The Fife/Wanstead dilemma

I've got quite a few trips to Fife planned this autumn, a bit of family, a lot of birding, or at least that is the plan. This has been very deliberate, I wanted to try and experience a bit of autumn passage up there, something I have never really managed to do, and so booked a series of visits for August, September and October. My first trip was over the recent Bank Holiday weekend - seawatching! To cut a long story short I bombed horribly. The wind direction was west west west, and weather was distinctly nice. Three mornings at Fife Ness netted a few Skuas, about 100 Manxies, a couple of Sooty Shearwater and little else. On the third morning there was a decent fall of Wheatear, and a Whinchat at my favourite site Letham Pools, but I contrived to miss all the good seabirds at the perfect time of year. 

I probably spent about three hours there the first morning seeing not a great deal, perhaps 50 Manx and three Sooty. In the afternoon a Balearic Shearwater went past. Nice. The following morning I tried again and saw virtually nothing bar Manx. The birder I was with in the hide went to Pettycur Harbour later that day and picked up two Cory's Shearwater together within half an hour of arriving. Excellent. On Monday I hadn't intended to go but a Balearic was seen early doors so I popped over. Nothing, though the Wheatears were nice. For a last roll of the dice I squeezed in an hour and a half between 7am and half eight at Pettycur before work. Nothing better than a couple of Arctic Skuas. An hour later there was a.... You get the picture. And of course once back in London the following week there were good seabirds almost every single day, and as I type the coast at Kilminning has had a substantial fall including Red-breasted Flycatcher, Red-backed Shrike, multiple Pied Flycatchers and a Wood Warbler. This is what you have to deal with when you don't live somewhere that you keep a list for. Grrrrr.

Ideal seawatching conditions

It wasn't all bad. I got a garden tick in the form of a Stock Dove in a stubble field above my parents' house. At Letham I added Great Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker to take my site list to 91, not bad for a small flooded corner of a field. And thanks to the fall on the Bank Holiday Monday I added Wheatear to nearly every site list I keep in Fife. Ultimately though four days at a prime time of year were disappointing. This is just the way the cookie crumbles, but if I keep at it I will get there. I am back there this weekend and am hoping for a change in fortunes, and fingers crossed that at this stage the weather seems a little more promising. It seems a long time ago that I cracked the 200 mark for Fife. Then again, I live in London...

Talking of which all this has meant that the pressure has really been on here in Wanstead. Trying to split my time between here and Scotland means that every day is important. Thankfully I have had a lot more luck locally than in Fife. Before I left for Scotland I had Tree Pipit over the Brooms, and on my first day back I had an absolutely stellar morning on the Flats, scooping both Spotted and Pied Flycatchers. This past weekend a Skylark survey flushed an early Woodcock, and the following day Richard found a Common Sandpiper on Jubilee as well as another Pied Flycatcher. My autumn targets thus fell in just a few days. Apart from Wryneck, more on which later when I have recovered. I am above my average score somehow and have been really enjoying it.