my #2026Dundee150 list on Monday, I really needed to add something to the list on Tuesday if I was to reach my target of 5 new additions to the list over the course of 5 days off work. With this in mind, I decided I might as well head eastwards to Broughty Ferry and Balmossie on Tuesday. The weather forecast was fairly decent though with still a hint of a cold wind. Although I had no solid target species, there were some possibilities, so I would have to hope that I could pick up at least one of those. By the time I got organised it was already 0750.

Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Magpie and Feral Pigeon made for a rather slow start to the day's birding. Starling, Great Tit, Goldfinch, Jackdaw and Carrion Crow soon followed as I headed towards Albert Street. I decided not to go via Baxter Park for a change. Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock and Chiffchaff were all found near the Frankenstein Steps. Coal Tit, Woodpigeon and Robin were new for the day along Broughty Ferry Road. I crossed the main road and then cut along the Docks Way cycle path where Wren, Buzzard, Pied Wagtail, Long-tailed Tit and Chaffinch were all found. Oystercatchers were roosting with gulls within the easternmost part of the docks.

Continuing out along the river, I was able to add Grey Heron, Mallard and Linnet. I bumped into another birder near the car park who turned out to be someone I know from the BlueSky social media site - Martin Dunstan. I'd actually met Martin in Western Cemetery while looking for butterflies with Lainy, but it was quite a while ago, so it only became apparent who he was when he mentioned something he'd actually recently posted online which rang a bell with me. He was squeezing in a little bit of birding on his way to work and we had a short chat before going our separate ways. The walk out along the river proved to be very quiet with only Redshank, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Greenfinch noted on the wander along to Douglas Terrace.

A single Mute Swan flew past downriver as I scanned out over the water hoping for something interesting. A Swallow zipped past me up the small slope and over the railway line northwards. A Meadow Pipit then flew over, though not quite as quickly as the Swallow had. Down on the shoreline I found a Turnstone (Martin having remarked earlier that he'd not seen one for a while), along with a Curlew. A skein of geese which headed inland were all Pink-footed Geese, despite the Merlin app 'identifying' a Greylag. Not for the first (or last) time, Merlin appeared to be hallucinating. A drake Eider was on the rocky islet at the castle and a singing Rock Pipit was wandering around on the mud and seaweed down in the harbour there.

Another skein of Pinkies overflew as I continued on eastwards towards Balmossie. Common Gull and Stock Dove were added before I spotted a Little Egret feeding in a large tidal pool down on the sand. With the tide already well out, I decided to head out past the Egret to get a properly lit photo or two. I would give the bird plenty of room so as not to flush it and this proved relatively successful, though the bird did relocate to another nearby pool at one point. Another Grey Heron and Redshank also gave decent views. I set up the scope near the burn outflow at Balmossie and scanned through all the birds I could see on the shore, as well as the ones I could see well out over the river.

This got me Great Black-backed Gull, Red-breasted Merganser, Goldeneye, Black-headed Gull, Bar-tailed Godwit, Cormorant, Wigeon and a Goosander. Better than those however was a distant Sandwich Tern diving for fish in Monifieth Bay - a welcome new bird for my #2026Dundee150 list. I then spent quite a while scanning and rescanning but my only subsequent addition was a Rook. An interesting looking raptor seen distantly crossing the Tay from the south proved to be 'just' a Buzzard. I detoured into the local nature reserve on my walk back westwards which got me a Peacock butterfly and a Sandpit Mining Bee (I think). The slow journey back along the Tay proved to be very disappointing overall and things were very quiet at the Holly Blue site too, though rather worryingly some of the vegetation had been partially 'tidied up'.

I cut up through Eastern Cemetery from the Stannergate which added Sparrowhawk, Grey Squirrel and Rabbit to the day's list while Swannie Ponds only managed to get me Coot and Tufted Duck. These took my list for the day to a relatively disappointing 53 species - though on the plus side, I did manage to get a single #2026Dundee150 bird (in bold). A trio of mammal species, as well as a butterfly and a non-bumblebee bee species, (that may or may not be correctly identified) made up the remainder of the rather underwhelming list for the day's efforts. Still, I suppose I can't really complain having managed to add a new species and given myself a reasonable chance of reaching my mini-target of 5 new species in 5 days.

Linnet

Mute Swan

Turnstone

Curlew

Redshank

Eider

Rock Pipit

Pink-footed Goose

Rock Pipit

Pink-footed Goose

Honey Bee?

Stock Dove

Little Egret

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Sandwich Tern

Common Gull

Peacock

Buzzard

Sandpit Mining Bee?

Grey Heron

Grey Squirrel

Birds - Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Eider, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Little Egret, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Red-breasted Merganser, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Rook, Sandwich Tern, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.

Mammals - Grey Seal, Grey Squirrel, Rabbit. 

Butterflies - Peacock.

Bees - Sandpit Mining Bee(?) 

1523 : The Hills Are Alive-ish...(6/4/26)

Great Spotted Woodpecker

I struggled to get motivated to get out birding on Sunday the 5th of April. Given that I had set myself the target of adding 5 new species to my #2026Dundee150 list in 5 days, taking a day off from birding probably wasn't going to be a great idea. I was still not feeling too enthusiastic on Monday morning but decided to head for Riverside Nature Park, though without any real hurry. I would head up to the top of the Law first and see if there was anything interesting passing through. I would then check out Balgay Hill before continuing on to the Nature Park. 

It was just after 0800 when I headed out. Magpie, House Sparrow, Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Blackbird, Starling and Carrion Crow were first onto Monday's list. Lesser Black-backed Gull, Jackdaw and Dunnock were noted as I headed up past the football grounds. Song Thrush, Blue Tit, Wren and Goldfinch were added around Dens Road and Canning Street. As I headed up Leng Street, I heard Great Tit. Chiffchaff was noted near the steps up the hill, and from the top I was able to add Bullfinch. A Grey Squirrel was seen in the trees near the steps. A Great Spotted Woodpecker showed nicely in one of the conifers on the eastern side.

Things were rather quiet though I did get a few passing Meadow Pipits before 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were seen out to the northwest. A trio of ducks out to the east just before 0900, turned out to be Mallards. Another Meadow Pipit passed by, before the morning's first Sparrowhawk sighting. There were another couple of display flights over the next half hour and a skein of around 40 Pink-footed Geese headed over northwards. As things were rather unexciting overall, I decided to continue onwards, around 0950. Greenfinch, Long-tailed Tit and Robin were the only birds picked up between the Law and Balgay Hill.

Things were slightly more productive at Balgay with Chaffinch, a pair of Jays, Stock Dove, and at least 3 calling Nuthatches found there. At Ninewells Community Garden I found Rook and Pied Wagtail as I wandered on towards the western entrance in to Riverside Nature Park. I reached the park around 1110. Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Greenfinch, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Herring Gull, Mallard, Lesser Black-backed Gull, a pair of Great Black-backed Gulls, Redshank, Common Gull, Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Curlew, Feral Pigeon and Teal were all seen from the hide area. Skylarks ascending above the hill, Blue Tit, Robin, Dunnock, Wren and a Buzzard off to the north were all spotted as I headed into the main body of the park.

Rook, Goldfinch, Meadow Pipit, Blackbird, Pink-footed Goose, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Sparrowhawk and Pheasant all provided a bit more variety as I did a bit more wandering and scanning. I managed to add a few Black-tailed Godwits and a more distant Cormorant while checking the bay, then a quick visit to the Lochan added Moorhen to the day's list. Back round at the bay, I was able to pick out some Knot. Off to the north, a pair of Ravens were seen rather distantly. A Song Thrush was singing loudly from the bushes in the 'bowl'. There was a flock of Jackdaws up on the hill, and as I headed back towards the eastern exit both Great Tit and Coal Tit were found taking my total for the park visit to 41 species which felt a bit underwhelming. I headed back along Riverside Avenue spotting a Buzzard circling and displaying up towards Ninewells. Skylarks were heard singing from the direction of the airport. A single male Linnet was in a tree by the railway line at the steps up towards the Botanic Gardens. 

At Balgay Hill, I had good views of Nuthatches and Great Spotted Woodpecker, though Treecreeper, Coal Tit and a Goldcrest went unseen, but were heard from the trees. I spent around an hour or so at Balgay Hill before heading onwards to the Law once again. A Kestrel was seen hanging in the air over the allotments on the western side and I managed to see a few Small Tortoiseshell butterflies and even a couple of Pine Ladybirds on the same tree I saw them on before. I eventually found both male and female Dark-edged Bee-flies and a showy Treecreeper round the eastern side of the hill. My final total for the day was 53 species of birds (made up of 38 outwith the park and 41 at the park). Also outwith the park I found 1 species of mammal, 1 of butterfly and 1 ladybird species. There was nothing new amongst them though unfortunately, meaning I had 2 days to get another 3 new species to reach my goal for my 5 days off work.

Magpie

Mallard

Herring Gull & Sparrowhawk

Pink-footed Goose

Long-tailed Tit

Chiffchaff

Robin

Song Thrush

Coal Tit

Jay

Blue Tit

Stock Dove

Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Jackdaw

Reed Bunting

Linnet

Buzzard

Grey Squirrel

Nuthatch

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Hoverfly sp.

Kestrel

Dunnock

Small Tortoiseshell

Wren

Treecreeper

Hoverfly sp.

Dark-edged Bee-fly (male)

Dark-edged Bee-fly (female)

Birds (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Blackbird, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Nuthatch, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Treecreeper, Woodpigeon, Wren.

Butterflies (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Small Tortoiseshell.

Ladybirds (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Pine Ladybird.

Other insects of note (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Dark-edged Bee-fly.

Mammals (outwith Riverside Nature Park) - Grey Squirrel.

Birds (at Riverside Nature Park) - Black-tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Knot, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pink-footed Goose, Raven, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Shelduck, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Teal, Woodpigeon, Wren.