Scores on the Doors 2013

THE FINAL TOTALS

Cullaloe - 89 species, 89% of target (PW points: 96)

Cullaloe bonus birds: Dipper, Merlin, Pochard, Crossbill,
Black-Tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper, Gadwall, Whimbrel,
Pectoral Sandpiper, Shoveler, Golden Plover, Goldeneye
Bonus birds missed: (Kingfisher)

Inverkeithing - 113 species, 90% of target (PW points: 134)

Inverkeithing bonus birds: Long-tailed Duck, Moorhen, Slavonian Grebe,
Grey Phalarope, Whimbrel, Lesser Whitethroat, Ringed Plover,
Pomarine Skua, Little Gull, Kingfisher, Pintail, LittleEgret, Hawfinch
Bonus birds missed: (Scaup, Garganey!)

Hill of Beath - 82 species, 82 % of modified  target

Hill of Beath bonus birds: Whooper Swan, Pochard, Waxwing, Raven,
Ringed Plover, Spot Fly (breeding)

My other numbers, updated 13th Dec

2013 Birdtrack complete lists:500
2013 Birdtrack records: 11,669

Site	lists	records	species
INK	181	5414	113
CUL	100	2452	89
HOB	176	2995	82
(HOB lists chopped up by OS grid)

Dalbeath Marsh: 78 lists, 1502 records, 69 species
Masterton Rd, 30 lists, 522 records, 57 species

2013 Fife list (OS squares NT18, NT19 only):136
(Non-patch: Temminck's Stint - Letham Pools 23/6, Spoonbill - Eden 24/6)

2013 New additions to Western Palearctic List
Turkey: Pallas's Gull, Slender-billed Gull, Caspian Gull
Inverkeithing: Grey Phalarope
Turkey: Red-footed Falcon, Steppe Eagle
Switzerland: Alpine Chough, Spotted Nutcracker
Spain: Audouin's Gull, Rock Bunting

2013 New additions to Turkish List
Bewick's Swan, Whooper Swan, Pintail, Wigeon, RC Pochard, Smew, Goosander, WH Duck, Velvet Scoter, Peregrine Falcon, Spotted Redshank, Pallas's Gull, Slender-billed Gull, Caspian Gull (Jan 19-25)

Gannet, Little Bittern, Steppe Eagle, Montagu's Harrier, Red-footed Falcon,  Scops Owl (h), Golden Plover, Little Tern, Black Tern, WWB Tern, Ortolan Bunting (Apr 27-May 7)

2013 New additions to British List
Grey Phalarope

2013 New additions to Scottish List
Grey Phalarope

2013 New additions to Fife List:
Grey Phalarope - St.David's Bay
Temminck's Stint - Letham Pools, 23/6

Spoonbill - Eden, 24/6
Hawfinch, Inverkeithing, 30/10

2013 New additions to Inverkeithing List
Slavonian Grebe (24/03)
Grey Phalarope (25/03)
Ringed Plover (03/07)
Arctic Tern (16/07)
Little Gull (23/08)
Little Egret (10/10)
Hawfinch (30/10)
Little Auk (31/12)

2013 New additions to Hill of Beath List
Tufted Duck, Moorhen, GBB Gull, Lesser Redpoll, Stock Dove, Teal, Little Grebe, Pochard, Grasshopper Warbler, Tree Sparrow, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Grey Wagtail, Ringed Plover, Sand Martin 

2013 New additions to Cullaloe List
GBB Gull - 23/4,
Whimbrel


Hill of Beath square totals (all time)
Square - species
Total - 90 (only 87on birdtrack, which is missing three spp)
NT1289 - 29 (Halbeath N)
NT1389 - 63 (Hill of Beath SW)
NT1390 - 47 (Hill of Beath NW)
NT1489 - 47 (Hill of Beath SE)
NT1490 - 53 (Hill of Beath NE)
NT1590 - 69 (Cowdenbeath SW)
NT1591 - 35 (Cowdenbeath NW)

Round the houses

A Grand Tour this morning, with half an hour each, more or less, at Cullaloe, Inverkeithing and Merlin Drive, Dunfermline. A very grey start meant ISO1600 on the camera, which is always a pain, but it did improve slightly as the morning wore on.

Cullaloe performed well, with a Chiffchaff (finally!) and a Grey Heron (again, finally!) added to the list, which now stands at 62, only one behind Hill of Beath. I am hoping the fightback will begin, probably with Chiffchaff.

Not much by way of vismig - hence the frequent shifts.Inverkeithing was likewise quiet and added nothing new, including the wind, which was once more easterly and around force 3-4. Booooring, but maybe not in the East Neuk where I am not. There were a couple of incidences of interesting Chaffinch behaviour, where two birds rose up high flapping around each other before descending again. Because they were silhouetted and my camera refused to focus on them I'm still unsure whether this was a pair in courtship or two males in dispute.

On to Merlin Drive and some Mipit and Pied Wag movement was clearer, with 12 Mipit, 5 Pied Wag and a Chaffinch in 20 mins. Mipits were mostly singles almost due east, although there was one group of 6.

This morning also my Birdtrack records go over 4000 for 2013.

Where have you been?

Stock around the clock

Still hanging about about

and its buddy

Display flights from various woodies

Ehhh, Robin

Two from a posse of five

Territorial dispute ...

... didn't go against the odds

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

Hill of Beath tour

A 2.5 hour tour around the hill this morning produced various nice-but-not-exceptional birdy moments. It was a foggy start as the hill was almost invisible. Fieldfares have increased to c.70 on the stubble fields, Yellowhammers are singing and Coot and Mallard have appeared on the drainage pond next to the motorway. A Kestrel put in an appearance finally to be added to the HOB year list and a flock of 25 Siskin raced north between the motorway and the west end of the hill. As a bonus for walking a new area I also found a way over the burn and a different route home to complete the circle and join up with Dalbeath Marsh LNR, where the Tufty population has now reached a new high of 11. +Kestrel => 51, 73% of target

Foggy start

Fieldfares on the rise

Something about bread and cheese

Farmland Frolics

Made a safari into the wilds of Inverkeithing this lunchtime, finding a new route out of the trees north of Prestonhill Quarry and into open fields of partly ploughed stubble with some nice loose hedging cutting across. Still no sign of any Pheasants, which I find a bit surprising, but a lovely potpourri of wee seed-munchers, as featured below. Tree Sparrow brings up 64 for the Divit and 81 for Fife (that is, NT18/19). Was hard to tell how many Tree Sparrows (or anything) there were because I was stalking them along the line of hedge they were in. A small handful each of Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and tree Sparrow though (also Chaffinch and Great/Blue Tits).

Song wars as Great Tits compete for space

Winter farmland potpourri

Hello, little feller

+Tree Sparrow => 64, 51% of target

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.

Dalbeath Marsh LNR

Beautiful morning in the Kingdom of Fife. Dalbeath marsh LNR returned 24 species, including Lesser Redpoll - new for my reserve list, and another GBB north, this time on it's own. Not much Herring Gull movement this morning but there was what seems to be a usual flow of Woodpigeon NW (c.120 this morning). Tufties reached a new high of 10 despite partially frozen water. I remember February to be the peak month at Cullaloe too in previous years. Be interesteing to rake over those old records from yesteryear.

Also some finches going north quite high - a few Chaffinch and Greenfinch - local movement or genuine movers? Not the first time or place I've seen this Greenfnch movement north in the start of February.

A couple of roe Deer pranced about amongst the newly planted trees - the farmer will not be happy!

Lothians at sunrise

Run Bambi, run!

Not the best pic, but you get the idea

Master of all he surveys

Will they really be able to breed here I wonder

Tufties reach double figures

Cullaloe Ticking Over

With so many common species outstanding it would have been hard to fail with Cullaloe at lunchtime. Buzzard and Rook finally made their way onto the year list taking the total to 42 (and 42%).

Fieldfares remain in the area feeding on the stubble field, and a few Stock Doves too. It's hard to move these days without seeing Roe Deer, which I have seen at all three patches this year.

Stock Dove at Cullaloe LNR

Fieldfares over stubble field

Deer deer

Actually from HOB, but I like the photo!

Divit delivers

Cracking morning at Inverkeithing with a cold but sunny start at 7:55. Top of the bill has to go the Crossbill which kindly called as it flew over my head going SW. A Razorbill put in an appearance - first auk of the year (but no sadly Little Auk remains off the list), and the wonderful sight of Fulmars rising and falling like a cloud off the islands at the bridge, with apparently more joining from the east. One of my favourite seabirds as they fly close and eyeball you from a clifftop. So three new species added to the patch list brings up 62 - almost half way!

Bright morning over the capital

Feral love - 2 "checkered" type pigeons

Fulmars (honest)

Little Grebe (GC? lot of white) lying in state at Stone Marine

+3 => 62 species, 49.6 %

Inverkeithing Goldcrest and Collared Dove

45 mins at Inverkeithing with "the usual suspects" then in 60 seconds walking back to the car Goldcrest and Collared Dove. I'm sure I could have found one if push came to shove., but I've only had one or two Goldcrest records in the last two years so it's a good one to nail. 23 Mallard was a pretty decent number. Half expected some Wigeon with the freezing weather, but not to be.

Welcome back!

Mallard

#56 for the year, handsome devil

Inverkeithing, 56 species, 46%

LBBs at last

Finally Inverkeithing was graced by the presence of a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, lifting the total to 54 species. A slight snowfall put me off taking the scope out but in the end there wasn't anything that had a hint of otherness about it anyway.

Since I'm on my way to Turkey shortly, here's one of the rarest birds I've found there, and one of the most beautiful duck species into the bargain:

<<
Common Eider Somateria mollissima
Vagrant. Fifth to ninth records in Turkey. All records have been since 1975, when the
species first bred on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast; the population reached over 1000 pairs
in the mid-1990s and was still increasing and expanding in 2000 (Dutch Birding 23: 354).
Black Sea Coastlands: Riva, north- east mouth of the Bosphorus: eclipse male and two
immatures, 8–14 Sep 02 (KA Boyla, B Demirci; Sandgrouse 25: 158, where listed solely for 8
Sep); 2, 3 Jan 04 with one until 22 Mar 04 at least (S İsfendiyaroğlu et al; Sandgrouse 26: 167);
nearby, 25–26 Sep 05 (E Yoğurtçuoğlu, B Bilgen; Sandgrouse 28: 95). 3, Kızılırmak Delta,
16–17 Dec 2005 (S Bekir, N Yavuz; Sandgrouse 28: 191, where listed only for 17 Dec).
Thrace: Terkos Gölü, 8 Dec 02 (M Bozdoğan, S İsfendiyaroğlu; Sandgrouse 25: 158).
>>

From OSME, "Turkey Bird Report 2002–06", Kirwan et al

Mine was a female on the Black Sea coast at Karaburun 19/12/2011. There seem to be multiple records annually now

Patch tally so far

So after another weekend passes what are "the scores on the doors"?

Cullaloe - 34 species, 34% of target, 35 pts

Inverkeithing - 55 species, 44% of target, 59 pts

Hill of Beath - 43 species, 61% of target, 45 pts

Seems like Cullaloe is way behind, but it already has two bonus birds. It will pick up the regulars along the way. Inverkeithing is about in line with last year, with absolutely no bonus birds whatsoever, while Hill of Beath probably needs a new target having already done rather well and having scooped Waxwing at the weekend along with the more expected Woodcock. I'm now hoping for more like 80-something species realistically, but with any sort of vismig at all it could even make 100.

It was nice to get those Waxwings, but who could argue that these fine chaps aren't just as dashing:

Back garden exotica

After yesterday's ID fun I resolved not to find anything interesting today unless it was more straightforward. I think this will do...

Cuddyhouse Rd waxwings, overlooking the M90

Was it south or north?

On my way to check if there were any geese or swans in the flooded field on my 3rd patch I saw this flock of birds in the treetop. Expecting they would probably be Fieldfare, which I already recorded in the area, I was delighted to see I was wrong. Completely unexpected bonus bird and a first for my home patch.

Also added five species to the Cullaloe list (+Water Rail +Goldfinch +LT Tit +Yellowhammer +Stock Dove) prior to this, so a good morning all round.