Hogganfield Park LNR - Grebes and more

On Monday I travelled over to Hogganfield Park LNR to check out the Great Crested Grebes that had laid 2 eggs on one of the BioHavens installed by the Friends of Glasgow's LNRs. I arrived just after 3pm and watched and photographed the grebes with great interest. The following photos, which can be viewed as a slide show, detail what I found!

Success, one youngster had hatched, possibly whilst I was there! (I subsequently found out that another birder had recorded one of the adults turning the eggs in the morning, so it definitely hatched on Monday).

Two other pairs of Great Crested Grebes have been successful with broods of 2 and 3; this is one of the youngsters ...

In addition to the grebes there was still a brood of 11 Tufted duckling (record shot) ...

 

  In amongst the 100s of other gulls, a Great Black-backed Gull was a bit of a surprise ..

 

 

.. as was my second ever sighting of a Water Rail - poor cropped photo ........

 

 

Finally, there were good numbers of adult and juvenile Willow Warblers, which posed for me as I was attacked by swarming, flying ants ....

 

 

What a brilliant day!

 

 

Hogganfield Grebes

Further to my last post, here is a link to a video I've made featuring three families of Great Crested Grebes filmed on Hogganfield Loch on Monday 18 July 2016, including the one featured in the photo below  .........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAxMIapWvkg

Please view at HD 1080p - you can adjust by clicking on the small 'wheel' on the bottom right of the YouTube screen.

Great Crested Grebe on two eggs!

Hogganfield Park - almost Spring!

I managed 2 hours at Hogganfield Park Local Nature Reserve today with the highlights being 1 male Ruddy Duck, 2 Gadwall and 18 Whooper Swans. The Whoopers will be leaving shortly so why not pop along to the RSPB Glasgow Local Group's last winter wildfowl feeding session on Sunday 10 March 2013 from 12 noon to 2pm and get really close to these wild swans before they fly back to Iceland - more details at www.rspb.org.uk/groups/glasgow/events

Wildfowl (including 6 Whooper Swans) - Hogganfield Park - 5 March 2013

 

Other highlights included two pairs of Great Crested Grebe offering close views as well as Moorhen and Coot clearly disagreeing with each other!

 

Great Crested Grebe - Hogganfield Park - 5 March 2013

In total, I saw 32 species of bird; not bad for the time of year.

Finally, the previously reported loch edge improvements appear to have been completed and are certainly a vast improvement on what was there previously......................

 Hogganfield Park - 5 March 2013