Millichen in Summer

As many of you will be aware, summer is not the best time to visit Millichen but after a few months I was getting withdrawal symptoms!

Millichen  (from the north west) - 8 July 2013

 

As expected there was very little standing water, although I did find 2 female Mallard in a puddle! So I concentrated on trying to locate typical 'farmland' birds and found a good mix spread throughout the area - East Millichen Farm, West Millichen Farm, the Steadings and the 'flood'.

 

East Millichen Farm, looking north east across the 'flood' - 8 July 2013

West Millichen Farm, looking north across the 'flood' - 8 July 2013

 

I eventually saw 26 species of bird with summer migrants represented by 1 Sand Martin,

20 Swallow (including young), 2 Sedge Warbler (feeding young) and 3 Willow Warbler.

 

Farmland/red data species included c110 Starling, with lots of young........................

 

Record shot of one of many juvenile Starling - 8 July 2013

 

......................... c45 House Sparrow, at least 3 Tree Sparrow, 3 Yellowhammer and 2 Reed Bunting (feeding young).

 

There were also good numbers of Ringlet butterflies and a few Meadow Browns.

 

As an aside, for those that visit Millichen by car, the small area of hardstanding/car parking at West Millichen is now being used to store gravel and other materials, presumably for filling in the pot holes in the road!

 

 

Having left the Millichen area, I walked along the River Kelvin footpath towards Summerston.........

 

East Millichen Farm looking north from the Kelvin footpath - 8 July 2013

 

This proved to be an excellent idea as I saw my first Scottish Kingfisher of the year!

 

A perfect end to a beautiful day.



 

 

 

Millichen Magic

Yesterday (16th), I was lucky enough to accompany Fiona, Jenny and David ( 3 committee members of the local group of the Scottish Wildlife Trust) on a visit to Millichen.

A bleak looking Millichen - 16 January 2013

Initially, there was not much sign of life with most birds seen 'in the distance'. There were 2 Grey Heron, 1 Lapwing, 50+ Common Gull, 1 Herring Gull and 15+ Black-headed Gull on Millichen Flood (or more accurately, Millichen Puddle) and 42 Pink-footed Geese feeding at the top of a stubble field.

We looked for Water Rail in the burn (one had been seen back in December by members of the RSPB Glasgow Local Group) but to no avail, although we did get a nice Grey Wagtail. We eventually headed for the unharvested field near West Millichen Farm as it was clear there were lots of birds flying around and perching on the hedges and trees.

When we arrived we were stunned by the number and variety of finches and buntings. I counted at least 66 Brambling, 10 Chaffinch, 2 Tree Sparrow, 10 Yellowhammer, 15 Reed Bunting and c150 Linnet. These figures relate to the number of species seen at any one time; but as they were constantly flying up and down into the field they are a conservative estimate. The following photos illustrate the spectacle.....................................

c115 birds, mainly Linnets and a few Brambling

 

155 birds - mixed flock

 

c70 birds, mixed flock of Linnet, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch and Brambling

 

In addition to the wetland birds and finch-bunting flock, we saw 2 Buzzard, 2 Pheasant, 200+ Wood Pigeon, 2 Collared Dove, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Wren, 2 Mistle Thrush, 1 Song Thrush, 3 Blackbird, 7 Fieldfare, 7 Starling, Magpies and Carrion Crows, plus 22 Roe Deer.

 

If only every farm in the UK set aside one field, like the one at West Millichen, and then perhaps our farmland birds would no longer be in decline.