Kilmany, Letham pools, Mountcastle and Clatto
Started the day off at Kilmany. I arrived in the village at quarter past eight, and quickly located the park where Hawfinch was sighted yesterday. Weather was bright and clear, with a touch of frost. Leaving the car, I found the path that runs along side the park, where an old railway line used to be. The path was well bordered by mature trees from the branches of which many birds were singing. Blackbird, Robin, and wren were well represented, but the dominant presence was that of Chaffinch. I scanned the treetops for Hawfinch, but there was no sign. I did find a single male Bullfinch though that I got a few nice pictures of (see attached).
As I moved down the path, a woodpecker drummed nearby. Five minutes later, I sighted what was probably the drummer and definitely my first Great Spotted Woodpecker of the year. With no sniff of a Hawfinch, I decided to head off to my next site.
By nine o'clock, I was pulling into the side of the road that runs between the Letham pools. The first thing that became obvious were Geese. There was a flock of Greylag, sixty eight strong on the field between the main A92 road and the south pool. But that was nothing compared to the one thousand plus Pink-Footed Geese in the field to the east of the north pool. Also present among the Greylag, was a single strange looking goose that appears to be a Barnacle x Greylag hybrid (Is that two ticks or none???)
On the waters themselves, it was pretty quiet with Mute swan, Teal, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot and Moorhen making up the numbers. A handful of BHG cruised the margins, and a LBBG stood on a fence post out in the middle of the north pool.
In the field a little west of the P-F geese, a flock of over one hundred Lapwing were the only waders present, except for a flock of ten Curlew that flew over.
One of my targets today was to try and find the American Wigeon that had been at the nearby Gaddon Loch just over a week ago. With that in mind, I decided to make another quick change of site. This time I headed to the adjacent Mountcastle sand pits. Parking at the main gate off the A92, I headed into the wooded surrounds of the handful of lochs that make up the old Mountcastle quarry workings. In among the Birch and Alder, I started adding birds to the list, with Coal Tit and Blue Tit being new entries, with the Great Tit count also increasing. A Dunnock also became a first for the day, and soon after, a pair of Reed Bunting were entered into my notebook. Chaffinch were again very evident.
As I moved around one of the waters, I bumped into an older gentleman who advised me that there were Siskin about. It was evident from the way he spoke that he was an experienced birder, so I set off with a new target. I found no Siskin, but as I headed back along the path I had taken, I found the fellow birder again. This time I had a longer chat with him, and he revealed that he was netting and ringing birds in the area for the BTO. He took me along to his net, just a little way away, and we found a female Chaffinch that was duly ringed and released.
I headed off now in another direction. Out of the woodland and across some grassland, to inspect the occupants of some of the smaller pools in that direction. The wildfowl count increased, but the only new list addition was a Little Grebe.
Returning to where I had started, I again found the BTO rep. This time, as we chatted, he picked up the sound of Siskin coming from a stand of Alder. We headed that way, passing his empty net. No Siskin were found, but we did locate a Bullfinch, and then a Goldcrest. My new comrade could no longer here the Siskins. All I'd heard were Chaffinch, but as we returned to the net, his hearing was vindicated as there nestling in the folds of the mesh was a lovely Siskin - a year tick for me, as indeed was the Goldcrest. With the Siskin ringed and released I bade farewell to my fellow birder and headed back to the car.
Ten minutes or so latter leaving Mountcastle, I parked up at the Wilderness. It was very quiet there. No bird song, little on the water and only a few Lapwing on the grassy areas. I headed off after ten minutes and made for my final site of the day.
Arriving at Clatto Reservoir, I found this water also fairly quiet. I spent an hour walking and scanning. New to the list were a bunch of forty strong Common Gulls, a Herring Gull, a couple of Tree Sparrow and lastly, a fly over by a pair of Pied Wagtail. With the temperature dropping, I decided to call it a day.
No Hawfinch and no American Wigeon, but still a really good day.