Bingham's Breeding Success?

Just like buses, two posts come along in quick succession!

The young Coot, as predicted, has survived and is almost full size although still happy to beg for food from one of its parents......................................................

Similarly, the young Moorhens are progressing and there now appears to be at least 10 young some who are happy to pose on the footpath and others that play hide-and-seek!

There was only 1 Mallard duckling, protected from marauding Lesser Black-backed Gulls by its attentive mother...........................................................................

However, the bravest bird was a female Tufted Duck that protected its duckling from not only LB-bGs but also from a Grey Heron.............................

In addition to the wildfowl, there were also a few Blue-tailed Damselflies present.....

D Day!

Today was D day on so many fronts!

I met a very helpful Council official at Dawsholm Park today to agree details of a forthcoming event being organised by the Friends of Glasgow's Local Nature Reserves. The event - 'D' in the Park - will be held on Sunday 9 September 2012 and will be aimed at helping people to 'Discover Dawsholm' and help make it even better for people and wildlife. More details will be released over the next few weeks - also see the web site http://friendsofglasgowlnrs.wordpress.com

After the meeting, I spent some time in the Park but unfortunately most of the paths were unpassable without 'wellies'.

I did manage to see 15 species of bird as well as lots of Large White buttterflies. Some of the flowers were still looking good including this Foxglove..........................................

It was also good to see the Highland Cattle back................................

On another front, it was D Day for 'ants' in our Estate as today was the day that they starting to swarm. The following photo shows a few 'emerging'.......................................................

Amazingly, as per previous years, a large flock of birds, mainly gulls, quickly became aware of a potential feast and circled the Estate devouring the ants as they rose into the sky!

It was good to get a decent day and get out at long last. Hopefully the next post won't take so long!

Thank goodness for the Garden!

With all this poor weather, its reminded me how important gardens are both for people and wildlife - we get to see wildlife on our doorstep without having to venture out and wildlife can find some shelter and food.

We had a garden first yesterday with a male Azure Damselfly visiting our small pond......

Over the years we have had a wide range of unusual species visiting our Glasgow garden and since the weather isn't conducive to taking new pictures I've dug out a few from over the years that shows what can turn up in a small back garden.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth - 2006

Large Yellow Underwing moth - 2008

Bohemian Waxwing - 2008

Wood Mice - 2010

Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar - 2010

Brambling - 2010

Fieldfare - 2010

Blackcap on feeder - 2012

The rarest, however, is this little bird that flew all the way from Siberia and spent 2 mornings in our garden in late autumn 2011 - a Yellow-browed Warbler...........................

So if you are lucky enough to have a garden, keep your eyes open, you don't know what you might attract!

Bingham's Pond

I visited Bingham's Pond early this afternoon (Saturday) to see how the young wildfowl were doing. I'm pleased to say that the young Coot has reached the stage where it looks like it will survive....

Also there at least 6 young Moorhen, 3 along the northern edge ........

and 3 along the southern edge.............................................................

Meanwhile, some adult Moorhens were not averse to seing off intruders........

On the duckling front there was only 1 Mallard and 1 Tufted duckling (right, below), both associating with a female Mallard (as per previous years!)

Meanwhile the wildflowers around the edges of the pond were still looking very attractive.........................

and attracting at least 3 species of bee (2 of which are shown below)...........................

Red-tailed Bumblebee

White (or Buff)-tailed Bumblebee

There were only 11 male and 2 female Tufted Duck visible today and I would suggest that that means there are some females sitting on eggs. Based on previous years, they will be hatching over the next week or so and perhaps my count of 67 tufted duckling will be broken!

The Pond is a little green oasis in the west end of Glasgow and well worth a visit.