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| Grey Partridge |
Circumstances meant that Rohan and I's Saturday night birding had to be postponed on the 1st of August, but Rohan suggested the following Tuesday evening instead, as she had a couple of day's off work planned. An 1800 pick-up time was agreed on, which gave me an hour to get organised after work. There was some heavy rain forecast to pass through though the weather forecast had been changing throughout the day. The original plan was to head for Westhaven and Arbroath to see if we could rustle up a Roseate Tern, given how good a breeding season the species has had off Northumberland.
Rohan turned up slightly early and was waiting for me as I headed out. Unfortunately the forecast heavy rain had arrived, and with a vengeance. It was VERY heavy and even the 10 foot dash to the car saw me getting pretty wet. Rohan asked "Are you sure about this?" As the rain was meant to continue in a northeasterly direction, I suggested we try St Andrews instead. The rain showed no sign of abating as we headed for the roadbridge and even into Fife. Thankfully, by the time we reached St Michaels it had calmed down, though we did hit another slightly less heavy downpour before we reached St Andrews which had somehow seemingly avoided the rain completely. The rain meant we saw very little on the way from Dundee to St Andrews with only Woodpigeon, Swallow and Herring Gull seen.
We headed for the raised viewpoint offered by the castle and set up the scope. There were plenty of birds active out in the bay. Sandwich Tern, Gannet, Kittiwake, Eider and a couple of Manx Shearwaters, as well as Guillemots and Razorbills all kept things interesting. A short shower passed through, though we used the opportunity to head down to the harbour for a wander out along the breakwater. Swifts were seen over the town and a few Starlings were about. At the harbour we were able to add Fulmar, Oystercatcher, Black-headed Gull, Mallard, Cormorant, Common Tern, Arctic Tern, House Sparrow, Great Black-backed Gull and Feral Pigeon.
Our final stop in St Andrews was round at the West Sands. A Stonechat was seen perched on a fence as we parked up. Things appeared to be rather quiet from near the car park but with the light beginning to go, we decided not to walk out to the end of the dunes. Instead we headed for Guardbridge to check the Eden Estuary. On the way back towards the town we encountered two rather confiding coveys of Grey Partridges feeding by the road. Each group was made up of 2 adults and a number of youngsters, 8 and 6. I took quite a lot of photos before we headed for Guardbridge.
The tide was receding at Guardbridge and we were able to pick out Redshank, Curlew, Little Egret, Goosander, Grey Heron, Dunlin, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Carrion Crow and Jackdaw while Long-tailed Tit and Rooks rounded things off. Having heard of a Barn Owl being seen recently near Tayport we had a very quick look but managed to add only Yellowhammer, taking the evening's list to 36 species of birds, which given how the weather was when we set off, was fairly decent (as were the birds). Not only that but we managed to stay dry too (bar the slightly wet start for me getting to Rohan's car).
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| Herring Gull |
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| Fulmar |
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| Kittiwake |
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| Sandwich Tern |
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| Sandwich Tern |
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| Razorbill |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Stonechat |
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| Little Egret |
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| Redshank & Dunlin |
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| Little Egret |
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| Little Egret |
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| Little Egret |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Eider |
Birds - Arctic Tern, Black-headed Gull, Carrion Crow, Common Tern, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Eider, Fulmar, Gannet, Goosander, Great Black-backed Gull, Grey Heron, Grey Partridge, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kittiwake, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Little Egret, Long-tailed Tit, Mallard, Manx Shearwater, Oystercatcher, Razorbill, Redshank, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sandwich Tern, Starling, Stonechat, Swallow, Swift, Woodpigeon, Yellowhammer.
