Loch of the Lowes and Seafield (Kirkcaldy)

 We took a drive up to Dunkeld and the SWT Reserve at the Loch of the Lowes, bad planning though, we neglected to check if the visitor centre was open and it wasn't!! One hide was open though, so we spent some time in there, but also popping out to check the feeders from time to time.

It was a good job a hide was open because the weather was a lot worse than we expected, very drizzly! So as you can see the light was poor over the Loch, but the Wigeon didn't care,

neither did this Nuthatch,

or the Goldeneye.

Other highlights were Treecreeper and Great Spotted Woodpecker. Sadly the Red Squirrels we usually see there didn't put in an appearance.

A couple of days later we had some errands to run in Kirkcaldy, so went for a little walk along the sea at Seafield. The tide was way out, so all the birds were pretty distant and there was very little activity in the scrub on the other side of the path either. Having said that we were delighted to see three Long-tailed Ducks off shore always brilliant to see.

There were tons of Redshank about, these were a few of them catching the last bit of sun:

as was this Heron:

Other waders seen were Turnstone, some Purple Sandpiper, Oystercatcher, a couple of Black-tailed Godwit and a final flurry from some passing Curlew:

Finally on the way back to car this wild Rabbit posed nicely:

It's been a while!

 Well it's been a very busy summer with one thing and another, so there's been very little time for birding as such. We have been away a few times but not on birding trips. 

We had a spectacular 10 days in Switzerland and we did see some birds on our travels, notably a Nutcracker and Alpine Swift from a cable car near Zermatt and Alpine Chough at Jungfraujoch:

Otherwise plenty of Red Kites seen from the car plus plenty of common UK species.

Back on our home patch we have managed a couple of walks recently, firstly Seafield (Kirkcaldy), this is a favourite walk and one which we have neglected, so it was great to get back there.

Nothing out of the ordinary on a very dull day, but here are a few photos:

There were 3 Wheatear on the sea wall,

Some Redshank,

Ringed Plover,

Cormorants,

plenty of Seals on the rocks just past the tower.

and a Kestrel on the hunt.

Also  seen were Twite, a solitary Curlew, Eider, Sandwich Tern, Purple Sandpiper, distant Gannets, a Fulmar, a Merganser and plenty of Gulls

 

We followed that up with a walk at Portmoak Moss a couple of days later, the highlight was a Spotted Flycatcher who was to quick for a photo and a Red Squirrel way up in one of the conifers munching on cones:

Otherwise plenty of birds about, but all too shy for any photos; Bullfinch, Great Tit, Siskin, Chaffinch, Wren, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, a mass of Swallows by the small car park and a distant Kestrel perched on a tree in the peat bog.

We are off to the Isle of Bute soon so hopefully I might have something to post after that.

TTFN

Loch Leven & Seafield

 Just a short post of a couple of, little sojourns out.

Firstly up to Burleigh Sands at Loch Leven, it was very quiet, nothing much on the scrape by the hide. Funnily though as we approached the hide three Nature Scot wardens arrived on a buggy with tool kits and I jokingly said they've come to demolish the hide, don't know why that popped in to my head, and when we got there, we said can we go in, they said OK, but were there to take the hide down! (To be replaced thankfully!) So we sat in there while they started taking the windows off!

Anyway as I said it was very quiet birdwise.

Just this Goosander

Dragonflies

and Gulls of course,

but the pink foots are arriving!

In the woods we were impressed by this fungi,

Then while we were on our favourite coffee bench, this lovely Treecreeper came to see us.

We also had a short walk at Seafield, where Redshank,

Oystercatchers,

and Ringed Plovers were seen

as well as all the usual Gulls.

Seafield (Kirkcaldy)

 As I missed Seafield out of the last post, here's some highlights from a couple of recent visits.......

Ringed Plovers,

Oystercatchers,

Turnstone,

Starlings,

Sandwich Terns,

the odd Butterfly

and Sparrowhawk.

Latest Walk at Seafield

 On Wednesday after running a few errands in and around Kircaldy we went for a walk along the coast at Seafield. Bit different to running errands in Blackheath!

Birding wise though it was quite quiet, with a distinct lack of waders. Normally we see tons of Redshank, but not one this time, even the Oystercatcher numbers were low, we only saw four or five.

At our first coffee spot just passed the old sea wall, we scanned the rocks and sea, but the only things to see were the usual Gulls, Cormorant, a few Shag and Eider. Having said that a Wren popped up in exactly the same bush as our last visit:

Behind us there were plenty of House Sparrow, Pigeons, Crow and Starling. A couple of Starlings popped down to the beach for a bath:

The Gannet numbers fishing off shore have increased, it was great to watch, and as we got higher along the path past the tower the views were even better. We could also see Auks out on the water at some distance, but without the scope we couldn't identify for certain, but I'm sure there were a mix of Guillemot, Razorbill and even Puffins.

A few Sandwich Terns flew by, close enough to get good views through the bins. So far we had been very lucky with the weather, the rain was sweeping along the Forth and dumping on the Lothian Coast, but it was missing us out, so not wanting to push our luck we headed back and were lucky enough to spot a Whimbrel just by the tower:

This was our first for the year and takes us to 106 species so far. We are heading to the North Coast of Scotland this weekend for a week, for a three times postponed, due to Covid, holiday, so hopefully we will add to our tally. With Puffin, Skuas, Terns and many more besides.

So that will do for now. I will post something again when we get back.

Local Fife Birding.... a catch up!

 I can't believe it's over a month since I last posted anything. It's been a very busy time despite he pandemic, so we haven't done that much birding and consequently I haven't had time either to sort anything out for the blog. So here is a short summary for the last few weeks.

I'll start with a walk at Seafield (Kircaldy) back in March:

Redshank in the Sun

Cormorant

Rock Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Eider

Grey Seals

Yellowhammer

Redshank

Ringed Plover & Turnstones

Juvenile Herring Gull

In addition we spotted, with the scope, Rafts of Common Scoter, three Surf Scoter and some Long-tailed Duck. A grand afternoon out.

Actually I'll do the other bits in a separate post!