Scone Palace

Scone Palace was great afternoon out, despite the lack of benches on the estate,  our main reason for going was to see the Snowdrops, but also knew that there was a "Company" of Hawfinches (yes, that's the collective noun for them!) in the grounds and they didn't fail us, we saw four but up to 40 had been reported. They were staying very high in the trees though, this female posed in the sun;

while this male was awkwardly hiding behind branches;

The snowdrops were magnificent;

Going back to birds it was a good day, with a Treecreeper giving me a very shady photo opportunity;

There were loads of other birds, but no photos I'm afraid; Greenfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Song Thrush and a brilliant fly through, at a rate of knots, by a sparrow hawk with some poor creature in its talons, had no chance to see what it was though, probably a bird!

The grounds has resident domestic Peacocks and Peahens, it would be churlish not to photograph any of them so I chose this Leucistic Peacock.

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!

Local Birding Continued..

 So a couple of other things to add a walk in Blairadam Forest and another at Burleigh Sands at Loch Leven. So on the birding front, not much to report at Blairadam, although a small group of Siskin put in an appearance.

Siskin

Robin

Cessna 152

It was a lovely day, not many birds, so I added the Cessna that flew over while we were having a coffee!

So on to Loch Leven and the walks around Burleigh. 

From the hide:

Cormorant, Black-headed Gull & Common Gull

Nice View!

Fly by from the nearby Gliding Club

Grey Heron

Chaffinch

Tree Pipit

Treecreeper

Burleigh is a great place for birds and a great (flat!) walk. Although it was quite quiet with a bit of as flurry at the end. The Tree Pipit was just in the copse by the car park and the Treecreeper was on a tree just 3 feet from the car as we got back!

A Muted start to February Birding here in Fife!

 We have struggled to get out birding since the beginning of the month! Firstly we had 5 days of continuous heavy rain and strong winds, which meant that going out walking was no fun, this has been followed by sub zero temperatures and heavy snow, the paths around are about 2 foot deep around where we would walk. Today is lovely and sunny but we have decided to stay put and follow the travel advice and stay at home. Hopefully with improved weather we can get out walking again.

I have cleared all the snow from the drive and our footpath, put water and food out for the birds and will wait to see what turns up! If anything, just a Magpie and Robin so far!

So in between rain and snow where have we been?  On the 1st we managed to get up to Loch Leven and try a new walk (Findatie) It was brilliant, another one added to the list to take people to when it's allowed.

There were tons of Greylags in the fields, as we walked down from the car park, then once we crossed the river, we had Goldcrest and at least 6 Treecreepers, one of which gave me a fairly decent view;

We walked to the hide, but the pool in front was completely frozen, so nothing on there, but outside the hide in the woods, it was pretty busy with Long-tailed Tit;

Goldfinch, Treecreeper, Buzzard, Blue Tit, Great Tit and our first Redpoll of the year, judging by the colouring I think this is a Common Redpoll and not a Lesser, but if anyone who knows actually reads my blog, I'm glad to be corrected 😅;

We walked back at this point, as the weather was looking grim and there was snow in the air, we carried on to Leven Mouth just below the car park, found a bench and finished our coffee, with good views over the Loch. There were a load of Pochard down this end of the loch;

Plus Little Grebe, Goldeneye, Mallard, Grey Heron, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan and a Goosander.

With the continued rain after this we were going stir crazy, so on the 4th decided on a little drive along the coast, without leaving the car. No photos from this as the weather was just too bad, but we did find some Slavonian Grebe sheltering in Dalgety Bay.

Our final bit of exercise before the snow, was gain at Loch Leven, this time back to another favourite, Burleigh Sands, it was though bitterly cold and we did get caught in a Blizzard. So we didn't venture to far.

The highlight was a sheltering Kestrel above the path:

Believe it or not this was the Loch just before the Blizzard!

So hopefully next week will be a bit warmer and better underfoot, so we can get out.

Haden Hill Park & Corngreaves NR

We took advantage of a bit of late afternoon sunshine yesterday and went for a quick walk up through Corngreaves NR up to the Park, around the Lower Pool and then back down through the NR.

The walk up to the park was very quiet, we hardly saw anyone which was unusual, we guess the muddy paths had put off the dog walkers. So we might have expected lots of bird activity, but we only saw Woodpigeon, Blackbird and Robin, so we thought another walk without seeing much.

We paused briefly at the pool, where there were only Mallard, Black-headed Gull and Coot. A few Blue and Great Tits were flitting around the trees and a solitary Chaffinch was hanging out on a branch. So disappointed we walk back through the reserve, along the river. Then as we approached the first steps that dropped back down to towards the river, we had a flurry of activity.

First a large group of Long-tailed Tits turned up with Blue Tit and Great Tit in tow, we watched them for a little while, whereupon a Treecreeper was spotted;

The light was now fading so the shots very grainy. The Treecreeper flew off, but was replaced by a Nuthatch;

We were very happy with the turn of events, which was then capped by a Goldcrest up high in the trees;

It was excellent 15 minutes of birding and well worth braving the mud!

First Visit to Upton for 2018

Had a very pleasant but very cold afternoon at Upton on Thursday with out friends Tim & Wendy.
We started at the flashes, parking at the Sailing Club, the Sailing Club, as we walked down the steps onto the reserve, this little chappy presented itself;
Goldcrest

followed quickly by this one;
Wren

then a few yards further on;
Treecreeper

A great start! We carried on down to the main hide overlooking the flashes. There were about 300 (according to the log book, I didn't count them) Lapwing about, at one time they were spooked and all took to the air,

It was fairly quiet and cold! We did see three Snipe settled down on one of the scrapes, not showing that well. Otherwise there were plenty of Teal about,

but not much else. A Buzzard did put in an appearance and moved from fence post to fence post over the far shore before disappearing. So after an hour or so and a coffee we ventured over to the Moors Pools, we checked out the new hide, very nice, this was our first visit since it opened, although at this time of year there wasn't much to see, so we carried on to the top hide and had a late lunch and more coffee.

I was please that the Whooper Swan was still there as this was a first for us at Upton. We added to our duck tally, with Shoveler, Shelduck, Pochard and a solitary Tufted Duck. Like the Flashes earlier there were also plenty of Teal and Mallard about. There were also quite a few cormorants too.

The light at this stage was very poor with the sun dropping in front, so I didn't bother with any photos from here. We had planned to go over to the other side of the Moors to the concrete hide, but with the light fading and also because we had got very cold sitting around we decided to head home.

A quiet but lovely afternoon was had and a good start to our birding year.

RSPB Nagshead

At the end of our wonderful trip to Somerset and as we had to be out of our digs by 10am, we took the opportunity for a detour, crossed the Severn (paying an extortionate £6.70 for the privilege) and ended up at RSPB Nagshead in Gloucestershire (just!) luckily we still don't need passports for Wales, but with the way this barmy country is going who knows what the future may hold.

So we arrived at a very quiet Nagshead visitor centre, that was closed, we then discovered it only opens weekends and bank holidays! Hey ho!

We took the short walk up into the woods to the Campbell Hide, this overlooks a pond in a woodland clearing, we were surprised how busy the hide was as there were only a few cars in the car park. We had a great hour in here, with many fledglings coming down to the water for a bath and a drink, I didn't take any photos here as although warm it was overcast and the hide is raised very high above the pond, so I would be shooting into very poor light.

We did however see, Nuthatch, Long-tailed, Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Blackbird, Chaffinch and Spotted Flycatcher. One eagle eyed chap saw a Pied Flycatcher, but we couldn't find it, a shame as that would have been a new species for us, it's one of those birds that keeps eluding us. One day.

After a while it all went very quiet and we got chatting to the locals, (I have to say I could hardly understand a word, thick west country accents) But Tina got the gist of it and it persuaded us to walk down to the Lower Hide, we had intended to head home after coffee and lunch. But the chance of a Redstart made us stay longer.

So we took the 15 minute walk down, seeing Wren, Blackcap and Song Thrush on the way.

This hide was quiet we were the only ones there, brilliant just the way we like it, sorry to be so anti-social. Tina quickly spotted a Kingfisher at the big pond below us, it kindly put in a few appearances, but never showed that well, as you can see for yourself.

A female Redstart then arrived,

we were pleased with that one. First one this year and only the third time ever. A Great Spotted Woodpecker then turned up way to the left of the hide,

not the greatest of photos. This was followed by a Jay and great views of a Treecreeper or two.

It was certainly turning into a great visit. Then came our star of the show a male Redstart,

he stayed well away from the hide unfortunately, but you can't have everything. He was busy for a while catching various insects and we took this as the time to leave and go home. Always best to leave on a high.

So Nagshead a great place and I'm sure we will be back sometime.