Back to earth with some Local Birding

After the excitement of our cruise, we have got back to some local birding with the highlight being a RSPB Glasgow Group outing to Ayrshire.  We got a good few 'year ticks' - Black-throated Diver, Pale-bellied Brent Geese, Purple Sandpiper, Scaup and Little Egret - plus this 'Scottish mainland tick' - a Chough, near Turnberrry Point ..

Chough - 23/02/19

We also managed through to the east coast, thanks Stephen, where this Shag posed nicely in Dunbar Harbour …

Shag - 24/02/19

.. and also, yesterday, to Fairlie, with Judith and Mike. No photos but excellent views of Little Egret and 2 Greenshank.

Locally, I have visited Bingham's Pond, where this Grey Heron posed for photos, and ..

Grey Heron -  22/02/19

… also Hogganfield Loch twice; firstly for the Friends of Glasgow's LNRs wildfowl feeding event and then early this week for a spot of birding...….

Wildfowl Feeding  - 17/02/19

Hogganfield Loch  - 25/02/19

 On the 25th, I recorded 39 species including this ringed Mute Swan

I have sent off the ring details and hopefully I'll find out the history of this bird in the near future. UPDATE - swan ringed as a youngster at Hogganfield Park on 26/11/16.

So, I'll end my post with this little piece of info - my year (2019) Scottish list stands at 90. For comparison, our 16 days on holiday resulted in closer to 190 - hopefully I'll reach 200 in Scotland by the end of the year!

Birding Further Afield!

This Blog aims to provide information about wildlife in the Greater Glasgow area, but occasionally I go further afield. So this post is dedicated to a wee trip we had recently ……

Rosy-billed Pochard

Savanna Hawk

Magellanic Woodpecker

Cape Petrels

King Penguin and Gentoo Penguins

Guanaco

Sea Lions

Black-browed Albatross

We started in Buenos Aires, Argentina and after 1.5 days birding boarded our ship to Ushuaia, Argentina; and thereafter Cape Horn; Antarctica; the Falklands; Valdes Peninsula, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; and back to Buenos Aires.

The one bird I really wanted to see was the Magellanic Woodpecker and we managed to see a pair! We saw lots of whales and dolphins and at least 187 bird species, of which 27 were 'lifers' - I've been to this part of the world before - our friends probably had more like 175 lifers!

All in all it was a superb trip, with great weather, good food and lots of on-board entertainment, in addition to all the wildlife AND more importantly it was a lot cheaper than some organised 'wildlife trips' at around one third of the cost!