My brother was up for the holidays so quite a few birding trips out. Fife delivered an excellent variety of quality winter birds. The highlight was probably the two drake Surf Scoter off St Andrews but the overall spectacle provided by the large numbers of seaduck they were with was also impressive; over 1,000 Common Scoter, 70 Scaup , large numbers of Long-tailed duck not counted. Conversely Velvet Scoter were present in small numbers.
Given it's December it was not surprising that wildfowl, divers and grebes featured prominently. Highlights elsewhere were a red head Smew at Lochore Meadows, Red-necked Grebe off Kirkcaldy and Black-throated Diver off Kinghorn.
Passerines chipped in as well with a flock of 18 Twite giving good views in a weedy Kale field along the coastal path at Kingsbarns and a calling Siberian Chiffchaff at Dysart.
We ventured out of the adopted home county a couple times, one was to give the bro a bit of Scottish scenery up at Aviemore. With mild conditions there was a distinct lack of snow but the views were spectacular as always. It wasn't without avian interest, a Golden Eagle being seen from the A9 on the return journey.
Another visit outside the Kingdom of Fife was to Loch Leven. A Tufted Duck x Pochard hybrid gave us some initial interest as it looked like a drake Lesser Scaup but eventually the bill pattern was confirmed as wrong for that species with an extensive black tip.
A Slavonian Grebe also gave good views here.
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