Well, thought I should try to get to the park and see if I could find something to get the total to 130 before the 2nd anniversary of the park opening on 18th January. As the forecast was very good I got up early and was at the park from around 8:10. Had a wander around in the sunshine. The park is looking very yellow with a carpet of 1000s of Buttercups over large areas including one of the cow fields. Hardly any bees at all though (saw 2!). More butterflies around than bees.
The tide was quite far out but as I walked along the path towards the river from near the hide, I caught sight of a white bird flying away, so quickly fired off a sequence of photos. An egret, but the photos weren't conclusive enough when viewed on the camera screen in the strong sunlight to be sure which it was, and with nothing alongside it, all I could be certain of was that it was indeed an egret. Later on the PC at home, the yellow-ish feet were more obvious, showing it to be a Little Egret (of which there have been a few around the east coast of Scotland recently). The bird seemed to be heading towards the Tay but despite lots of searching through the gulls, shelduck and herons out on the mud there was no sign of it. the local recorder, Jon Cook, showed up later with a scope but we still drew a blank. Lots of Swifts above the park (in the region of 100?) with a few House Martins and a Swallow or two.
Managed 40 species in all with plenty evidence of breeding (beaks full of food and a few youngsters too).
Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard (1), Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Collared Dove (1), Common Gull, Cormorant (2), Curlew (4), Goldfinch, Great Black Backed Gull, Great Tit, Grey Heron (4), Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel (1), Lesser Black Backed Gull, Lesser Redpoll, Lesser Whitethroat (2), Linnet (2), Little Egret (1), Long Tailed Tit (4), Mallard, Mute Swan (2), Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail (1), Feral Pigeon, Shelduck, Skylark (1), Song Thrush (5), Starling (30+), Swallow (3), Swift (c100), Whitethroat (5), Willow Warbler (2), Woodpigeon, Yellowhammer.
(Young Shelduck (5), Long Tailed Tit (2), Goldfinch (1), Whitethroat (2)).
Found a dead mouse on one of the paths which was a new species of mammal for me at the park.
130. Little Egret