Japanese Gardens - Cowden

 Last week we went with our good friend Val to the Japanese Gardens at Cowden, just 20 minutes away from us, what a beautiful place. We just went for a stroll and to see what it was like, didn't expect any birding, but was delighted to see:

Plus the gardens were pretty nice too!

Seafield & Loch Leven (Findatie)

 So still catching up with photos and all that. Another couple of outings earlier this month were another walk at Seafield towards Kinghorn and a walk from the Findatie Car park at Loch Leven.

So starting with Seafield, offshore birding was much quieter with only Eider and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers being seen, apart from Cormorant and Gulls of course, here's an obliging male Eider that ame in close:

Also we had a good display from a Wren while we were sitting having a coffee:

As usual nice views of Redshank, Curlew and Ringed Plover, we did see Turnstone, but sorry no photographs and for the first time we didn't see any Purple Sandpipers.

Ringed Plover

Redshank

Curlew

Curlew

Along the way we the only bird to pose was a male Reed Bunting, but even then he turned his back to us!

After our walk we just popped along to Kinghorn and found the nesting Fulmars;

So onto Loch Leven, this was only the second time that we walked from the Findatie Car Park up along the river and across the footbridge. It was certainly a Grey Heron day, we lost count of how many we saw during the day. Here's just a few!

We had a fabulous birding walk plus a bit of aviation too!

Pink-footed Geese

Black-headed and Common Gulls

Pied Wagtail

Son Thrush

Chaffinch

Gadwall

Buzzard

More Pink-footed Geese

Black-headed Gull

Male Merganser

Female Merganser

Robin

and our first Blackcap (distant!) of the year.

and not forgetting:

Treecreeper

A great afternoon!

Weekly Update: A Coastal Walk and Loch Kinghorn

 It's been an interesting week, we have been limited to where we can go because of the treachorous paths, with the snow going slushy then freezing overnight, turning our local paths into ice rinks! So to get some safe exercise and not burden the NHS further with broken limbs, we headed down to the coast, only a few miles, where it was warmer and not so icy as up in Kelty.

We did slide down to our local patch at Lochore Meadows, but it was pretty quiet as it was so cold,

There were plenty of Greylag Geese about, Goldeneye both on the Loch and the nature reserve pools and Tufted Duck on the Loch.

On another day we popped down to Burntisland Harbour, where we had seen a Razorbill and a Great Northern Diver previously, but not this time. We did see a nice male Eider in all his finery by the sea wall though:

Prior to the harbour we had popped to Kinghorn Loch for a walk and the hope of seeing the Ring-necked Duck, but we had left it too late again and the suns glare on the loch made it impossible to check for it amongst the Tufted Duck.

A couple of photos from the Loch:

A female Goldeneye

and a fly by by a Black-headed Gull.

Another day saw us go for a longer walk along the coast from Seafield towards Kinghorn. The birding was so good it took us ages to get anywhere!

One of the highlights was a 'Sea' Kingfisher:

Another highlight was Tina's favourite Duck, a Long-tailed. Sorry I don't have any photos as they were a way off shore, but we had great views through the scope! It was worth lugging it around.

So here are a few other shots from the walk:

Redshank,

Song Thrush,

Oystercatcher,

Bar-tailed Godwit,

Godwit and Turnstone,

"Tailless" Wren!

Ringed Plover,

Curlew,

Purple Sandpiper,

Stonechat,

Stonechat having lunch!

Stonechat with a full stomach!

Seal,

another Curlew

the view to Inchkeith island

and a solitary Brent Goose.

This walk is definitely going to be a regular thing and for those of you 'booked' in when this damned pandemic is done with, it will be on the list to take you to.