Cullaloe - Almost Half Way

A half hour at Cullaloe this morning added a single Common Gull, a calling overhead Skylark which may have been heading north (or may equally have returned to breed in surrounding fields) and a definitely northbound Meadow Pipit. Water levels from melting snow were high, and the whole place is sodden.

This waterfall is actually the path!

Goose poop action shot

Pushing the limit on dodgy record shots

+3 => 48, 48%

Remaining target species for Cullaloe, from the virtually guaranteed to the unlikely. All have been seen there and the key dependency will be water levels in autumn.

Walking in a Moorhen Wonderland

A bit excessive maybe, but the tricky Inverkeithing Moorhen has been caught cavorting in the harbour during snow. With about one record per year I can relax knowing that I have it. I have previously recorded them in December and January, so I thought my chance had gone until the end of the year.(Curiously, after checking this record it seems that I saw a Moorhen last year on 1st Jan and ... 13th feb!)

Snowy Inverkeithing

Black-headed wannabe Common Gull

Redshank

+Moorhen => 66

Snow Day

Popped into Dalbeath Marsh for a quickie while heavy snow was falling. The pond remained open and populated by ducks but sadly work beckoned.

Welcome to Dalbeath Marsh LNR

Snowy Reserve

Tufties back up to 10

Long-tailed Tits doing the rounds

Pochard

You know when your taking record shots of a Pochard in dim light at ISO3200 that you're life has taken a funny turn. But sometimes you have to embrace you're opportunities and know when your looking at a bonus bird. Cullaloe doesn't get many Pochard, probably since it's such a small body of water, so to connect with them when they are passing through is a good thing indeed. A group of 23 Starling also shot past north in "angry bee" formation. The sap is rising for sure.

Also added today was a returned singing male Reed Bunting (if you can call that singing) and Magpie.

Cullaloe MEGA - Pochard

sigh

+3 => 45, 45%

Bullfinch Time

Made a trip to Inverkeithing this morning in the second day of Easterlies. Hopes of Little Auk were dashed when the tide turned out to be very, very low. Besides, there was little on the river in any case. After abandoning the coastal path due to risk of hypothermia and lack of birds on the water I took to the south harbour. Goldeneye and Eider huddled there but nothing else of note.

Making a quick circuit around an area sheltered from the wind I added Bullfinch to the second site in two days. Not a coincidence, surely. A couple of Greenfinch heard over the coastal path weren't seen and no direction could be discerned.

Uber-low tide reveals channels in the sand ...

... and the entire structure of the pier

Hound Point in the dull light

+Bullfinch

Love is in the air ...

... everywhere I look around ... Collared Doves which I couldn't see for love nor money a couple of weeks ago are now prospecting throughout the town, and Greenfinches continue to trickle over north. Woodpigeon, Dunnock, Great Tit, Song Thrush and Blackbird are all getting in on the dawn chorus action too.

Things are changing every day now and Inverkeithing managed to haul in a bonus bird in the form of a Long-tailed Duck this morning. Sadly it was too far out in St.David's Bay for any kind of decent pictures but a nice addition anyway. Only one seen last year which stayed for only 5 minutes - short enough for me to see it both arrive and leave.

It's remarkable that with three patches to watch I have only managed two days so far this year without a new list addition. Certainly keeps things interesting.

A RB Merganser fishing in the channel in the harbour was quite an unusual sight.

This morning's foray also brought the number of Birdtrack records for the year to 933. I will definitely go over the 1,000 this weekend and will target 10,000 for the year.