STONEFACTION BIRDING

1481 : So That Was 2025 Part 1 - Dundee Birds

Little Ringed Plover

So that was 2025, another year of birding mostly within Dundee. Another attempt to see/hear 150 species from within the city. Having only just scraped the 150 in 2024, but having managed 155 (plus Siberian Chiffchaff) in 2023, it was probably fair to say that things could go either way, or even a completely different way. Maybe the birds just wouldn't be around, or life would get in the way and I would fall short of my target figure. Regardless, it was unlikely to be straightforward or easy, and I would most likely require at least some assistance from Keith, Mark and Lainy (and maybe others too) to reach my target figure.

January started with less than ideal weather and a late start to a trip to Balmossie only produced a total of 49 species on the 1st. I managed another 20 species on the 2nd including a hooting Tawny Owl at the Law, 'seen' with the thermal imager (though better views of the species would come during the summer, with 2 youngsters and an adult seen together). A trip out to Clatto on the 3rd added another 6, and a much larger group than usual of 21 Grey Partridges and the year's first Woodcock out the back of Fintry/Whitfield on the 4th helped to get my total for the first 4 days to a creditable 81 species. As always though, things would get harder from that point onwards. Lainy found 2 Scaup at Clatto on the 8th and fortunately I was able to get up there to see them, though they seemed to enjoy sleeping more than anything else. On the 11th, a return to that quarter of the city added Water Rail to my #2025Dundee150 list.

February was however rather hard going though I did manage to get Great Northern Diver on the 26th and Great Crested Grebe and (what was still known as Lesser) Redpoll on the 28th. March proved relatively productive with a few new additions at Riverside Nature Park on the 1st, Peregrine on the 7th, a Chiffchaff on the 8th, and Barnacle Goose on the 9th. I made a few attempts to get Jack Snipe at my usual spot over the first 3 months of the year and finally managed to find one on the 23rd of March, just as I was thinking I wasn't going to get one at all. Continuing on up to Clatto added Sand Martin too. Pintail at Riverside Nature Park was very welcome and I finally reached 100 species on the 29th with Razorbill in the Tay off Broughty Ferry.

Spring migration really got underway in April. l I went out in search of Red Kite and lucked onto one on the 5th, though views were distant. A very early Swift on the 9th of April at Riverside Nature Park was a big surprise, being almost a month earlier than usual. The same day also got me my first Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Swallow and Ruff of the year. House Martin was added from my living room window on the 12th. A trip to Broughty Ferry and Balmossie on the 17th delivered the year's first Sandwich Tern, Stonechat, Osprey and Guillemot. A trip to the Nature Park the following day saw Common Sandpiper and Whitethroat added there. Wheatear at the airport on the 21st, Sedge Warbler and a very unexpected Fulmar at Riverside Nature Park on the 23rd, a Green-winged Teal on a foggy morning on the 26th, Gannet on the 27th and the first of a 'really good raptors at Riverside' double with a flyover Merlin on its way north on the 30th took the list to 119.

An early morning trip to Clatto on the 3rd of May for Grasshopper Warbler and Garden Warbler was successful, though even better were a pair of Little Ringed Plovers which dropped in for a couple of hours at the reservoir. Bizarrely, the dog walkers seemed to stay in their bed that morning and despite my worry that Lainy was going to miss out on these great wee birds on her patch, we both ended up having prolonged, and very decent views of the birds before they decided it was time to continue on to where they were going just after 0900. Those 2 hours were definitely one of the highlights of the year. Canada Goose on the 7th, Whimbrel on the 8th, Crossbill (finally!) on the 11th, a self-found Lesser Whitethroat on the 17th (having dipped on an earlier brief visitor seen by Keith at the park). A couple of distant Spotted Redshanks on the 21st weren't to be the last we'd see of the species in the bay in 2025 either.

The list was by this time at 127, just 23 species short of my target. The summer lull arrived and things went very quiet. Paul Williams reported an early morning Cuckoo over in Fife before I set off for work on the the 5th of June. I had an odd feeling I was going to see one that morning and was surprised to see my premonition come true with one heading southwest towards RNP, as I wandered down through Balgay Cemetery, though I almost didn't manage to get my binoculars onto the bird. That was to be June's only new addition. July wasn't all that much better, though Tree Pipits were seen sporadically from the 7th onwards mostly on my walks to work. Common Tern and Mediterranean Gull were both seen at Riverside Nature Park on the 9th, and I had even better views of the Mediterranean Gull as it roosted on the roof of the Amazon Warehouse on my way past afterwards. News of some decent movements of Kittiwakes in Fife on the 20th saw me head for Broughty Ferry in hope of finding one there. I was pleased to find one perched on the harbour wall at Beach Crescent when I arrived.

August started with the list now at 132 and waders were likely to be my main focus. Greenshank and Golden Plover both turned up at the Nature Park but proved rather elusive for me initially. Thankfully they both ended up staying for a while once I saw them (Greenshank on the 2nd, Golden Plover on the 9th - along with an unexpected bonus Sanderling). I tried for skuas at Broughty Ferry and had an Arctic Skua go upriver past the castle. Trying again for a Bonxie did end in failure though there were more Arctic seen, as well as both Arctic Tern and Little Gull among the 1000s of birds feeding in the estuary on the 10th. A better scope might have helped to find something else but even with what I had, I was still rather overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of birds as high tide approached. This feeding frenzy lasted for a few weeks but I failed to find anything else new. Curlew Sandpiper was added at Riverside Nature Park on the 29th, taking the total to 139.

I worked my Autumn migration time off work slightly differently this year, though as it happened it was a very poor period down the entire east coast for migrants with very few species being seen anywhere. A Little Stint at Riverside Nature Park saw a visit in pouring rain still turn out successfully on the 3rd of September. I found at least 2 Spotted Flycatchers at the Law on the 5th - the species seemed to miss out Clatto this year, and there was still at least 1 there almost 2 weeks later. A Brent Goose from the Nature Park on the 9th gave me another species that isn't alway easy to connect with from the city. The best was yet to come however. Another rather half-hearted trip to Riverside Nature Park on the 13th saw me find one of my most 'hoped for' species (one I suspected must overfly the city at some point) with the second of the 'really good raptors at Riverside' being seen overflying at height - a Honey Buzzard, sporting some asymmetric damage to the wing feathers. My bird of the year, by far. Strong easterlies into the Tay saw me try for more seabirds from Broughty Ferry and Balmossie. A couple of Manx Shearwaters in Monifieth Bay were a first for me from Dundee (and another that I had figured should be possible, in the right conditions - strong south-easterlies around high tide).

I was now on 144 and October - peak migration time, was next. It failed to deliver anything at all, despite all of my efforts within Dundee throughout the month. I did spend most of a week's birding investigating various potential vis-migging spots and had a nice variety of species moving through (Crossbills, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Coal Tits and the usual finches, buntings, thrushes, larks, pipits and wagtails). Keith found a White-rumped Sandpiper at Riverside Nature Park - the first American wader for the park, on the 1st of November and I headed down to try to see it. Just after I got there, Mark managed to refind the bird as the tide receded. Unfortunately, it was much closer to the Invergowrie side, and there were hundreds of Dunlin around, making it nigh on impossible to pick it out for certain from Dundee. I headed round to the other side of the bay with Keith, to join Mark and managed to see the bird from there as part of what turned into a fairly busy 'twitch' for the bay. I headed back down the following morning to try from the Dundee side as the tide was on its way in and was eventaully successful, as were everyone else who had done the same. I even managed a few photos of the bird. An overflying Brambling was a nice wee bonus.

I went out searching for Waxwing on the 8th of November as there had been a trickle of these birds seen a bit further north. I managed to actually find one at Balgillo Road (and Lainy and Adam found 5 nearby later). I headed down to Balmossie where it started to rain, but a couple of vocal Grey Plovers gave me another much needed Dundee year-tick. The following weekend, I added a Long-tailed Duck out on the river, which didn't stay long. This was number 149 but I felt like I was almost completely out of possibilities, with nothing obvious or targettable left. I would need a lot of luck with only a month and a half of short days and potentially problematical weather left. What turned out to be number 150 was potentially contentious - a female Ring-necked Parakeet squawking away in Eastern Cemetery on the 22nd of November. I managed to see the same bird again on another early morning visit a week or so later. I failed to find anything online about anyone missing a pet female RNP locally, and reports of 'some' regulars from a few spots slightly to the east of there, added some potential credence to the bird's possible wild origins.

Nevertheless, I wanted some further insurance, for any nay-sayers (though 'my list, my rules' as the birding saying goes) and a Snow Bunting which circled over the 'bowl' at Riverside Nature Park on the 29th provided that insurance tick. December proved to be a very damp squib of a month, where it was hard to stay motivated and I seemed to visit and revisit the same places for the same birds, though c.20 Waxwings at Eastern Cemetery which popped in for 10 minutes or so were still quite welcome, even if they were my 4th self-found sighting of the species in a winter that has been far from productive elsewhere for these Scandinavian visitors. As I was passing through Swannie Ponds on Hogmanay, I was both surprised and delighted to find another, final, year-tick for my #2025Dundee 150 list - a drake Shoveler. A Black-headed Gull ringed in Iceland was also a nice wee bonus. So my final total for Dundee in 2025 was 152, about mid-way between 2024 and 2023's totals.

I missed out on at least another 6 species that I'm aware of - Yellow-legged Gull, Common Scoter and Marsh Harrier (seen by Mark Wilkinson), Green Sandpiper (seen by Keith Edwards), Great Skua (seen by Danny Rumble) and a White -tailed Eagle (seen by Connor Livingstone, with another seen by Mark later in the year). In addition, Siberian Chiffchaff was also seen by Keith and Mark at Riverside Nature Park. As things turned out, the Green-winged Teal was 'lumped' with Eurasian Teal as one single species later in the year - but I chose to count both as they were 'separate' species when I saw them. Other birds similarly lumped included Mealy/Arctic and Lesser Redpoll as just 'Redpoll', and Carrion Crow and Hooded Crow as just Carrion Crow now. Except for Arctic Redpoll, all of these have been birds I've previously seen within Dundee, so there is some potential for seeing 'uncountable' birds in 2026 and beyond. We'll see what happens.

In addition to my 150 target, I had been wanting to attempt a 'Big Dundee Day' for a few years, to see how many species might be possible within Dundee in a single 24 hour day. The logistics of doing so however, really required a car and more than one birder. I had discussed the possibility with Lainy and we decided to try a 12 hour mini-version (a 'Big Dundee Half-Day') instead. We settled on 0600-1800 as our window and May the 8th as the date we would give it a go. We could only count birds we both managed to see. Theoretically we might be able to get somewhere around 100 species - though realistically somewhere between 75 and 80 was probably more likely. As it turned out we managed exactly 75 species (plus Sandwich Tern, that I managed to see, but Lainy was away from her scope when I did) with 2 different Red Kites, 2 Grey Partridges and Whimbrel probably the main highlights.

We did 'dip' on a few species that we hoped to see, and with the benefit of hindsight, we may well have been better attempting the feat the previous week (sometime around the 1st of May when there is slightly less greenery on the trees and more birds are in full song). Hopefully, we will try again in 2026 and see how we get on armed with a better idea of strategy, locations, timings of visits etc. I did also attempt to top the 67 species day record at Riverside Nature Park around the end of August / beginning of September but came up short by 4 species.

So, that was 2025. Big thanks as always to the big three of Lainy, Keith and Mark whose birding in Dundee means I have a chance of seeing birds they have found. Sometimes these will be species that are easy to see elsewhere locally outwith the city, so news of sightings of these species within Dundee would be of no interest to 99% of local birders, so they don't merit a mention on the ADBC grapevine etc. Also, thanks go to Rohan and Ian Laird who I managed to get out with a few times this year, outside the city. In addition, all those who have taken an interest in what I've seen when I'm out and about - either online, or 'in the field' are very much appreciated, and those such as Dana and Connor who have let me know when they've seen something that might be of interest to me too.

What will 2026 bring? Following on from the Honey Buzzard, I'm hoping for a Hobby over the city. I missed out on the possibility of Common Cranes potentially being visible from Dundee 3 times in 2025, so they are also on the 'maybe' list of most wanteds too. There were no Glossy Ibises for Dundee despite them being seen everywhere (just like the Great White Egrets in 2024 - though I did manage to see 2 of those). A Leach's Petrel and a Black-necked Grebe were seen from the Fife side of the river too around Tayport, though both are maybe a little too small to pick up without a larger scope, but you just never know...

Happy Birding in 2026, folks...