Smashing it at Letham

I've just spent a few days up in Fife, kind of a pre-Christmas. Whilst it was mainly family-based eating (well, more realistically described as gorging) I managed to get out on Saturday morning. The winds were extremely strong, gusts of 50mph, but the birds didn't seem to mind. It took me all of ten seconds to find the regular Brent Geese at Balgove as they were in a field as I slowed down to park the car. I did stop and have a quick look as these are pretty scarce birds in Fife, very low numbers, but equally they are also pretty site-faithful and thus not difficult to squeeze onto a year list. After a quick look at St Andrews Bay, Rock Pipit and Slavonian Grebe the best, I carried on around the coast to Crail and Fife Ness.

Fife Ness

I'd missed the early morning action, with over 100 Little Auk going past in a strong westerly. Clearly I know nothing about Fife seawatching. Little Auk had been my primary target this winter, a much-wanted new bird for the county, but I was under the impression that a wind out of the north was needed to bring them in and that a strong westerly would produce none at all. So much for that theory. 100 past before 9am! But the post-script on the Fife birding grapevine was that they had really dried up after that. Drat! Still, the wind was still howling and I only needed to see one. I figured that if I sat it out then surely that single bird would duly fly past, and that is exactly what happened, with a solitary Little Auk buzzing north close in. It actually pitched on the water whereupon I immediately lost it in the heavy swell, but a short time later it was on its way again. Excellent. When I later checked my records it turns out I had seen only two Little Auk anywhere ever which is a bit ridiculous. The most recent of these was 14 years ago in Suffolk. I have no idea whether it has been a particularly good year for them off the Scottish coast, but since some of those early winter storms there have been regular sightings, not only past Fife Ness but then subsequently all the way up the Forth. I knew I was in with a decent chance once I got up there and was very pleased to finally succeed. The sea was otherwise quite quiet, the only other bird of note an unexpected Puffin that in my excitable state I initially wondered whether it was the Little Auk I was so desperate to see, but couldn't talk myself into it. And a good thing too as when a real Little Auk came by it was completely different, wings a blur and centrally placed whereas the Puffin's wings were set back quite a way.

I finished my circular tour of Fife at Pittenweem where it took a long time to pin down the now regular three Snow Buntings feeding in the stubble with Skylarks and Meadow Pipits. By this time the wind was perhaps even stronger, and it took several circuits of their favoured field to find them. And of course when I did the second they even raised their wings they were immediately blown to Anstruther! I didn't follow them, and instead headed home for a late lunch. 

It had been an excellent morning, with a Fife tick and three Fife year ticks (165), but my personal highlight had actually been the previous morning when I'd had two new birds for Letham Pools. I've talked about this site before and I've now visited it over 40 times as it's close enough to where my family live to be easily birdable in short breaks and so I make a point of going there as often as I can when I am up. I've not seen any truly rare birds there (unless you count Egyptian Goose!), I always seem to be in London when they turn up, but over time there has been a slow accumulation. And whilst Letham's best years may now be behind us due to the permanently high water levels it can still throw a surprise or two, as it did on Friday morning. Even though it is a tiny site I often stay for half an hour to make sure I have seen absolutely everything, and on Friday morning my first scan through bins had produced nothing more than the regular Wigeon and Mallard, but on my second or third pass a Goosander sudddenly appeared. Followed by two more. I was pretty certain this wasn't on my Letham list and a quick check of eBird confirmed it. Excellent. Some more diligent birding, this time with the scope, picked out a Stonechat in the reeds. I wasn't quite sure about this one - I knew I'd seen Whinchat several times and figured that I had surely seen a Stonechat, but it turned out that this was new as well and that in a quick fifteen minutes of birding I'd got two site ticks.

Goosander at Letham. Pro digiscoping once again in evidence.

I returned on Monday morning hoping for more. This time I'd done a modicum of research and knew what my biggest gaps were. Of course what I was really hoping for was for the Angle Park Great White Egret to have flipped across the road, as it has done a couple of time since September, but I had stopped there on my way and it had still been resolutely in the sedge. The other possibility was the Bittern, surely still in the local area and a true Fife rarity, but a careful scan of the reeds drew the expected blank. But wait, what are these small shapes in this field next to the southern pool? Oh yes, Fieldfare, top of my list of wants. There were somewhere between 35 and 45, hard to say as the field undulates a bit and you can't see all of it from anywhere. The max I counted was 35 so I've gone with that. A careful scan also revealed a few Redwing which were also a site tick, and then best of all a Mistle Thrush in with them for the treble. 

My site list has grown from 91 to 96 in just a few days, remarkable for what is basically a flooded field either side of a small road. You can tell it is not even supposed to be there as the telegraph poles go through the water on the south side, and on the north side there is a fence through the middle. A small reed bed has grown up over the years but it has no depth to it, really it is just the fringes. There is no mud to speak of, or at least not at the moment, but the levels only need to drop by a bit in the spring for it to hold significant promise again. There are hedges each side of the road, filled with Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings this weekend just gone, but the site itself doesn't have much vegetation to speak of, just a few bushes on one side that you can't get to, and I reckon there are perhaps half a dozen trees. Of course my definition of site list means any bird I can see from the road, but nonetheless what initially seems of limited promise has actually been incredibly productive since I first paid a visit in 2020. It is my patch away from home. And as mentioned I've not even seen any of the proper rarities. I missed the Pec/White-rumped double a couple of years ago when there was still mud, the GWE this year has been fleeting, the Bittern even more so, but there still lots of possibilities in my view and all that is required are time and patience. I can't wait to get back there.