Winter

A lovely wintery day at the Divit with a couple of RT Divers and a few GC Grebes on the river. 4 Little Grebes in the harbour told the story of the 1 degree temperature. Teal were present in small numbers too but no sign of any Dunlin so far.

Grey Phalaropes

It's 14:35 on Friday the 14th.Three Grey Phalaropes have been seen flying towards Inverkeithing Harbour from Dalgety Bay where the first was picked up earlier this afternoon. It will be dark shortly, and I guess I won't be seeing them. Not today anyway.

Lucky I already have it on my Divit list!

Sunrise over Arthur's Seat

Another slow vismig day in easterlies, but an amazing dawn and a nice Kingfisher

 

Istanbul year list

I notice today that my Istanbul year list far surpasses my Inverkeithing list (and probably my British list since I bird only locally). An incoplete listing because of records not yet entered:

1	Mute Swan
2	Common Shelduck
3	Eurasian Wigeon
4	Mallard
5	Northern Shoveler
6	Garganey
7	Green-winged Teal
8	Common Quail
9	Little Grebe
10	Great Crested Grebe
11	Greater Flamingo
12	Black Stork
13	White Stork
14	Great Cormorant
15	Pygmy Cormorant
16	Great White Pelican
17	Gray Heron
18	Purple Heron
19	Great Egret
20	Little Egret
21	Squacco Heron
22	Black-crowned Night-Heron
23	Glossy Ibis
24	Eurasian Spoonbill
25	Short-toed Eagle
26	Lesser Spotted Eagle
27	Eurasian Marsh-Harrier
28	Northern Goshawk
29	Eurasian Moorhen
30	Eurasian Coot
31	Black-winged Stilt
32	Pied Avocet
33	Little Ringed Plover
34	Green Sandpiper
35	Common Greenshank
36	Wood Sandpiper
37	Common Redshank
38	Eurasian Curlew
39	Ruff
40	Dunlin
41	Little Stint
42	Black-headed Gull
43	Little Gull
44	Mediterranean Gull
45	Yellow-legged Gull
46	Lesser Black-backed Gull
47	Black Tern
48	White-winged Tern
49	Whiskered Tern
50	Common Tern
51	Sandwich Tern
52	Rock Pigeon
53	European Turtle-Dove
54	Eurasian Collared-Dove
55	Laughing Dove
56	Common Cuckoo
57	Alpine Swift
58	Common Swift
59	Common Kingfisher
60	European Bee-eater
61	European Roller
62	Eurasian Hoopoe
63	Eurasian Wryneck
64	Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
65	Syrian Woodpecker
66	Gray-headed Woodpecker
67	Lesser Kestrel
68	Eurasian Kestrel
69	Eurasian Hobby
70	Red-backed Shrike
71	Lesser Gray Shrike
72	Woodchat Shrike
73	Eurasian Golden Oriole
74	Eurasian Jay
75	Eurasian Magpie
76	Eurasian Jackdaw
77	Hooded Crow
78	Common Raven
79	Calandra Lark
80	Crested Lark
81	Sky Lark
82	Bank Swallow
83	Barn Swallow
84	Red-rumped Swallow
85	Common House-Martin
86	Great Tit
87	Eurasian Blue Tit
88	Eurasian Penduline-Tit
89	Long-tailed Tit
90	Short-toed Treecreeper
91	Eurasian Wren
92	Cetti's Warbler
93	Willow Warbler
94	Common Chiffchaff
95	Eurasian Reed-Warbler
96	Great Reed-Warbler
97	Blackcap
98	Greater Whitethroat
99	Spotted Flycatcher
100	European Robin
101	Common Nightingale
102	Semicollared Flycatcher
103	Common Redstart
104	Whinchat
105	Northern Wheatear
106	Eurasian Blackbird
107	Song Thrush
108	European Starling
109	Western Yellow Wagtail
110	Gray Wagtail
111	White Wagtail
112	Tawny Pipit
113	Tree Pipit
114	Ortolan Bunting
115	Black-headed Bunting
116	Corn Bunting
117	Common Chaffinch
118	European Goldfinch
119	Hawfinch
120	House Sparrow
121	Spanish Sparrow
122	Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Whoop, whoop!

3 Whoopers upstream then north this morning. Also three Redpolls. I almost forgot they existed. What a quiet year it's been

Diminishing returns

Three years' worth of vismig totals showing the declining returns, in line with declining hours, of vismig totals from Inverkeithing. There are various reasons for the decline in hours, but this year the easterlies meant the birds just weren't there - not even the seabird bonus you might expect from easterlies. I saw less than 10 skuas so far this year! Who knows how I will feel about it next year. Maybe a good start will invigorate my efforts. Hopefully there's still something to be seen this year before season close.

Sunday 12th October

Magical misty morning at Inverkeithing with my biggest ever morning count of Alba Wags (221) in two hours from 7:30. Sunrise was 7:38 - allegedly!

As far as I could see on arrival

Misty Magpie

Jackdaws pause to get their bearings

Flypast Curlew

One of 4 Swallows

Rooks

Rooks also pausing for thought

Some of 134 Starlings that shot past

Pied Wags

One flock of 45 Lapwings

Kestrel

Four late Gannets also emerged briefly

Mistle Thrushes!

Slow start to the morning with dribs and drabs of individual birds but then the MIstle Thrush started to come through. Largest flock was the last at 8:45 which had 54 birds in it - by itself it would have made the top 5! Also good were Starlings, which came through in groups of 5-7, and Song Thrush, of which I saw 12 fly through.

Otter!

During a mediocre late mig watch with none of the expected seabirds I noticed Black-headed Gulls and Magpies all focussed on one spot. What on earth could they have as a common interest? I skirted round to see if maybe there was an Owl or something in the trees. To my surprise the focus of their attention was an Otter feeding on the rocks - not a bad result and maybe my best vismig result of the year!

Ducking and Diving

Started this morning off witha flock of largish birds coming through the mist from the east. I hoped that they would turn towards me rather than away, and lo and behold 42 Red-throated Divers emerged in a flock, calling and circling before disappearing again. The place was swarming with Swallows, with a few House Martins thrown in. Additional cast included first autumn Mistle Thrush, a smallish portion of Mipits, and a nice species addition to the year list in the form of Tufted Ducks.

Red-footed Falcon invasion in Poland

Worth a share I think:

http://birdingfrontiers.com/2014/09/09/invasion-of-red-footed-falcons-in-bonkers-numbers/

Skuas at last

First skuas of the year finally - thought at first they were Long-tailed but I couldn't persist in the belief and accepted they were Arctics in the end. Nice numbers of Mipits and Grey Wags, with both ahead of their normal numbers (see charts).

Goosander flypast

4th September - coming from the east they headed straight for the harbour

Ducky day

Should have got out earlier this morning but we were waiting for a delivery at home. Mercifully my lovely wife waved me off with a "Don't be late" and waited while I headed for the watchpoint.

In still air, perhaps the slightest of easterlies, there wasn't a lot doing, although there were steady Mipits and hirundines, as well as a lovely big flock of Goldfinches decisively moving for a change. There was, of course, a blogging flock that varied in size throughout the hour, presumably recruiting and leaking birds continuously.

A flock of Teal came off the river and flew inland north. Another flew around and settled in the bay, and a mixed flock of mostly Wigeon came up the river and went off west without hesitation. I love the duck season, though it always makes me wish I wasn't coming into work for 9. It doesn't last many days and it usually continues on through the morning at least. I still need Shoveler, so every flock gets as much grilling as I can to see if it has any interesting tag-alongs.

Ringed Herring Gull

I saw this Herring Gull  on the same small stretch of beach last April, which seems a very long time ago now. It was ringed in Northumberland, but I guess has found a home in Fife, or at least likes to holiday regularly

(Herring Gull with orange colour ring, 1214 was ringed on the 16^th December 2004 on Ellington Road landfill, near Ashington, Northumberland (grid reference NZ2589) as a second winter bird, with metal BTO ring number GN77243)

Green Sand at Cullaloe

Routine passage of Mipits at Inverkeithing this morning and one Kingfisher on rocks at Stone Marine. Dropped into Cullaloe to find a Green Sand - the same one? Maybe. Other than that nothing unusual to report.

Divit pics:

A good start to the month this morning with a nice collection of movers, mostly of the anticipated species. A good start to the Grey Wagtail season, although there are already a few on the scoreboard. Also finches could prove interesting with some nice Chaffinch and Greenfinch this morning. Also in the mix were a nice couple of Ravens, which I underexposed sadly - such a hard species to photograph.

Also of note, we are into September and still not a single Skua! Maybe the weather's nice up north and there's going to be a rush later on, fingers crossed.

Swallows over the water

Typical late summer Sandwich Terns in small numbers

 

Raven

Teal

Wigeon

Swallow flypast

Over the water, as most were

Chaffinch forging ahead