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Eden Estuary News (1 Viewer)

Well as Arkwright might say - it's been a funny old week...
At the start of the week dabbling ducks were the source of interest, with at least 3 wigeon remaining until Wednesday, 6 drake teal on Monday evening and most unusually 4 drake gadwall on Tuesday morning. This is a real rarity for us and our highest ever count.
Speaking of highest ever counts 27 mergansers on Wednesday morning was also a record, with 13 goosanders in view at the same time (now up to 17). There are now 2 shelduck broods around with a new brood of 5. All 9 of the first lot are surviving, which is a surprise. Somewhat bizarre was a lone pink-footed goose on Wednesday evening.
Waders have been putting in an appearance in the past couple of days with a ringed plover on Wednesday evening and 3 last night. They normally stay in the outer estuary and are unpredictable in their occurrence with us. Lapwing, curlew and redshank are reappearing, but a whimbrel last night was most unexpected (is it coming or going?).
Also last night 4 1st summer little gulls appeared on the rising tide, and this morning 6 little terns gave very nice views. Our first of the year so that's 98 - the century beckons.

I've been rambling on long enough.

G-G-Granville f-f-fetch a cloth!

Rob
 
Well we had our hundredth species for the year this evening - of which more later.
It was a quiet weekend, though we did add a duck scaup to the year's list (present on both days). Strangely we see them most often during the summer months when they appear post breeding, presumably having come from Iceland. I suspect this is too early for that however. Also around at the weekend were a single little tern and an adult little gull (both on Saturday). Shelducks seem to be having a good year, as in addition to the first brood of 9 we have also seen a creche of 20. They are starting to suffer a few losses as the 9 have become 6 and the creche looks like about 15. A fox was seen on both Saturday and Sunday and again this morning.

Species 100 for the garden year list was a treecreeper which began in our lone Scot's Pine and then worked its way along our line of poplars. This is our first record since December 2002.

Rob
 
We were away for the w/e, back yesterday lunchtime. Immediately had the frustrating experience of hearing a moorhen - a species not on our garden list. They occur in the ponds at the bottom of our neighbour's land (where they can be seen from the Eden estuary centre), but these aren't visible from our garden. I feel they should come out on the saltmarsh occasionally but no sign yet ...

Last night I saw a whimbrel among increasing numbers of curlew, and yet another shelduck brood - there are now at least 35 young in our part of the estuary.
This morning a spotted flycatcher became species 101 for the year. They aren't at all easy to see in Fife these days, so it's a privilege to be able to see one from the living room.

Rob
 
Evening all,
It has been quite a varied few days.
Wildfowl:
Yesterday we had 3 drake tufties and a drake scaup. There are still plenty of shelducklings around, the first two are close to fledging. We have seen the first brood of eider ducklings of the year (5). Few pairs breed on the Eden, usually with little success. Yesterday we had our highest ever count of goosander - 36.
Raptors/gamebirds:
Saw a peregrine yesterday, the first for some weeks. Last night 2 grey partridges almost came into the garden itself, the first record of the year (species no. 102).
Waders:
A whimbrel has been around for several days now, a particularly short-billed individual. Also present up to 3 greenshanks. Meanwhile lapwing and curlew numbers are approaching 3 figures.
Gulls and terns:
A single sandwich tern yesterday and 5 this evening. A curious gull was in the roost last night, looking superficially like a med gull. It was a leucistic black-head as far as I could tell (it was 10:30 pm).
Passerines:
The treecreeper past through the garden briefly on Saturday morning.

Time for a summer plumage spotshank ...

Rob
 
A good weekend, with wader passage picking up and some good gulls and terns.
Both days featured very high spring tides, which are always popular with us as the birds are much closer to the house.
On Saturday we had 10 greenshanks among more common waders, whilst yesterday there were 14 (a very high count for early July), plus 4 whimbrel and the first returning black-tailed godwit.
Saturday's highlight was a kittiwake - a species we had been expecting but new for the garden list (#129). Also on Saturday we had 2 arctic terns, 4 sandwich terns and our first common tern of the year (104 for the year).
Yesterday afternoon 8 little gulls appeared (4 adult summers), one of my favourite "garden" birds. This mirrors last year when we had a succession of records in early July (high count 45), mostly adult summers.

This morning as I was refilling the feeders I saw a crow mobbing a buzzard, which in turn was mobbing a fox!

Rob
 
Hi all - is there anyone out there?
Trusting that I'm not talking to myself, here's another update from the Eden.
Yesterday we caught up with one of our bogey birds with a stunning full summer plumage curlew sandpiper (130 for the garden list, 105 for the year). Although the Eden is the best place in Fife for the species, last autumn was so poor for them that we failed to see any. It showed really well over high tide in the morning and was still present this morning.
Other wader highlights include 11 greenshanks and 3 bar-tailed godwits including 2 in full summer plumage ("best" we've had from the garden). Other wise it has been fairly quiet but a pair of common terns has been coming upstream with the tide for past few days and a 1st year female peregrine caused panic among the waders on Saturday morning.

Rob
 
Hi Rob

Just thought I'd send this to let you know there are people reading your reports! Sounds like you have a great garden and a good selection of species. I always enjoy watching waders and your area sounds a particularly good one for them.

Anna
 
Hi Rob,

I went down to Guardbridge yesterday afternoon but didn't see the Curlew Sand. The best birds were 2 Little Gulls, 2 Whimbrel and a Tufted Duck! Also had a Short-eared Owl at Out Head last Tuesday - the first for ages.
 
Fifebirder said:
Hi Rob,

I went down to Guardbridge yesterday afternoon but didn't see the Curlew Sand. The best birds were 2 Little Gulls, 2 Whimbrel and a Tufted Duck! Also had a Short-eared Owl at Out Head last Tuesday - the first for ages.
Hi Andrew
Yesterday afternoon it was a bit distant on the north shore, this morning it was on the bend by the Motray confluence.
Didn't see any of your species yesterday! Quite a few whimbrel around at the moment though. Short-eared owl is still missing from the garden list - over the airfield is probably the best bet ...
Anna - thanks for the reassurance!

Rob
 
Last night was a bit of a tern fest, with 4 spp.: single arctic and sandwich, 2 common and, best of all, 10 little (our highest count of the year). Also heard moorhen again (grr!).
This morning 2 new species for the year list (now 107). First were 3 common sandpipers at the mouth of the Motray. We don't see many, as this is as about as far downstream as they ever get and close to as far upstream as we can see! The second new species was a willow warbler on the fence by the drive at a range of about 6 feet - only our second ever sight record (bizarrely).
No sign of the curlew sandpiper but the tide has not been high enough ...

Rob
 
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We had some good waders (for us) on Sunday afternoon's high tide and overall numbers continue to build. Best perhaps were 11 summer plumage knot, our biggest group of the year, but rarer for us were the single turnstone and common sandpiper (4th records of each). Dunlin numbers have increased very sharply, with 214 last night and black-tailed godwits are up to at least 18.
A few "odd" ducks have been around: 2 tufties, up to 14 teal and a drake goldeneye.

Rob
 
A cracking day yesterday, so time for an update:
Gannets have been fishing off the estuary mouth the past two evenings. Evenings are the best time for us to see them as the light is better and there is less heat haze. 25 teal on Wednesday evening is the highest since the spring. Our local buzzards fledged last week and have been much in evidence - the young particularly vocal.
Black-tailed godwit numbers have jumped to 35, all still in summer plumage. Other waders include 12 summer plumage knot, single grey and golden plovers, 9 greenshanks all last night. On Wednesday evening there were 3 whimbrel, following 1 on Tuesday. They seem much more transient than other waders.
Terns have been coming upstream in the evenings this week - we had a record count of 16 commons on Wednesday. They are outnumbering arctic at present, which is unusual. One of yesterday's highlights was a juv great spotted woodpecker on next door's nut feeder (108 for the year). Interesting that it should have learned about nutfeeders already. A family of spotted flycatchers was in the trees and on wires beside the drive yesterday - the first time they have been in the garden and welcome evidence of local breeding.
Saving the best until last, I added a (long overdue) new species to the garden list last night (131, 109 for the year). A female MERLIN flew across the estuary and landed on the edge of the saltmarsh where it remained for 40 minutes giving cracking views. Judging by the pale rump when flew back across to the airbase it was an adult.

Rob
 
Some of the more interesting records over the past few days:
Wildfowl - record count of 37 goosander on Saturday evening and 6 scaup on Sunday evening (first post-breeding arrivals on the same date as last year).
Waders - an astonishing arrival of oystercatchers on Saturday. They were seen by another observer coming in off the sea in flocks in the morning and a large roost formed in the afternoon. I counted 402, far in excess of our usual 50-100, nearly all breeding plumage adults. Also on Saturday a record count of at least 47 knot (all in summer plumage) and 3 ringed plovers. Dunlin numbers have reached around 500 and black-tailed godwits continue to arrive (max. 57).
Passerines - a juvenile wheatear on Friday was presumably a local bird and a willow warbler was on the garden fence this morning.

Still not seen osprey here this year ...

Rob
 
We were away in the Cairngorms (backpacking/Munro-bagging) over the weekend hence the lack of updates.
Last Thursday Sue saw a couple of whimbrel and our first ruff of the year (110). On Friday there was a spotted flycatcher in the garden - we seem to be doing well for them this year.
This week one of the more bizarre occurrences has been a pink-footed goose on the saltmarsh each day. Post high tide yesterday evening there was a stunning summer plumage grey plover (presumably male as it was incredibly bright). This morning there were at least 76 black-tailed godwits (102 were reported on Monday) and 19 little gulls, our highest count of the year.

Rob
 
It's clearly the monsoon season here, the weather has been awful for almost the whole of the past week, though good birds should be dropping out of the sky as I type.
On Thursday the haar was so thick the estuary didn't come into view until late afternoon. However that evening we had a near full summer plumage curlew sandpiper (probably different from last month's bird) and a couple of little gulls. Friday was actually a largely sunny and warm day with the birding highlight being an unprecedented flock of 17 shoveler in the evening. I don't think I've ever seen so many in Fife.
The haar returned on Saturday although the estuary was visible until early evening. Two spotted flycatchers were around in the morning, and in the afternoon a weasel on the drive was a new mammal for the garden. Yet more haar on Sunday with a freshening southeasterly produced a huge gull roost (present each evening since, too) containing at least 6 kittiwakes. Kittiwakes have been seen each day since, with at least 12 this morning. Until this week we had only ever seen one! Also on Sunday there were 2 whimbrels. Little gulls have been seen most days in small numbers. Waders have been hard to come by, but 9 ruff yesterday morning was a bonus. The past three days have seen heavy rain, so with winds still in the east, Fife Ness looks attractive ...

Rob
 
Hi Rob,

Had a few Kittiwakes flying down the estuary yesterday afternoon and there are hundreds roosting at the mouth - all adults. Very large numbers of waders on Balgove Bay yesterday e.g. 190 Knot and an awful lot of Oystercatchers. Also seemed to be a lot of Teal about. You might not have to go as far as Fife Ness for your migrants - I had two Pied Flys on the golf course yesterday. I'll probably nip out again today if it stops throwing it down.
 
Quite a good weekend with our first long-tailed tits of the year (111) and plenty of other good stuff (54 species yesterday)
Wader highlights include at least 9 ruff, a common sandpiper, 6 greenshanks, 10 ringed plovers (I think that's our best count of the year), a knot, 52 golden plovers and at least 127 black-tailed godwits. Kittiwakes are still around - they seem to have had total breeding failure - as are a few little gulls.
Wildfowl highlight was 2 shoveler yesterday afternoon, plus the amusing sight of a group of goosander roosting on a dead tree as it floated downstream on the falling tide. The pink-footed goose remains on the saltmarsh. I guess Canadas will start passing through again soon.
We had some good passerines (for us) too - a wheatear, a spot fly and 2 willow warblers along with the long-tailed tits.
Still no osprey (a recurring mantra!) ...

Rob
 
edenwatcher said:
I'm sure they are still being seen daily from the Fife council hide. Grr.
Well, a morning working at home due to the power being off at work paid dividends with OSPREY at last (112 for the year). Also an astonishing record count of great black-backs (72, previous highest 12!).

We have a huge young (1st summer not juv. I guess) female sparrowhawk with attitude around at present. When crows try mobbing her she chases them!

Rob
 
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