23 - NOVEMBER 2009 BIRD SIGHTINGS (ANGUS)

[Mark Caunt]

Angus Bird Sightings for NOVEMBER 2009

[barry shaw]

ok i will start novembers sightings,had an almost white blackbird in my garden today,at first i thought it was an escaped exotic bird but it was definetly a black bird.This was in tealing at about 10am

[Charles Rough]

1 female hen harrier at kinnordy in front of gullery hide 02/11/09 a lifer for me

[stevendoig]

Woodcock flying over the road three evenings running!!

Back of five, driving through Montreathmont from Montrose.

[RAB]

Chiffchaff, male Blackcap and two Woodcock in Cliffburn Gulley this evening.

[Bob McCurley]

November 5th. 1400hrs. BLACKCAPS 2 Females - GREY WAGTAILS 2 Seen in Craig Milll Den this afternoon.

In total 20 Species seen in the Den , which included above.

[Bob McCurley]

Nov. 7th. 1400hrs. SNOW GOOSE White Morph. 1 Montrose Basin Centre , (On view from centre ) The Bird took off in company with Pinkfeet flying West. at 1440pm.

Also on from the Centre KINGFISHER 1 Immediately in front of Centre . Plus a rare visitor a Male LONG TAILED DUCK


Nov. 7th. 11-30am. SNOW BUNTINGS 7 Seen by Ian Hall in front of ADBC Hide at Lunan Bay
In Bay were - 20 RED THROATED DIVERS - 30 LONG TAILED DUCK - VELVET AND COMMON SCOTER - 27 RINGED PLOVER, and 26 SANDERLINGS

[Roy Adamson]

Taking the dogs for a walk across a wet stubble field, nearly stood on a Jack Snipe which flew off low and landed about 30m away.

[Grant Balfour]

Nov 7th. 10am- Noon
Powmouth.
A walk from the old viaduct along the route of the railway towards Farnell.
A flock of approximately 50 Fieldfare.
Other birds seen included Sparrowhawk, Goldcrest, Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow, Song Thrush, Yellowhammer, Skylark, plus all the 'usual'.

[Roy Adamson]

Kingfisher over irrigation pond near Aniston Mill at 11am this morning.

[Barbara Grimmond]

3 long tailed tits on fatballs at 4.10pm today. First we have had this autumn.

Also great spotted woodpecker on both fat and peanuts, first for a few weeks.

[Bob McCurley]

Nov. 8th. 10am. FORFAR LOCH - 45 GADWALL- 300 +TUFTED DUCK - KINGFISHER 1 DABCHICK 22

KINNORDY - HEN HARRIERS 2 Ringtails - TEAL 80 - WHOOPER SWANS 10 SHOVELLER 10
SPARROW HAWK 2 KESTREL 2 BUZZARDS 2
LINTRATHEN - CANADA GEESE 320 - GREYLAGS 50 - GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER 2
PLUS TEAL , WIGEON , DABCHICK , GREAT CRESTED GREBE ,

Above Highlights all seen on the ADBC. November /Angus Lochs outing

[Bob McCurley]

NOVEMBER 10TH. 1400HRS. KINGFISHER 1 On Island Pond at Monikie Country Park

Also present - 15 POCHARD - 5 CORMORANTS - 10 GOLDENEYE. 50 COMMON GULLS - 25 BLACK HEADED GULLS

[Nicola Main]

Yesterday at about 4.45pm, just as it was getting dark, thousands and thousands of geese flew over our house. The Rooks and Jackdaws were also flying over heading to their roost but the geese were unbelievable. I'm not sure what species they were but they just kept coming and coming (they were heading south-west so presumably heading to Vane Farm?).

Today, had a pair of Blackcaps in the garden.

[stevendoig]

Good session at Kinnordy this morning.
40 Species seen. Including

13 Whooper Swan
18 Siskin
2 Redpoll
70 - 100 Fieldfare (They were feeding in a large area and it was hard to count!)
3 or 4 Redwing
6 Bullfinch
Over 12 Reed Bunting (Which I thought was noteworthy!)
2 Snipe.

Very large numbers of most species. In fact I've never seen so many songbirds at Kinnordy before!

[Bob McCurley]

NOV. 11TH. 12-30PM. GOLDENEYE 2 ( unusual in Bay ) LONG TAILED DUCK 35 EIDER 6 - VELVET SCOTER 40 COMMON SCOTER 30 RED THROATED DIVERS 15 - CURLEWS 39 ( a very high count for here ) SANDERLINGS 17
RINGED PLOVER 26 - OYSTERCATCHERS 2 - GREAT BLACK BACKED GULLS 19 - HERRING GULLS 85 COMMON GULLS 40- BLACK HEADED GULLS 45 ( 4 OF THE BLACK HEADED WERE OILED ! )

[Bob McCurley]

November 13th 1300HRS. BULLFINCH Male 1 in Craigmill Den , Carnoustie, ( a rarity in Craigmill Den ! )

also in Den DIPPER 1 ( Seen by Nicola Main ) plus SPARROW HAWK and BUZZARD. - pretty quiet.

[Richard Maurins]

Couple of hours at the basin centre,kingfisher put in an appearance,nice views of buzzards,tree sparrows and 19 whooper swans.

[simonbusuttil]

BTO winter atlas work in NO65W this morning produced 16 lapland butings just south of Braehead of Lunan just north of wher the road crosses the railway. A female merlin disturbed then. 120 velvet scoter at the very north end of Lunan Bay this am too

[Richard Maurins]

Early afternoon walk from Corbie,14 oystercatchers,3 curlew and at least 3 stonechats in the gorse on the sand dunes.

[Bob McCurley]

Nov. 15th. 9-45 a.m. SWALLOWS 1 At Monifieth , Tyndal Place - Seen by Graham and I

Nov. 15th, 9-30 a.m. SWALLOWS 2 At Tannadice Church Yard Seen by Ian Hay - Both very Late Sightings

[Hannah Morton]

Report of bittern and kingfisher yesterday morning at Loch of Kinnordy.

This morning a couple of thousand starlings exploded out of their regular roost as a ring tail hen harrier flew over in hope of breakfast.

[Mickey Mellon]

17 Nov 0730 letham Grange grid 632460 Tawny Owl having a good hoot, 18 Nov Boysack Mills
red Leg Partridge still now sign of Purple sand pipers at Gayfield yet, am checking every day

[stevendoig]

Forfar Loch this morning. 39 species including

1 Kingfisher
2 Grey Wagtail
aprrox 12 Redwing
40 -50 Fieldfare
3 Little Grebe
30 -40 Gadwall
1 Tree Sparrow
Kestrel, Buzzard, Wigeon, Teal, and all the usual suspects! :)

[Mickey Mellon]

thur 19 Nov Garden grid 616415 getting regular visit from a pair of Sparrow hawks either sitting on the bird table or the garden furniture. The other day the male came in and fed onsome bread which I found amusing, then decided to have a go at the Pigeons on the bired table. If any can help, am noticing on RM Condor Rooks bringing in cones and what appears to be burying them, then moving away to get another one. Can anyone tell me if this is a common occurance. Many thanks

[Clive McKay]

Dear all

A quick request to everyone to reminad you to have a good look for colour-rings on any Crossbills that you might get close to over the next few months. Lots have been ringed in Aberdeenshire, but all seem to have moved on, probably in our direction. A couple of years ago I had a sighting of an Aberdeenshire ringed Crossbill at Lintrathen - their furthest movement to date (61 km), and there's every chance that the same is happening again at the moment. Birds have been moveing all over the country, so do please keep your eyes peeled.

Cheers

Clive

[chris_taylor]

Thanks to all who helped with counts over the weekend.

IGC - 15th November

29,981 Pinkies roosting on the basin (much higher than this time last year - there must be lots of food about!)

Here are the results from Montrose Basin WeBS on 15th November

Mute Swan 98
Whooper Swan 31
Pink-footed Goose 47
Greylag Goose 2
Brent Goose (Dark-bellied) 3
Brent Goose (Light-bellied) 1
Shelduck 1,191
Wigeon 1,710
Teal 79
Mallard 94
Pintail 21
Shoveler 22
Scaup 62
Eider 1,081
Goldeneye 19
Red-breasted Merganser 11
Little Grebe 10
Cormorant 85
Grey Heron 20
Moorhen 2
Oystercatcher 1,412
Lapwing 26
Knot 42
Dunlin 655
Snipe 3
Black-tailed Godwit 7
Bar-tailed Godwit 87
Curlew 385
Greenshank 5
Redshank 767
Turnstone 4
Kingfisher 2
Black-headed Gull 33
Common Gull 16
Herring Gull 29
Great Black-backed Gull 9
Buzzard 1

[Bob McCurley]

NOVEMBER 21ST. 11-30 KITTIWAKE JUV. 1 ( A late one ! ) Seen at Lunan Bay from ADBC Hide during WEBS, Count


Also present - COMMON GULLS 72- HERRING GULLS 159- COMMON GULLS 72- BLACK HEADED GULLS 13 GREAT BLACK BACKED GULLS 4
SANDERLINGS 26 OYSTERCATCHERS 28 - ( A HIGH COUNT ) LONGTAILED DUCK 15, EIDER 3 MALES, RED THROATED DIVERS 6 , VELVET 25 AND 40 COMMON SCOTER , SHAG 2 and CORMORANT 2
SEA WAS ROUGH !

[Richard Maurins]

Lunch time visit,tide well on the way in,lots of Teal,Widgeon and Mallard in the salt pans,great close up views.A lovely Fox made an appearance,what was interesting was the ducks reaction,none flew off but instead they all followed it,now I understand how those old duck decoy ponds used to work with the golden retrievers.Fox was successful catching mice/voles,so I think the ducks will be safe for now.
One lone Whooper Swan,must have lost it's family,as I thought they always travelled in groups?

[Clive McKay]

55 Crossbills at Lintrathen on Sunday - very noisy when flushed by a Sparrowhawk, but surprisingly unobtrusive when feeding in the tree-tops.

Clive

[Bob McCurley]

November 23rd. 12-2pm CANADA GEESE 144 -- BACKWATER RESEVOIR

November 23rd. 12.00 CANADA GEESE 8 --- LOCH OF LINTRATHEN

November 23rd. 1pm. TEAL 500 - SHOVELLER 20- SISKINS 8 REDWINGS 4 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER 1
Above seen at Loch of Kinnordy RSPB Reserve

[Bob McCurley]

Nov. 25th 1300hrs LITTLE AUK 1 From Westhaven Car Park Area Heading for Carnoustie Bay

Also in small Bay below car park site 7 Wader Species , , 20 SANDERLING, 1 RINGED PLOVER , 2 TURNSTONE. 3 CURLEW , 3 REDSHANK, 12 BAR TAILED GODWIT , 10 OYSTERCATCHERS,

[barry shaw]

26th november 10am
Very unusal today 3 peregrines sitting on the alexander street multis in dundee today,looked like 2 males and a female all sitting on window sills beneath each other,just wish a i had a strong lens camera would have been a nice picture.

[Bob McCurley]

Nov. 29th. 10-30a.m. PINTAIL DUCK 2 Both Male at RSPB Loch of Kinnordy Reserve Kirriemuir

This is an unusual inland record. Seen from the Swamp Hide - Care is needed in approaching the Swamp Hide, due to recent heavy excessive Rain Fall . Tread carefully , Wellies recommended .