Riverside Nature Park, Dundee. (4 Viewers)

That looks suspiciously like the Spotted Redshank you have bang in the middle of your flock photo (the yawning bird). Do you have a photo of it with it's bill closed?

hi barry,the only other pic I could find was one of it sleeping, it certainly does not have a white ring around its eye, interesting update on your blog page, never been to a ringing session myself

Looks good for me, compared to my other photos from Sunday with the bird asleep. The Common Redshanks have a more brownish-grey to their backs, whereas the Spotted is more a cold grey. It is a fairly subtly different shade of grey. (Spotted on left in this photo). The open bill on your original photo does appear to show a very thin bill (black upper mandible too).

it does look a lot greyer cheers for that a new bird for my 2014 list,i checked the lochan area on tues at 4.00pm,no sign of it although the large number of redshanks were present along with godwits and the little grebe,the colour ringed dipper was showing on both sides of the tunnel

Ian Ford again managed to add another bird to the park list today with a not totally unexpected, but certainly welcome, find. A dozen Bearded Tits in the reedbed by Invergowrie Station, seen initially from outwith the park, but later from the hide as well. Takes us to 136 species. Ian also had a probable Rock Pipit overflying which would have given us another one for the list but it didn't quite make the 'definite'.

136. Bearded Tit

Popped down to the park early on Saturday morning in the hope that I might get some vis-mig over. I succeeded with that. Not great numbers (mostly single figures) but good variety of species - 2 Redpoll, 1 Siskin, 2 Swallows, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, c20 Tree Sparrows, 1 Redwing, Song Thrushes, Mistle Thrushes, Skylarks, Meadow Pipits (also Starlings, Yellowhammer and Reed Buntings but these could have been park movements). Surprise of the day was probably the Snipe roosting in the open at the Lochan.

47 species seen in total - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dipper, Dunlin, Dunnock, Fieldfare, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, (Lesser?) Redpoll, Linnet, Long Tailed Tit, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Redshank, Redwing, Reed Bunting, Robin, Siskin, Skylark, Snipe, Song Thrush, Starling, Swallow, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.

re the spotted redshank from the 6/10/14 I have just found a video that I forgot about,the pics below are stills from it,the birds were disturbed by a passing lorry ,the black tailed godwit must have found food that it likes at the lochan its still there feeding alone,another dipper has appeared this one is unringed,plenty of redwings about

That confirms the ID as Spotted Redshank, as I thought. The first photo in particular shows the stronger supercillium and thinner bill well.

I managed a walkabout in the last few hours of light today after the dreaded Christmas shopping spree,its been really quiet here the last couple of months,6 weeks ago they cut the grass really short over 99 per cent of the park leaving it looking bare,the smaller birds went deep into cover at first,the lochan also faired badly with the waders disappearing, today the redshanks were again roosting on the lochan,i counted approx 240,there was a small number of teals 2 mutes (a single mute was on the high tide in front of the hide )in the flood to the left of the lochan a single stock dove was feeding ,not seen one of these for a while,there was also a single magpie ground feeding at the n/e side of buzzard wood,most of the berries have disappeared and only 4 redwings were seen,the trees are all bare now exposing what looked and smelled like a occupied fox den,all the usual smaller birds are around ltt tits/great tits/and blue/robins wrens /chaffinches/goldfinches/greenfinches/song thrushes plus many blackbirds ,2 pied wagtails flew over,i saw several dunnocks here last week but none today,32 curlews were setting up for the night at the dump area along with several oystercatchers plus a too dark to id small bird (probably meadow pipit)only raptor seen was a buzzard ,there has been no activity from the pinkfoots on my recent visits, maybe they are coming in under the cover of darkness

at Dundee city quay a second red throated diver has appeared, it was first reported by stonefaction on the 8/12/14, it was still there today,it is keeping close to the resident rt diver with the damaged wing and at times both birds are swimming close to red breasted mergansers,both the divers and mergansers are not keen on the cormorants ,neither are the coots at keptie pond,i have been keeping an eye on piper dam/clatto park hoping for slavonian grebe or smew ,none seen ,at clatto 14 goosanders were seen on the 15/12/14,at piper dam small flocks of whoopers/Canada geese are there one week then they disappear ,the mild winter might come at a cost ,I don't see that many waxwings but it would be a sad winter not to record any

i parked beside the water pump facility in invergowrie on my travels today in order to have a quick check at the hide area today ,I have missed the tides on all my recent visits and this visit was no different, the area looked bare birdwise ,there was a large triangular sheet of ice on the other side of the pipe next to the tunnel, I noticed a couple of heads moving about and also heard a train coming,experience has learnt me all the birds this close to the track are off instantly, rather than look through the binos I focused my camera on the birds and found 5 snipe, I only occasionally see snipe out in the open like this plus this is my first sighting of snipe in the park :t:from seeing the snipe to them taken off was less than a minute which was unfortunate as a couple had just turned up with cameras

here is pics of the new screen at the lochan

That's a great idea. I'm sure it will be much appreciated too.

i had a walk around the north side of the park this morning,they are laying a new path and are currently working the south area, first birds seen were a pair of magpies groundfeeding behind the trees at the car park,this pair have been at this spot for three weeks,they go to roost in the same trees,they are starting to get a bit bolder,since the lochan has become ice free a lot of birds have been landing here, on the 19/02/15 it was very windy and I counted over 400 birds many sheltering,250+redshanks/90 black headed gulls/30 oystercatchers/a mixed flock of 30 carrion crows and jackdaws were feeding,a small number of teal were also present,today roughly 100 redshanks were resting along with mutes and teals, surprise bird on the lochan was a single turnstone ,another unusual vistor to this small but productive pool of water,a pair of stockdoves have been visiting here again but seem to prefer it when its quieter,the smaller birds are still thin on the ground,chaffinches and goldfinches are heard before they are seen,a grey wagtail has been feeding in front of the hide for the last month,greeenfinches are seen on most of my visits,last Monday I saw a flock of approx. 30 birds flying from buzzard wood which looked like greenfinches but im not certain, highest positive number I have seen is 10,
the last time I saw a redwing here was 16/02/15,the shelducks are swimming close to shore as usual for this time of year but no sightings yet of a lssb gull,other birds seen pinkfoots flying over 35/lapwings2/curlews/cormorants/heron/buzzard/sparrowhawk/song thrush/wren/robin/woodpigeon/mallards/woodpigeon/dunnocks/blue tit/great tit/pied wagtail

Popped down this morning for what was my first visit of the year. Basically a wee recce for the guided walk I'm leading at the park on Saturday the 21st (8:30 start at the car park). Despite the tide being all the way out during my visit, I still managed to rack up 40 species including my first Lesser Black Backed Gulls of the year (more at Swannie Ponds later too).

Species seen - Bar Tailed Godwit (1), Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard (2), Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Curlew, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie (2), Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Oystercatcher, Peregrine (1), Pied Wagtail (2), Pink Footed Goose, Redshank, Redwing, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Shelduck (3), Skylark (8+), Snipe (2), Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk (2), Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.

More detail on my blog later in the week....

I had my first sightings/sounds of skylarks of 2015 in the very dismal weather in the park yesterday,it,s got me hoping there is some good weather around the corner, even if its only on a Monday I would be happy, the single bar tailed godwit is still feeding with the rapidly diminishing number of redshanks in front of the hide,2 pairs of shelducks were getting vocal here deciding who gets what rabbit burrow, robins were also heard calling but the best sounds were from calling song thrushes which are now marking their territories, other calls heard were goldfinch/wren/jackdaw/carrion crow,the pair of magpies were ground feeding on the hill area just to left of the car park,they were quite flighty today,i walked up the hill but they were not keen on showing today,4 redwings flew over here and a single stock dove circled, I found the recently deceased carcass of a toad which looked to have a nasty peck to the back of its head,(40+ carrion crows were feeding here)at buzzard wood there is a small permanent and very shallow pool of water, when it rains this leads to serious flooding ending up with the path being accessible to wellie users only,
the council have built a new path with a high side near the pool,so far it looks like it is working, the bonus is that the shallow pool now has some depth,a frog has been quick to take advantage of this and there is a couple of clumps of spawn in the pool,i cant recall if any amphibians were recorded in the bio blitz but I certainly haven't seen any live one's

Can't recall any amphibians being recorded in the park previously, so frog spawn and a toad are both new for the park, as far as I can remember.

I will be leading a guided bird walk on Saturday morning at 8.30 from the car park (advertised as lasting till 10am, but likely to be closer to 10.30 or even 11am, depending on how productive the park proves to be). Unfortunately the tides are against us (low tide between 9 and 10), but I did manage 40 species with a similar tide state earlier this month, so I expect we will probably get around 30+ species. Fingers crossed for more, including Chiffchaff, and a Jack Snipe would be nice too.

Forgot to post the blog post covering the visit from the 8th, so if you'd like a taster of what may be possible then here you go......

http://stonefactionbirding2014.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/a-dundee-sunday-8315.html

Guided walk this morning was quite successful, with even the weather behaving. Managed 35 species (with 2 seen by others that I missed).

Bar Tailed Godwit (1), Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard (at least 6 high above Ninewells circling up), Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Curlew, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Oystercatcher, Pheasant (female - patch tick for me), Pink Footed Goose, Redshank, Robin, Feral Pigeon, Shelduck, Skylark, Song Thrush, Starling, Stock Dove, Teal, Woodpigeon, Yellowhammer. (also Cormorant and Coal Tit seen by others).

A couple of bumble bees seen too.

1 chiffchaff at the rear of buzzard wood this morning, I saw chiffchaffs at other locations seaton den/craigmill den but heard no singing, the wind was howling right down the middle of the park and the small birds were at the rear of buzzard wood,mostly chaffinches and blue tits with smaller numbers of great tits/long tailed tits/coaltits, goldfinches and dunnocks were chasing each other about,a single song thrush was also here,a buzzard tried to land in the wood but was chased off by the carrion crows, surprisingly the crows don't seem to be that bothered with the magpies, a pair was again hanging around the trees at the car park,the park has given me an opportunity to watch magpies on a regular basis and I would love to see a youngster but im not to sure about them being permanent the wooded areas are quite small and would be easily raided,i thought the wind would have driven a lot of waders to the lochan but only 20 oystercatchers were present,4 teals and a feeding pied wagtail were also seen,jackdaws were collecting nesting material and later a pair of shelducks landed,in front of the hide 150 redshanks were feeding but no other waders were about,i haven't seen a dipper or grey wagtail behind the tunnel for a while but some bird is leaving white deposits on the rocks in the burn,no tadpoles about but there is more spawn about,the temperature is going down to 2 degrees at night, not sure if they will survive
other birds seen

skylark/blackbird/robins/wrens/herring gulls /curlewl/bh gull/woodpigeon/redwings x2/mallards

BTO House Martin Survey

No wish to hijack thread, but would like to reach local birders.

BTO House Martin Survey: Looking for volunteers willing to take on a 1 km square in Angus.

More information HERE

People can either register and select a square online at THIS LINK, or if they are technology challenged, I can do it for them and allocate the square they want. They can contact me by PM.

Please share among your birding friends and forums.

David, may be worth emailing Bob McCurley (or local bird recorder - Jon Cook) who has a fairly large email address book of local birders (via the local bird clubs etc) to ask if he would circulate the request. More likely to get replies than via here, I suspect.