I'm usually tied up on Saturdays, but as one of the kids had sprained her ankle, and would therefore not need me to transport her to a highland dancing lesson, I decided to take my youngest out for a bit of birding.
It was dry and bright with little wind, so I thought it could be a good time for a try at Hawfinch in the grounds of Scone Palace. We headed off early, stopping briefly at Loch Leven for a quick scan of the calm waters, then on to Scone Palace.
We arrived at the palace at ten past nine. The gates were locked. I had thought it opened at nine, but had miscalculated, as the signage indicated the correct opening time of ten.
With fifty minutes to burn, we headed around to the back gate and parked up. Scanning over the fence, we found nothing, but there was a lot of bird noise coming from deeper inside the grounds. With nothing to see, we drove off slowly down the country road to kill some time. A mile or two down the road, a Jay made an appearance in the roadside trees. A first for my son.
A little further down the road, we came across two birds on the grass verge that I first thought were Grey Partridge, but as we drew level with them, I realised they were Red-Legged Partridge. Another first for the boy, and a year tick for me.
We carried on slowly down the road until it started to pass through some open farmland, where we stopped and turned to retrace our route back to the palace gates. Arriving for the second time, we found the gates open so proceeded to the car park.
Exiting the car park, we picked a route that took us past the palace and away to the back gate. We had not got past the palace, when my young one spotted a bird that he got very excited about. There on the lawn was a Peacock. He was not impressed when I told him we would not be listing it, and he is still declaring it as his bird of the day.
Moving slowly and quietly down the road towards the back gate. I carefully scanned the branches above. I could hear plenty of activity, but saw little until we spotted an upside-down Treecreeper walking along the underside of a low branch.
Reaching the gate, this time from the inside, we scanned the trees for some time, but found nothing. We now headed east, sticking to the main track. There were plenty of Chaffinch around, so when I saw some movement on the ground at the base of a tree, I assumed it would be another Chaffinch. I was wrong. The binoculars revealed the bird to be a Nuthatch.
I have only ever seen one Nuthatch before, and that was thirty-five plus years ago. This was as good as a lifer for me, and certainly a lifer for my young one. The bird kept reappearing as we move through this area, although I suspect there was probably more than one.
Turning south to follow a road that ran back towards the palace, parallel to the road that we had first walked out on, we came across another birder. He bemoaned how flighty the Hawfinch were today. He'd seen about seven, but hadn't been able to get a photo.
As we spoke, my eyes were drawn to movement, as a bird flew across the trail into a tall pine. As I scanned the area it had headed into, I found my first ever Hawfinch sitting on a sunlit branch, looking down at me. I tried to direct the other birder's camera to it, but it disappeared into cover before he could get a photo.
I didn't get my son onto it either, as he had been two busy telling the other birder about his Peacock spot.
Further down the trail, I got a glimpse of another Hawfinch in flight, but as the grounds were filling up with bus loads of tourists, we headed off. On the way back to Fife, we pulled into Erroll, and walked down to the reed beds with Bearded Reedling in mind. We drew a blank, but I was very impressed with my first look at this area.
Heading back into Fife, we made a couple of detours on the way home. Firstly to Kinshaldy, and then the briefest of stops at Letham. There were the expected birds at both, but we had had the best of it in the morning, and were back home before teatime.:t: