Dolphins at Kinghorn

 With a couple of free hours on Monday afternoon, we went down to Kinghorn, to see if we would get lucky with Dolphins. A lot have been seen recently but we haven't had chance to get there with one thing and another.

This time we did get lucky and a pod of 50-100 Common Dolphins passed a long way out heading east before turning around and going back down the forth. The weather though had turned very grey making them very difficult to see and keep track of. In the end both Tina and myself were tracking different groups.

I finally decide to give the camera ago, I apologise in advance the photo's are pretty poor, but for the record:

HMS Dolphin 😂

TTFN

Bits and Pieces

 We have only been out for a couple of short outings this week, the first was just down to Lochore to the hide and NR there, it was pretty quiet apart from a Great White Egret showing reasonably well from the hide:

Otherwise it was just Mallard and Teal on the pool. It was pretty quiet in the wood too, with nothing much to report.

Yesterday we went to Kinghorn for a bit of Dolphin and Whale watching in the Forth, but as usual, they didn't turn up for us although we did get about a dozen distant Long-tailed Ducks, which was very nice, our first of the Autumn.

We popped down to the harbour car park at Pettycur just in case, but again nothing although this Kestrel put on a nice show:

Local Birding (Loch Leven, Loch Ore, Seafield & Kinghorn)

 We are so lucky to have some great places on our doorstep. Loch Ore is a 10 minute walk, Loch Leven is less than a 15 minute drive, then Kinghorn and Seafield are about 25 minutes in the car. So here a few pics from all of those that we visited in the second half of July.

Kinghorn:

We are in process of joining Shorewatch, this is a group of volunteers that monitor Cetaceans  (That's Dolphins, Porpoise and Whales to you and me!) on the east coast of Scotland and Kinghorn is one of the watch points, as it affords fantastic views over the Firth of Forth. So recently we have been going there a lot, but as yet we have come up with no sightings, we have been terribly unlucky as others have seen them at all times of the day! However there is always plenty to enjoy there. Watching Gannets and Terns fishing offshore. The nesting Fulmars on the cliff face less than a hundred yards from where we sit, so we have been watching the chicks grow up from tiny fluff balls to now quite large fluff balls!

A Fulmar on the nest, I have some chick photos still on the camera, so will add those when I get chance in a new post.

Some views from Kinghorn:

Inchkeith Island,

a distant Bass Rock,

and Kinghorn Harbour.

Lochore:

As I've probably said before Loch Ore Meadows is only a short walk from out house, it has a small nature reserve, with a (poorly designed) hide, which we visit as often as we can as you never know what turns up:

A couple of Snipe among the Lapwings. (it was a dull day so the photos are pretty poor)

Lapwing,

Curlew:

Elsewhere around the Loch there's always plenty to see:

Great Crested Grebe,

Greylag Geese,

Black-headed Gulls,

Jackdaw

a young Robin,

Great Spotted Woodpecker,

and a Grey Heron.

Loch Leven:

Loch Leven is big! It's about 13-14 miles to walk around, compare to just 3 for Loch Ore. But we have lots of different spots that we go to around it. The following photos are from the RSPB reserve at Vane Farm on the Loch.

Wild flowers at the reserve,

Orchid,

Goldfinch & Redpoll,

Young Swallow,

Goldfinch,

Little Grebe

That will do for now, I'll do Seafield (near Kircaldy) in the next post!

TTFN!