Beath 80

Stepped out of the house this morning to the silvery twitterings of a flock of Waxwing - 43 I make it from the photo. They were a bit flighty and it was still dull and snowing a bit. But this is still the biggest "Waxwing event" I remember in the local area. The third flock that has been seen here in 2013, there's a fair chance that all of these are different birds, with a lot of mobility around the UK and even Europe evidenced from recent colour ringing in Aberdeen.

But the bigger (yes, even bigger!) news of the morning was the arrival of 20 Teal on the Keirsbeath drainage pond, meaning that I have already met my target of lifting the Hill of Beath list to 80 before even the end of February. Who knows what the end result of this will be. The year list also goes to 56 and makes the target of 70 look fairly pessimistic. Based on the fact that both Inverkeithing and Cullaloe, which are quite known quantities, are both on 54% of target this means that the year total could end up more like 100. If that does prove to be the case then some very interesting records are in store!

Teal finally show to make 80 for the Hill

Do they ever get boring? Not for me

The M90 northbound

Part of a flock of c.170

Tufties 13 at Dalbeath Marsh: making some interesting sounds

Bread. Give me bread now!

Not a flycatcher

Teal Time

Nice early start allowed me to drop into both Cullaloe and Inverkeithing this morning, where Teal were the main feature of the day. The normally skulky collection of Teal at Cullaloe were instead out in full view on the pond and uber-active. Some seemed to have paired off already and stood apart from the crowd, while unpaired males swarmed around available females and displayed. Their head display is so quick that it's hard to catch in a photo, pushing their head forward and up before whipping it backwards, all in a fraction of a second. One female At Cullaloe paddled round in circles as drakes flew in front of one another to get her attention. This scene was also playing out at Inverkeithing when I arrived there.

Nothing appeared to be actively migrating especially, an a Dunlin count of 40-odd was as good as it got. While some gulls loafed around there wasn't anything of note.

Loafing Herring Gulls

Common Gulls

Black-headed Gulls and Dunlin

Dunlin

Teal in typical Inverkeithing setting

Look at me! Look at me!

Another suitor

Unusually approachable Redshank

Domestic exotica

Oh, what a Beautiful Morning

Woke late at 7:30 to an already bright day (sunrise 7:40) and managed a first for the year - visiting two patches before work. Glorious sunshine and not too cold either (4-5 degrees).

First up was Dalbeath Marsh for a quick check - really I'm just looking for any drop-ins on the water, and the only thing of note is a new high for Tufties at 13. Coot and Moorhen continue to prepare for breeding and 4 pair of mallard could produce a result later. The Mute Swans were back again but I can't believe they'll breed successfully - this is a reserve which has as residents three footballs and a computer monitor - in the water, and disturbance must be enormous. Let's see.

Tufties new high of 13

Likely breeding candidates you would think

On then to Inverkeithing to see if anything interesting had turned up on the river. It hadn't, but the nice weather feeling was shared by a number of singing species and a sense of urgency amongst the feeding Dunlin in the harbour - 38; not a bad total. Teal had also increased to c.25. Nothing new was added to either species list this morning, but with the great weather I honestly didn't care!

Love is in the air

Feeding up