Auchtermuchty and Northwest Fife

 Just over a month ago I met a former work colleague at a Fife Bird Club outing to the Torry Bay area; we got chatting and agreed to keep in touch. Since then I have met up with Ewan to explore some of his local patches in Northwest Fife. 

Our first stop was Pitmedden Forest, where we drove up the forest track before walking up an even rougher track to a nearby hillside. This offered us commanding views across the whole of the forested area. The weather was a bit grey, showery and very windy so my apologies for the quality of the photographs, and in particular the shaky videos.

View across Pitmedden Forest

The Forestry Plantation at Pitmedden

This type of Forestry Plantation consisting mainly of non-native coniferous trees can (when established for a few decades) provide a good habitat for certain species. Birds not often seen in lowland, deciduous woodlands can be found in such plantations, this includes Crossbill, Goldcrest and the very elusive Goshawk.

Unfortunately we did not see any of these birds from our vantage point, just some Crows, Chaffinch and a wandering Buzzard. We decided to head back down the hill towards the forest:

Heading down from the windy hill

Ewan enjoying the sunshine (if only!)

Walking through the forest you get an idea how gloomy the weather was, it was quite dark amongst the tall trees:

Track through Pitmedden Forest

Some light breaking through

 Along the track we saw very few birds, it was like they were all keeping warm and dry somewhere (lucky them). We did find some evidence of the resident Red Squirrels though:

Something has been nibbling the pine cones

Classic Red Squirrel snacking evidence

We carried on along the track until we reached a clearing that held a ponded area; maybe we would have better luck here.

Pond at Pitmedden

Trees surrounding ponded area

Once again there was not a lot to see at the pond (apart from lots of Frog's spawn) and little on the surrounding reedbeds either. We turned our attention to the trees on the other side of the ponded area and we were lucky to see a small flock of finches moving through the tree-tops. We were even more happy to identify these as a flock of Crossbills, with a mixture of male (orange-red) and female (olive green). I did get a shaky video of them but it's pretty poor:

If you know what you are looking at you can still identify them, even on this shay video.

It was starting to rain, so with Crossbill in the bag and little prospect of seeing Goshawk we decided to walk back to the car and head to our next 'local patch'.

Next stop was only a mile or so along the road, it was a visit to Auchtermuchty Common, in particular the area called The Whitefield. This is former 'common land' to the north of Auctermuchty which is now run by a trust and maintained by volunteers. It is basically upland meadow which has been overgrown with Gorse bushes due to lack of grazing. Ponies are being used to graze some areas now and Gorse is being removed; which has led to a resurgence of wildflowers and the insects that feed on them.

View from The Whitefield at Auchtermuchty Common

Intepretation Board at Auchtermuchty Common

In Spring I am sure that the common will be buzzing with insects and there would be plenty of birds to see, however in early March we were restricted to some Chaffinch, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Crows. We did however see a small group of Roe Deer on the hillside adjacent to the common:

Once again the rain got heavier so we headed back to the car to continue on our journey. We passed through Grange of Lindores and  parked up near to Abdie & Dunbog Parish Church, where we had a spot of lunch in the car whilst the rain did its thing. After a bite to eat we braved the weather and walked down to the reedbed area to the West of Lindores Loch. The rain stopped but unfortunately there was still very little to see on the bird front (even though we prayed for a Marsh Harrier).

Back in the car we made our way round to the other side of Lindores Loch, parking next to the Fishery Hut (or at least in front of the chained-off entrance):

Lindores Loch

View from the Fishery moorings

This time there were plenty of birds to see, only problem was it was a bit choppy and some of the birds were quite far away. I did manage to get a video of a pair of Goldeneye:

Many of the birds were congregating on the Southern corner of the loch and were a bit out of reach for my shaky camcorder.

Southern Corner of Lindores Loch

Whilst I was trying to get a decent video of some Goldeneye, Widgeon and Swan a fight broke out between a couple of Crazy Coots:

That's what the breeding season does to some birds, they can get very territorial and it can lead to fatalities.

The nearest bird to me was a rare two-headed Mute Swan sitting at the side of the loch:

Okay! so it was two Swans.................. but it had you fooled for a few seconds.

A little further out on the loch I managed to capture a pair of Widgeon quietly going about their business, always a nice duck to see and I love the whistling call they make (but not on this occasion).

Well that was about it for this trip out, just one last photo looking down the loch:

Lindores Loch

I promise to improve my photography and video skills for my next blog, no guarantee that the weather will improve however.

Take Care

Teddyedward