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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
One of the birds that I thought I had an outside chance of seeing at Riverside Nature Park on the 1st of April was Sand Martin, with Lainy having had a few sporadic sightings of the early arrivals at Clatto over the course of the week. On Friday afternoon, she also managed to get the first Swallow of 2026 there too. With the obvious possibility of getting one or both of these species at Clatto, I decided to try there on Saturday morning. As it was to be relatively windy there was a reasonable chance of at least one of the two hoped for species hawking for insects over the water, or the trees. With a bit of luck I might manage to catch up with both. I had also decided to set myself a target of 5 new species in 5 days off work, so getting at least 1 would be a good start towards reaching that target..
Carrion Crow, Herring Gull, Dunnock, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Magpie and Blackbird made for a relatively underwhelming first ten minutes of birding. Things didn't pick up all that much over the course of the next twenty minutes or so as I headed up to the Kingsway. Goldfinch, Meadow Pipit, Song Thrush, a rather surprising 51 Common Gulls on the football pitches at Fairmuir Park, and Coal Tit. Once across the Kingsway I managed to add Rook, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Collared Dove and Siskin before I reached the dirt track up past the new houses to the back gate into Clatto Reservoir.
Skylark, Pheasant, Linnet, Yellowhammer, Starling, Robin, Chiffchaff, Blue Tit and a large skein of Pink-footed Geese were noted as I wandered up the slope bordering the fields to the north. A distant Roe Deer was spotted and a Grey Wagtail overflew. I had a quick look at the trees and bushes at the western end of the track which got me Bullfinch, Jay and Goldcrest before I got my first look at the reservoir. Tufted Duck, Mallard, Mute Swan, Coot, Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Pied Wagtail were all picked out on my initial scan. It didn't take long to get Moorhen, Goosander, the lingering female Pintail and a few Back-headed Gulls.
As I made my way round the reservoir having messaged Lainy to see if she was around, (she wasn't, but was on her way round to top up the feeders) I spotted a hirundine above the reservoir. It was a Sand Martin, one of a couple of birds hawking for insects, and target species number 1 for the day. I met Lainy at the feeders where a Red Squirrel posed nicely at the base of one of the trees. Having seen a large skein of geese flying in to the northwest of the reservoir on my way up, I suggested we have a wee look at them (even though they, and us, would be outside Dundee so if there was anything rare, I couldn't actually count it), so we headed up through the woods to the north, where a mixed flock of Siskin and Redpoll were acrobatically feeding in the fieldside trees.
From there we headed down into the Christmas tree field to scan through the geese I suspected would be visible. They were indeed visible and as far as we were able to ascertain without scopes they were all Pink-footed Geese. Lainy had other plans for the day so we wandered back to the reservoir. At the feeders, a Great Tit was new for the day. Another regular Clatto area birder, Billy Marr, was just getting out of his car to do a spot of birding. We had a chat before Lainy had to head off. As I was planning on a bit more local wandering I suggested teaming up to see what we could find. Billy was also hoping for Sand Martin and Swallow. We wandered down to the reservoir again. Billy spotted a hirundine over the middle of the water and I quickly got onto the bird which was a very welcome Swallow, my second year-tick of the morning.
We had a wander back up to the Christmas tree field to look through the geese again, which were still all Pinkies before wandering along to the road then back along the farm track. There were a few Buzzards soaring, a Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard and a Wren was spotted . Back at the reservoir once more, we attempted to find a Sand Martin for Billy. As luck would have it, a small group of 4 high over the path, turned out to be the hoped-for hirundine species. Result. A bit more wandering and blethering failed to add anything else new, so we headed back to the feeders. Billy offered to drop me off somewhere but as he was in no hurry to get home, we decided to head for a wander around Trottick Ponds instead to see if we could rustle up an early Willow Warbler.
There was rain forecast for early afternoon, and the sky had been getting a good bit darker out to the west as the morning had progressed. At the ponds, we added Grey Heron and a surprise Cormorant (a species I had just happened to mention). We were able to find the Little Grebes though one appeared to have a bit of tangled fishing line caught in its bill. We had decent views of a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a pair of Roe Deer. Jackdaw and Stock Dove were added before I repeated my "mention a bird and it'll turn up" trick with a Sparrowhawk overhead. Billy noticed a pair of birds high in a tall tree which turned out to be Mistle Thrushes. A Grey Wagtail was found by Billy as we checked the burn and having pondered out loud that we hadn't had a Dipper yet, one duly appeared.
The forecast rain then also decided to show up, which wasn't quite so welcome, so we called it a day and Billy very kindly dropped me off close to home. It had been an enjoyable morning's birding and it was good to have a blether along with some rather relaxed birding. From our conversation, I realised that I'd met Billy a few years ago, when he'd mentioned seeing Little Egrets regularly at the ponds at Invergowrie, and it also turned out that we were both at the same secondary school at the same time (for a few years, at least). The list for the day was a pretty decent 57 species of birds in length (with 2 new for the #2026Dundee150, in bold) and 2 of mammals.
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| Linnet |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Robin |
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| Chiffchaff |
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| Pintail |
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| Sand Martin |
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| Red Squirrel |
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| Great Crested Grebe |
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| Siskin |
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| Redpoll |
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| Pink-footed Goose |
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| Swallow |
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Pink-footed Goose |
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| Buzzard |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Cormorant |
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| Cormorant |
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| Little Grebe |
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| Little Grebe |
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| Sparrowhawk |
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| Roe Deer |
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| Mistle Thrush |
Birds - Black-headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Dipper, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Little Grebe, Long-tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink-footed Goose, Pintail, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Siksin, Skylark, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Tufted Duck, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.
Mammals - Red Squirrel, Roe Deer.
