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| White Winged Black Tern |
This is Part 2 of my review of my birding (and other wildlife finds) in 2025. This covers the relatively few 'out of area' birding outings I made in 2025, as well as the other non-bird species seen (with butterflies in particular getting a decent amount of effort and attention throughout the year, resulting in what will likely be a one-off "20 species within Dundee" for me, at least until the next northbound coloniser arrives. One of the Large/Small Skippers perhaps? Or maybe Small Blue, Green Hairstreak, Small Heath or Grayling will turn up within the city?
Starting off this post with the birds. Although I wasn't really keeping a 'Scottish list' I did manage a few trips outwith Dundee. Six of these were to Fife - 2 short visits with Rohan to Guardbridge, 2 with Ian Laird to Largo Bay etc and Fife Ness, and 2 with Lainy and Adam (Guardbridge and Fife Ness). Most of these turned out to be 'dips' on the birds we hoped to see (Avocet, American Golden Plover, White-rumped Sandpiper etc). The others did provide a lifer - Balearic Shearwater (which I think has now also been 'lumped'), with 3 individuals being seen distantly passing Fife Ness (also Sooty Shearwater, Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua and Bonxie) with Ian on the 24th of August.
I got the opportunity to go for another lifer in Angus at the end of March when a White-winged Black Tern lingered at Monikie long enough for me to get the very kind (and very much appreciated) offer of a lift, from Ayrshire birder Dougie Edmond, who would be passing through Dundee on his way to try to see it. We managed to get amazing close views of the bird (along with Little Gull and the year's 1st Osprey) in the sunshine, and I managed some relatively decent photos. A visit to Scone Palace with Lainy and Ian Morrison on the 28th of February got us Hawfinch, Nuthatch and Raven and a wee catch up with Roy Williamson and Carolyn Hargest who I hadn't seen since pre-covid times. These out-of-area outings, though few and far between, are a welcome break from the repetitive nature of birding in Dundee, and are a good way to catch up with some previously well-known birders, when our paths cross.
Away from the birds, 2025 proved to be an extra special year for me with regards butterflies in the city, and I seemed to very much have lady luck on my side with these bonnie wee beasties. A Peacock butterfly was seen on the 7th of March, and Small
Tortoiseshell was added just over a week later. Small White was found on the last day of March. The 7th of April added my first Holly Blue, Comma and Orange Tip. Green-veined White popped up on the 23rd of April and the year's first Speckled Wood appeared on the 30th of April. May produced Red Admiral and Large White during Lainy and I's 'big half day' on the 8th of May. A butterfly at the top of the Law on the 11th was my very first sighting of a Wall butterfly within the city (there had been 2 in 2024). I had a very productive run of sightings of these butterflies in a few spots in the city as the summer progressed, with 2 together at the Law (Lainy found 3 at the same spot the day after), 1 at Balgay and 1 at Riverside Nature Park. I suspect next year, these will be as ubiquitous as Speckled Woods now are now.
Small Copper was found in Broughty Ferry when I took a work colleague and her daughter for a few hours of wildlife viewing in the city on the 18th of May. Ringlet showed up on the 18th of June, but very quickly seemed to disappear, while Meadow Brown numbers seemed to last longer than usual from 25th of June onwards. I had good views of an egg laying Common Blue at Balgay Hill on the 21st. I found a 'new' tree for White-letter Hairstreak on 29th of June before heading out to Clatto with Lainy later to see Dark Green Fritillary (and Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet moths) at a wildflower meadow created by nature itself that is now under serious threat from Dundee City Council and their "we're amazingly environmentally friendly 'cos we plant loads of trees" manifesto, which seems to manage to find places with species that don't occur anywhere else in the city to ruin with their regularly misjudged 'improvements'.
I did manage to find a few Purple Hairstreaks this year again, and even managed to get a video of one egg-laying in a small Oak tree in Victoria Park in July. Lainy managed to photograph another on Buddleia at Riverside Nature Park 'bowl' which was an unexpected place to find one. Painted Lady was also seen in July, on the 20th and I had some very close views of another at the top of the Law later. That took my butterfly list for the year to 19 species - the same total as I had seen overall since I had started paying more attention to butterflies. Although there are more species of butterflies colonising the Lothians, it might be a few years before tany of those show up in Dundee (though you never know - see White-letter Hairstreak for unexpected haste in arrival), so I figured that was where my butterfly list would stall for a few years. However, there was an influx of Clouded Yellow butterflies from the continent into the UK late in the summer. There was an ultra-slim chance I might see one. It was possible, just highly unlikely.
A visit to Riverside Nature Park on the 16th of September, 3 days after my unexpected Honey Buzzard sighting, saw me chatting to Colin the City Council Ranger and the younger lady who was helping him with a bee survey. As we chatted, near the picnic tables at the park, a yellow butterfly fluttered past us, low to the ground. Colin thought it might be a Brimstone, but I took off after it, trying to get my phone out to catch video or even a photo of what was clearly a Clouded Yellow. I had good views of the topside as it flew round the small pond next to the toilet. Unfortunately for us, it kept going low over the grassy slope of the hill and we all managed to lose sight of it, so I failed to get any photos or video, but there were 3 witnesses to the sighting, and it was my 20th species of butterfly for Dundee.
Two weeks later to the day I was at Broughty Ferry and spotted a butterfly against the light, low over the fenced-off area of dunes to the east of the Castle. It landed among the rosehips in a small patch of Dog Rose(?). I found it with the binoculars which confirmed I had my second Clouded Yellow. Thankfully, I was able to find it with the camera, though it dropped to the ground and out of sight almost as soon as I pressed the shutter release. It did briefly show again for a few seconds later but the sky then clouded over and it wasn't seen again. Lainy popped down later in the day, as the sun made a reappearance but unfortunately was unable to see it. Big thanks must go out to Keith Edwards for sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge of butterflies as a group, and who, along with Lainy has encouraged me to pay much more attention to the group, as a whole.
I did see a few interesting (at least to me) moths during the year, with Dark Arches and Beautiful Plume Moth both showing up very close to home. Lainy found Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet Moths at Clatto and I was able to view these with her the same day that I got my first White-letter Hairstreak (and Dark Green Fritillary) butterflies of 2025. There seemed to be a few more Cinnabar Moths around than usual, especially at Riverside Nature Park. I found a Middle-barred Minor Moth on my walk to work at the end of June. I was surprised to photograph a November Moth at Balgay Cemetery on the 1st of November, which was a new species for me, and there were also a few 'micro-moths' that I managed to get IDs for, but don't have a 'proper' list of. Things weren't quite so productive for sightings of Dragonflies and Damselflies this year, with only a single Common Blue Damselfly and a couple of sightings of Common Darter Dragonfly spotted, both at Riverside Nature Park.
On the mammals front, I had fairly regular views of the Bottlenose Dolphins in the Tay again this summer, though the sheer numbers of birds in the river at times in late summer, did mean they didn't always get much attention from me. One very odd occurence was having a group of 3 dolphins (2 adults and a youngster?) in very close to shore at LOW TIDE, just east of the castle, much to the delight of lots of people on the beach that afternoon. I also had 2 very brief sightings of a Harbour Porpoise in the same area on otherwise relatively calm mornings. Early in the year, I had good views of Brown Rats at Ardler Pond as they fed on the food thrown for the birds there, in the snow and ice. My only Brown Hare sighting was near the Forfar Road in May. I had a few sighting of Pipistrelle Bats, at Balgay Cemetery, Harcourt Street and from my bedroom window in September and October.
Foxes were relatively few and far between this year, though the thermal imager helped me to find some of those I did see on the dark winter mornings at both end of the year. Grey Seals, Rabbits and Grey Squirrels were, as always, fairly easy to see. Roe Deer proved marginally more tricky, though those in Caird Park, Trottick and Templeton Woods do seem quite habituated to people and wander off slowly rather than racing off, most of the time. I did manage to see a few Red Squirrels - mostly at Balgay and Clatto, and I had a few thermal imager views of what appeared to be (Wood) Mouse.
It was a poor year for me for sightings of amphibians with only a few mating Common Toads in the small pools at Riverside Nature Park, and no Common Frogs or Smooth Newts seen at all. I did manage to see a few other insects that caught my eye, including a species of fly I thought was new for me, but it turned out I had seen and photographed one before. If I could find the time to read up on, and learn a bit more of how to ID Hoverflies, Bees, Beetles, Spiders etc (I do actually have a few fieldguides on these groups) then there might me more to add here.
For the time being, I don't think 'pan-listing' is quite for me, though I'd really like to see a definitive record of ALL of Dundee's nature species being put together, all accessible in one place. As a lot of older 'naturalists' hang up their binoculars, magnifying glasses and other assorted paraphernalia, their copious hand-written records gather more and more dust then ultimately see the inside of a bin when "that" time comes, thrown out as rubbish when it is anything but. I do not have the time, nor means, to be able to pull together all of these assorted miscellaneous records, but I do think it is definitely worth doing. Perhaps something for the local societies, groups, moth-trappers, universities/colleges, museum etc to at least get together to discuss the possibility of doing. Dundee is not by any means a huge city, but it does have a decent amount of wildlife (for now, at least). We lose a little bit more each year, because no-one knows what there is, or where to find out what there is, and the assumption is made that there is 'nothing there' because 'surveys' seem to get done, for an hour on a random afternoon, at the 'wrong' time of year. Strange that...
So, that was 2025 (part 2). Hopefully 2026 will be just as varied and interesting, if not even moreso. Time will, as always, tell...
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| Dark Arches |
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| Brown Rat |
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| Roe Deer |
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| Nuthatch (Scone) |
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| Hawfinch (Scone) |
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| Raven (Scone) |
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| Pink-footed Goose (Guardbridge) |
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| Cormorant (Guardbridge) |
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| Red Squirrel |
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| Little Gull (Monikie) |
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| Little Gull (Monikie) |
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| White-winged Black Tern & Little Gull (Monikie) |
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| Osprey (Monikie) |
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| Holly Blue |
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| Comma |
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| Gadwall (Guardbridge) |
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| Cinnabar Moth |
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| Orange Tip |
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| Green-veined White |
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| Early Nomad Bee (?) |
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| Wall |
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| Common Blue |
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| Ringlet |
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| White-letter Hairstreak |
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| Dark Green Fritillary |
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| Narrow-bordered Five-Spot Burnet Moth |
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| Bottlenose Dolphin |
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| Small Copper |
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| Beautiful Plume Moth |
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| Purple Hairstreak |
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| Speckled Wood |
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| Painted Lady |
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| Red Admiral |
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| Purple Hairstreak |
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| Bottlenose Dolphin (& Salmon) |
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| Wasp sp. (at Stoat carcase) |
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| Holly Blue |
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| Mother of Pearl moth |
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| Manx Shearwater (Fife Ness) |
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| Whimbrel (Fife Ness) |
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| Kittiwake (Fife Ness) |
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| Gannet & Gull sp. (Fife Ness) |
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| Arctic Skua (Fife Ness) |
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| Arctic Skua & Kittiwake (Fife Ness) |
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| Common Tern (Fife Ness) |
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper (Invergowrie) |
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| Grey Squirrel |
Amphibians - Common Toad.
Butterflies - Clouded Yellow, Comma, Common Blue, Dark Green Fritillary, Green-veined White, Holly Blue, Large White, Meadow Brown, Orange Tip, Painted Lady, Peacock, Purple Hairstreak, Red Admiral, Ringlet, Small Copper, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White, Speckled Wood, Wall, White-letter Hairstreak.
Dragonflies - Common Blue Damselfly, Common Darter.
Mammals - Bottlenose Dolphin, Brown Hare, Brown Rat, Common Pipistrells Bat, Fox, Grey Seal, Grey Squirrel, Harbour Porpoise, Rabbit, Red Squirrel, Roe Deer, Wood Mouse.
Moths (Macro) - Cinnabar, Dark Arches, Middle-barred Minor, Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet, November Moth, Shaded Broad-bar, Silver Y, Six-spot Burnet.
