Birding on Mull and Iona

 At last, after months of lockdown and being limited to where we could go, we finally escaped from Glasgow and stayed on Mull and Iona for a few days.

The weather wasn't great but we still had a grand time and saw some nice birds. A photo record from our days on Iona follows:

Iona - village

New Village Hall

Abbey

Swallow

Meadow Pipit

Road to the Bay at the Back of the Ocean

Rosy Starling (rarity!)

Wheatear

Twite

The Bay at the Back of the Ocean

Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover

Road to the north end of Iona and Ardionra croft

North end of Iona

Rock Pipit

Beach at the north end (in the drizzle)

View from Fionnphort, having left Iona (note the blue sky!!)

It was great to get away for a few days and especially more so with it being to Iona.

We did manage some birding on Mull, although it was too dull for any decent photos. We saw Golden Eagle, Hen Harrier and Short-eared Owl in the 'usual' places and whilst on the ferry had distant views of various seabirds with Puffin and Manx Shearwater being the highlights.

Hopefully, we'll manage back later in the year.

10 Days in June and some New Sites!

 Although still in lockdown I was able to travel to a couple of more sites other than Hogganfield Park LNR, Dawsholm Park LNR and Bingham's Pond SINC. Now I love these three sites, who would have guessed, but it was so good to venture to a few other sites in Greater Glasgow.

Starting with 1 June 2021 and a trip to Dams to Darnley Country Park in order to help erect nest boxes at the Dams to Darnley LNR. All five photos from the LNR

Nest box volunteers march off

Chicken-in-the-Woods fungi

We then moved on to Balgray Reservoir and saw a nice range of birds with Sedge Warbler and Meadow Pipit being the most photogenic

Sedge Warbler

Meadow Pipit

Moving on to the 4th and a visit to Bishop Loch LNR to check out nest boxes and then views over Bishop Loch. The LNR is mainly woodland with a small area of marsh and reedbed on the northern edge. It is leased by Glasgow City Council to Forestry and Land Scotland (formerly Forestry Commission Scotland). Note the loch is not within the LNR!

Roe Deer

Reedbed at western end of the loch

Former Gartloch Hospital, now Gartloch Village in the background

Bishop Loch

The biggest surprise was this male Pochard on the loch, a species that normally just winters in the area.

Pochard (heavily cropped)

In the first 10 days of the month, only 43 bird species seen but this did include some unexpected species. It was also good to visit places I hadn't been to for well over a year. 

Hopefully, with a further easing of the lockdown, there will be more to come!

Birding in Glasgow in May

 Following on from the excitement of the Spoonbill on 1 May 2021 - see last post - the rest of the month proved to be more normal, at least from a birding point of view. Only 66 species seen, as again I restricted birding to the city boundary (apart from one short excursion along the West Highland Way!)

Much of the time was spent helping check the Friends of Glasgow's LNRs nest boxes and I'm pleased to say that almost all were occupied.

Meanwhile, some summer migrants have been delayed due to the poor weather in May, so it was good to eventually manage to not only see, but also photograph this Grasshopper Warbler.

Grasshopper Warbler

Sixty six bird species were seen during the month, whilst my year list for Hogganfield Park LNR stands at 82 and for Bingham's Pond SINC it's 48, already a year record with 7 months to go!

In addition to birds, I thought it would be nice to illustrate some of the other forms of wildlife I saw during May in Glasgow's LNRs. 

Hawthorn Scrub and Poplars

Mother Shipton Moth 

Roe Deer

Cowslip

June is, traditionally, a quiet month, but with some lock down restrictions being lifted who knows what will be found.