Letham and around

 

Letham north pool

So whilst the sea-watching didn't go especially well I managed to spend a bit of time pottering around my usual sites in mid-Fife. I wasn't able to add anything that other people would consider especially tasty at Letham, it's the right time of year but the water levels remain too high for most waders to pay it much attention. But I did walk down the water treatment compound access lane on the south side on the off-chance that there might be some birds on the sunny sheltered side. This is a dead end leading to the gates and I don't go down here frequently as it's a little awkward to get out again in the car, but I reckon I should as it was a hive of activity with loads of Blue Tit, Great Tit, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Wren, and better still Song Thrush and Treecreeper, both of which were site ticks. I literally could not believe it when I raised my bins and saw the Thrush, it has been a target for ages but I assumed I would hear it from afar and perhaps get a scope view. It positively shone on the branch before flitting deeper and away. The Treecreeper (and it turned out there were two) I heard before I saw it, then the desperation of needing to see it kicked in. I could hear it constantly, and then all of a sudden it was in front of me. Wow! Pure magic - the power of a patch. Further down there was another. This meant that I was now tantalisingly close to the magic 100 mark. 

Before this week I had expected that any new birds would have had to have come from the sky - a passing Osprey or something like that, which would need time and luck - but that lane now seemed to hold the key. All it would take is a Blackcap I mused....

Letham south side, from the lane

The next morning I arrived at Letham just after 7am. This time I pulled straight into the lane. As I got out of the car I various small birds scattered. Was I imagining it but could I hear Blackcap tacking? I could! A family group of three in one of the hedges by the road! 100 species for Letham! Otherwise the lane held broadly the same species as the previous day, albeit no Treecreepers or Song Thrushes. I first went to Letham in 2020 and this was my 51st visit. There is a price though - I worked out that I've driven a minimum of 900 miles as part of those visits which is a little sobering. Then again I've driven 6,000 miles to and from Rainham over the years. The way I see it is that I've driven virtually zero miles whilst birding Wanstead, and if Wanstead Flats were the same distance from my house as Letham is from the ancestral pad I'd have driven 25,000 miles. It makes you think though, how many miles do UK birders collectively drive whilst birding 'locally'?

Elder bush marked on the left, the lane to the gates on the right.

Back on the road between the two pools I pointed my scope back at the water treatment plant and zoomed up. Amazingly one of the first birds I settled on was the/a Song Thrush sat on the edge of the main tank! Right, now here's a challenge! You can guess what I mean by that. It took a while but eventually I picked up a female Blackcap in an elder bush - about 300m distant! It is a moot point as the lane is clearly part of Letham as I see it, but it was still very satisfying to be able to see it from where I normally stand. My standard patch inclusion rules are "on or from", i.e. if I could definitively see a Red Grouse on the East Lomond from where I was stood it would be on my Letham list! Whilst on this detailed scan of the south side I also picked up four Grey Wagtail on the rotating arm, four Magpie on the buildings, three Robin, a Blackbird, multiple Chiffchaff and several bright yellow Willow Warbler. It didn't end there though, the 101st bird arrived very shortly as a Crossbill circled the site and then continued south. I'd heard Crossbill in late July down on the coast at Dalgety Bay, and also that very same morning at Angle Park. They are on the move and on reflection I suppose it wasn't a huge surprise to get one here too, even if wasn't on my immediate radar.

So, Angle Park then. This is rapidly becoming another regular site as it is under two miles from Letham as the Crossbill flies and so is easy to combine into one outing. This is where I found a GWE last year, the vanguard of what amounted to an invasion in Fife over the following weeks. It's next to a landfill and is carpeted with Gulls a lot of the time, but that aside it's pretty decent with a lot more exposed mud than Letham at the moment. This delivered a Ruff which was new for the site and I also added House Martin and Canada Goose. Green and Common Sandpipers were here too. I've given up on The Wilderness, the landowner has made it increasingly difficult and you can barely see the water any more. 

As good as Letham and Angle Park are, they're a few miles from the house and when I'm up here this is where I spend most time. So more than a few hours were spent simply skywatching from the garden. Swallows and House Martins were constant, and the odd group of Swift came through as well. On Saturday afternoon my patience and alertness were rewarded by a distant raptor. I was on the terrace having just finished a family lunch, and as binoculars weren't really appropriate in that setting I had to charge into the house to get them. It turned out be a juvenile Marsh Harrier, fortunately moving slowly enough that a 20 second delay didn't prove fatal, and was a great garden tick. A decent bird in Fife as well, but most of my satisfied glow on this visit came from Letham.