I have spent quite a lot of time seawatching at Fife Ness over the last couple of years and thought information on access, best viewing conditions, etc. may be helpful for any birders thinking about visiting. The seawatching site is right on the end of Fife Ness itself, just below the navigation light and right by the coastal path. Fife Bird Club has a hide … Continue reading Seawatching at Fife Ness

After several years in the doldrums, with disappointingly low numbers of scoter present, Largo Bay in Fife has seen a steady increase in numbers more recently. Initially this increase was focused around Ruddon’s Point, historically the place in the U.K. to see Surf Scoter, with a flock of several thousand Common Scoter forming during the last few months. In early April the first Surf Scoter … Continue reading Stejneger’s Scoter in Fife

Brindisi (Italy) An unexpected stopover in Brindisi due to two aborted (vomit inducing) landings at Dubrovnik. An hour of wandering a small area of derelict land, allotments, and marshy ground by the hotel (in the industrial part of town) produced a few interesting birds: Marsh Harrier, Alpine Swift, Red-rumped Swallow, Sardinian Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Water Rail, Black Redstart, Yellow Wagtail, Italian Sparrow. The surroundings were … Continue reading Croatia, 5-10 April 2023

During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown I was asked by a non-birding relative whether it was possible to see 200 species of bird in the local area. Without any hesitation I said “sure, wouldn’t be tricky” and promptly failed to see 200 species in Fife during 2021 (I got to 195). To be fair, it was a rather half-hearted attempt, plus it was a particularly poor … Continue reading Fife Big Year 2022

On 22/10/22 I was out birding again in the East Neuk of Fife, making the most of a week of leave. Due to the easterly airflow and cloud/ rain during the previous few days the birding had been excellent (and made a nice change the Fife Ness seawatching that had dominated much of my birding time during the previous couple of months). Good numbers of … Continue reading Stejneger’s Stonechat in Fife

A two week family holiday to Borovets south of Sofia, and a small village a few miles north west of Gabrovo in the centre of Bulgaria. Borovets At Borovets we were staying at a small villa complex a few miles south of the village, tucked away down a forest track. The habitat was disturbed forest (few old trees) and meadows. The buildings were being used … Continue reading Bulgaria, 5-18 July 2022

I was attending a week-long meeting in Tartu, central Estonia, and so took the opportunity to do some birding the following weekend, and where possible in the brief hours of ‘daylight’ before/ after each day of the meeting. I seemed to have the choice of either focusing on water bird migration in the west of the country, or birding in the forest around and to … Continue reading Estonia, October 2019

Grey Partridge are relatively easy to see in East Fife. We are lucky in that there are still good ‘weedy’ coastal strips and fringes to the arable fields in the area south of Tayport and east of Elie, and these support good numbers of not only Grey Partridge but also Corn Bunting- two species which have undergone dramatic declines across pretty much the whole of … Continue reading The Leuchars Grey Partridge

This was my first early spring visit to Bulgaria and I was hoping for some early summer migrants and even some sunshine during this Easter family trip back to Gabrovo province in central Bulgaria. Instead we got almost constant rain, low temperatures and few migrants. Things improved slightly on all fronts during a couple of days further south in Devin. In terms of summer migrants … Continue reading Bulgaria, 10-16th April 2019