Hogganfield Highlights

Since the last post I've visited Bingham's Pond, Loch Leven, Hogganfield Park LNR and the Loch Thom area.

My wife and I are currently suffering from what I would call 'man flu' so this will be a short update concentrating on Hogganfield Park LNR on Sunday 25 March 2018.

Firstly, I was pleased to see that there were still some Whooper Swans present ..

Whooper Swans

But the highlights were two rare species that had appeared, namely Slavonian Grebe and Glaucous Gull.

Slavonian Grebe

This was my second Slavonian Grebe for the loch, the other turning up almost exactly 20 years ago when the LNR was first declared. The bird is starting to moult into its breeding plumage and hopefully it will stay long enough so we can all see it looking like this before moving on to breed ...

Slavonian Grebe (breeding plumage)

The other rare bird - Glaucous Gull - was a first for me for both Hogganfield Park LNR (101st species) and for the City of Glasgow (145th species) .......

Glaucous Gull

All we need now is for our colds to disappear and the summer migrants to appear and we can get back to enjoying our birding