End of 2021-beginning of 2022

 After the migration season is over , Ferry Hills is put on hold for a few months. 

It was nice to try a few other Fife sites. Kinghorn produced some good winter seawatching with the highlight a strong candidate for a Brunnichs Guillemot  on 27th November. 

This was the morning after Storm Arwen when the wind hit force 7 from the north locally, and storm force elsewhere in S. Scotland and N. England. Initially it didn't appear like Arwen had caused anything too unusual to get blown up the Forth although it was clear large numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills were escaping a very rough North Sea, and a notably high count of 620 Shag was also likely to be related. I got onto a large auk flying in the from the east with a very striking head pattern, looking hooded. I'd already seen a summer plumaged guillemot but this bird looked different. I note differences in shape, including the bill, in comparison to both guillemot and razorbill. The bird then circled round and stalled before landing, when a rear end end view showed lots of white in the outer tail feathers. The head/throat pattern looked spot on too, it wasn't simply just all black. There was a sharply demarcated (dusky washed) white throat patch.  Unfortunately after landing I lost the bird in the big swell but I was convinced enough to put it out on the Fife WhatsApp group as a possible Brunnichs. 

This was before the 28th when of course it became apparent that unusual numbers of Brunnichs had been displaced into the North Sea, seeing the online images and discussion I became even more convinced of what I had seen. 

Kinghorn continued to be productive in December with regular Little Auks (peak of 68 on 8th), up to seven GN Divers, three Slav Grebe, 43 Long-tailed Duck, up to four Manx Shearwater lingering offshore and a Red-necked Grebe. I also missed a Glaucous Gull here. The true star of the show wasn't the birds but a Humpback whale regularly foraging in this part of the Forth. This has become a near annual event in the last four years or so in the Forth. 

And into 2022...

New Years Day. I did a from the house list. I ended up with 25 species, I have done better than this before but this years list did include some quality, most notably an adult Med Gull circling with a Black-headed Gull flock and Peregrine, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard-not bad for suburbia. 

A visit to Kinghorn Loch on 2nd January produced four nice examples of Scandinavian Herring Gull including a huge brute of an adult coming to bread being thrown by the duck and goose feeders. It was terrorising all the other gulls. 

In the second pic, the 3rd winter bird behind the  brute of an adult is also a likely Scandinavian bird with a heavy build,  long bill and already a big white mirror in the outermost primary. 

Probably the highlight of 2022 so far was going to see the mixed finch flock on set aside at Kingcraig Hill, with gave close views of 22 Brambling, 19 Twite (12 of these were actually nearby on Cocklemill Marsh) and a  spectacular flock of 1000+ Linnet.