Mid-January Update

I've not managed out much other than an hour or so at Bingham's Pond plus a visit to Knightswood Park pond.

The year list for Bingham's currently stands at 26 which compares favourably with recent years - another advantage of using BirdTrack to record your bird species, you can quickly compare previous years sightings with your current efforts.

At Knightswood park, I concentrated on the pond and its immediate surrounds in the hope of getting some more sightings of ringed birds …

Knightswood Park pond - 11/1/19

There were three colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls present, all three of which I have already seen at the Pond ..

Ringed Ythan Estuary 3/6/14

Ringed Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria 4/12/18

Ringed Victoria Park, Glasgow 15/12/18

… but more interestingly, I managed to get photos of a metal ringed Black-headed Gull. Although only getting a partial reading from the photos, I do know it was ringed in 'Helgoland, Germania' or Heligoland, Germany. I am hoping that I shall get some more information from the ringers even though I only have a partial number ….

Finally, since I've not managed out much, a few interesting bird sightings from Greater Glasgow, courtesy of the SOC Clyde Grapevine:

Balgray Reservoir - a 2nd winter Iceland Gull and 3rd winter Yellow-legged Gull.
Clarkston - Ring-necked Parakeets from a few different locations.

(B)ringing in the New Year - Updated in Bold

I started the new year with some local birding at Bingham's Pond and Knightswood Park. And both locations turned up trumps on the 'ring reading' front.

I also met another ring reader who provided lots of information as well as mentioning he reads my blog - thanks Gavin.

So on to the ringed birds, all seen on 2 January 2019:

1. Black-headed Gull, Bingham's Pond - apparently ringed in Norway and awaiting more information

2. Black-headed Gull - Knightswood Park pond - ringed Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria 4/12/18

3. Black-headed Gull - Knightswood Park pond - ringed Ythan Estuary 3/6/14

4. Black-headed Gull - Knightswood Park pond - ringed Victoria Park, Glasgow 15/12/18

5. Mute Swan - Knightswood Park pond - ringed Castle Semple Loch 5/2/17

So, five ringed birds - a good way to (b)ring in the new year!

Moving further afield, five of us got together yesterday for a spot of birding along the River Leven at Balloch Country Park. Despite the dreich weather, we added to our year list with four Mandarin Ducks (3 males) being the highlight.

Three of us then moved on to the Croftamie area and we managed to locate the Greenland White-fronted Goose flock, or at least 120 of them, plus two Pink-footed Geese. The drizzle had now stopped allowing me to take this record shot.

Thanks to Peter, Judith, Mike and Lynda.

Ring in the New Year!

Happy New Year everyone, but still some time to reflect on 2018 from a bird watching point of view. I'm a sucker for statistics so here's a few:

During 2018, I saw 206 species (plus 4 sub-species) throughout Scotland. And, closer to home, I recorded 82 species at my favourite Glasgow site, Hogganfield Park LNR.

My City of Glasgow life list increased by three - Glaucous Gull, Jay and Shelduck - and now stands at 147 - and this just shows what can be found in the City if you look hard enough.

I also started to take a keen interest in 'ringed' birds and with the improvements of recent years to binoculars and cameras it is now easier to 'read' these rings than ever before.

It is also easier to report your sighting via the links on this web page https://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/rings.jsp  and you can sometimes get a response by return!

Hence the title 'Ring in the New Year' but first a few from last year in Glasgow featuring conventional metal rings and also colour coded rings.

Mute Swans are possibly the easiest species to find, read and photograph a ring:

Seen Knightswood Park 23/11/18 - Ringed Irvine 21/1/15 (2nd year)

Seen Knightswood Park 23/11/18 - Ringed Rothesay 21/8/12 (as cygnet)

Seen Knightswood Park 29/10/18 - Ringed Puddledub Pond, Fife 1/9/12 (as cygnet)

Gulls are also popular with ringers and I've found a few Black-headed Gulls in the City sporting rings;

Seen Hogganfield Park LNR 27/12/18 - Ringed as a chick Elvanfoot 24/6/14

Seen Knightswood Park 23/11/18 - Ringed 16/1/17 (2nd calendar year), Hilversum, Netherlands 

Seen Hogganfield Park 6/11/18 - Ringed 18/6/18 (pullus), Geitholmen, Norway

These are just a few of my sightings from 2018 and they show that birds are not stationary but they move around and in some cases make exceptional journeys!

Perhaps you might get hooked on this as part of your general birding.

In any case have a Happy Birding New Year!