I went up to Fife for the first time this year last weekend. I would normally go earlier but I've been a bit busy. As ever birding was not the primary reason for going up, but seeing as I was there. I didn't actually book it that long ago, and as I'd muted the various birding WhatsApp groups I hadn't really been particularly aware of the kind of winter they had been having. About two weeks before I went I idly scanned some recent messages and was blown away! There was an influx of White-billed Divers all around the coast, with a number seemingly now hanging around in the Forth. Wow! As far I was aware WBD has only been seen very infrequently, with a couple of records from Fife Ness and then I think a bird in Largo Bay, both when I wasn't in Fife. Would they stick?
More importantly, would they survive? As the days went on more and more reports of tideline corpses of White-billed Divers started popping up on the group. Clearly they were so battered from whatever inclement weather had pushed them down here in the first place that they were extremely weak. Reports seemed to indicate that they were able to feed, so perhaps an indication of disease, coming into contact with birds that live in colonies, the dreaded avian flu? Casualties were not restricted to White-billed Divers however, there were lots of Auks and other birds as well. But with a finite number of WBDs on offer I was selfishly (shellfishly?) worried they might, er, run out before I got there.
A couple of days before I flew yet another dead bird was found on the Eden estuary, but there seemed more positive news from the other side of the county where three birds remained in the Forth, regularly being seen off Inverkeithing. I arrived on Thursday evening and worked on Friday with no time to get out, but come Saturday I found myself at Port Laing looking at a dead flat sea. And bang in the middle of my scope was a White-billed Diver! A second was a little further out, and further still was what I strongly suspected was the third, but this one had to go down as Diver Sp. What a magnificent bird the closest one was though. I've seen just two White-billed Divers before, the first being a twitch many years ago down to Brixham in Devon, and then more recently (but still five years ago) a bird that Bradders, Howard and I lucked out on in Shetland. And so here I was looking at two birds at the same time, alive and well. Although that said at least one of the birds seemed to be shaking its head from side to side quite frequently which I am pretty sure is not a good sign. We shall see. I spent a good while admiring them, it will probably be many years before I see another.
My next stop was St Margaret's Marsh just a short distance away on the other side of the bridges. Sat between Inverkeithing and Rosyth I didn't even discover this site until relatively recently. I think I was looking for a Water Pipit but I now cannot remember - I didn't see it, instead I coincided with some Jack Snipe ringers and from a distance saw them miss loads! This morning I was once again looking for a Water Pipit, and indeed it had been reported that morning. Unfortunately it had been reported flying into Rosyth dockyard and it didn't come out again either that morning or during the remainder of my time in Fife. It's back now of course....
Regardless, of the two species I would much rather have seen the Divers and so have no regrets about having stopped off at Dalgety Bay first. I spend the rest of the morning happily birding various sites back along the Forth towards Largo Bay. I stopped at Buckhaven to see if I could find the Stejneger's Scoter or lookalike, but I couldn't reliably call it. The best bird was a really cool Velvet Scoter with a pure white head that made it look a bit like a farmyard duck. Plenty of Red-throated Divers, a single Great Northern Diver, Long-tailed Ducks and a Puffin - this is probably the earliest Puffin I have ever seen. In Largo Bay I think I counted seven Slavonian Grebes and three Red-necked Grebes, and there were loads more Velvet Scoter and other wintering species. I do so like having all this on my doorstep when I am up there.
I stayed in on Sunday morning, the weather was a bit crappy and I had various jobs to do for the aged relatives. I also caught up on writing up all my wine notes from the prior week which had been quite heavy - around 40 notes written. When I am finally incapable of writing anything I will look back at my full output and marvel at how prolific I was, and none of it for work which insists on crisp bullet points and nothing floral. I'm good at that too, but I prefer this. It must be hundreds of thousands of words, possibly millions.
My first stop was Angle Park where nothing was happening. The water levels both here and at Letham Pools are extremely high, I would be surprised if either site gets a single wader this spring. I spent the rest of the afternoon at Guardbridge chatting to Malc whilst we searched in vain for an Iceland Gull that had been there the day before. Plenty of birds around, a Black-tailed Godwit alone amongst Redshank and Dunlin, and a single Slavonian Grebe in the channel. We reminisced about the Bridled Tern day, but most of all Malc sold Lesvos to me. I've never been and want to go more than ever.
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