Ferry Hills-Autumn Highlights Part 2

 Passerines 

As mentioned in the August post, it was a relatively poor autumn for the site speciality Tree Pipit. However, the autumn total of 732 birds with a peak day count of 221 on 16th August is nothing to complain about, Ferry Hills is still the best place in the UK for passage Tree Pipits. In 2020 the autumn total was 1486 with a record UK day count of 319. The highest autumn total was 1740 in 2017. 

Meadow Pipit passage peaks later in autumn than Tree Pipit, at the time that passage of the latter species is starting to wind down in mid to late September. This year there was a total of 13,349 with a peak day count of 1841 on 25th September. 

It was a quieter year for finches as might be expected after the exceptional numbers of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll in 2020. 

It was good to record two Hawfinch this year after none in 2020. Ferry Hills has become a reliable site for Hawfinch in recent years with records in four out of six years 2016-2021 (peak annual total 10 in 2018). 

Even when the image is this bad, Hawfinch has a distinctive shape in flight. 

The passerine highlight ( and generally one of the highlights of the year) had to be the massive Redwing passage on 18th October involving 19034 birds. I've witnessed awe inspiring passages of this species before but they were not comparable with this spectacle. Needless to say it was a record site day count, the previous best being  7070 on 19th October 2017.

Its always difficult to capture the spectacle of a large passage of birds in a photo and this certainly doesn't do the redwing spectacle justice. 

Raptors, Waders Ducks.

Ferry Hills never does brilliantly for raptors, many migrant species appear to use coastal points further east on their south bound autumn passage. The patch does have a reputation as one of the most reliable places in Fife to record Red Kite, still a surprisingly scarce species in the county with no records of confirmed breeding yet. This year a single Juvenile was seen to cross the Forth on 10th October. One raptor species that is not scarce as a passage migrant in Fife but is amazingly infrequent at Ferry Hills is Osprey. I finally added it to my Ferry Hills list this year and there were only two previous records seen by Clive McKay/Angus Jennings. An autumn total of 2 merlin was below average (peak annual totals of five in 2017 and 2019). 

Red Kite crossing the Forth in October 2021

The stand out duck record was Angus Jennings 4 Ruddy Shelduck W up the Forth on 1st August, a new species for the patch. Various duck species add to the variety of birds moving along the Forth flyway in the autumn. These are mainly in small numbers  including Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Goldeneye. Three Scaup on 25th September were noteworthy. My personal favourite duck record was three drake Goosander on 19th November, never a common species here and drakes are stunning birds. 

A variety of waders in small numbers included scarcer species such as ruff, green sandpiper and greenshank. 

Three stunning drake Goosander heading W up the Forth on 19th November