The Last Post 2014

It might be late December but the birding continues! Firstly, on Sunday  (28th) I visited the best little pond in Glasgow - Bingham's Pond. Once again I filled the bird feeders and a short time later watched intrigued as a family proceeded to place two 'cheesy wotsits' in the feeder ports thus inadvertently blocking the seed from flowing!

The pond itself was almost completely frozen ....
 

 

 ...... although there were still a good range of wildfowl and gulls present, albeit nothing out of the ordinary. This Moorhen, however, did amuse me with its antics .....

 

 

On Monday we travelled through to East Lothian calling in at Musselburgh and Torness as well as a few other locations, thanks Fiona, with the highlight being a small group of Grey Partridge in a field just yards from the car - sadly though, no camera!

 

Yesterday, I travelled through to Strathclyde Loch .....

 

Strathclyde Loch - 30 December 2014

 

.... bumped into a few other birders  and eventually saw the adult Ring-billed Gull that has been present for a few days (thanks for the use of your 'scope, Fiona). A record shot follows ...

 

Ring-billed Gull - Strathclyde Loch - 30 December 2014

 

There have also been a few interesting gulls (and other species) seen in the Glasgow area, details, courtesy of SOC Clyde Grapevine, follow:

 

30 December 2014

An adult Kittiwake at Prince's Dock, Pacific Quay, Glasgow.
A Stonechat at the north side of Balgray Reservoir.

28 December 2014

A Mandarin Duck back on the White Cart Water at Scottish Power, Cathcart, Glasgow.

 

27 December 2014

Two Stonechats in Robroyston Park LNR, Glasgow after an absence of five years.

 

26 December 2014

Six Gadwall on Gartloch Pool, Glasgow, also six Whooper Swans.
Nearby, three Stock Doves at Gartloch Village.

 

25 December 2014

17 Goldeneye on the River Clyde at Govan.

 

24 December 2014

An adult Mediterranean Gull on the River Clyde at Glasgow Science Centre.

 

Finally, thanks to everyone that has helped make this one of my most memorable birding years - wishing you all a prosperous and peaceful New Year.

 

 

Birding locally and in the far east

It has been a week since my last post, so a quick update.

I have continued to pop into Bingham's Pond to see how the breeding birds are doing and if anything new has turned up. I can report that the young Coot seemed to be doing well; record shot follows  .....

Record shot - Coot - 24 April 2014

I was also lucky enough to see one of the 'local' Buzzards circling high above the Pond on the 28th - my 40th species for the year at the Pond.

On Friday (25th), as I was leaving to walk to Dawsholm Park LNR, I got a new garden tick or, to be more exact, a 'lacewing' ....

 

Dawsholm proved to be quite productive with good numbers of birds singing their hearts out - Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Wren, Dunnock , Blackbird, Chaffinch and Robin to name a few. I also saw Great Spotted Woodpecker, Bullfinch, Raven and Stock Dove .........

 

 

This bird was collecting nest material, as the second photo shows, and seemed to be quite relaxed despite my presence. I would also like to thank a dog walker and his dog for stopping (without me asking) to allow me to take the photos. In fact I met quite a number of considerate dog walkers all of whose pets were likeable and under control.

 

Later in the morning, c11am, the dog walking companies arrived and the whole ambience of the park changed. So a tip, if you want a quiet relaxing walk or to enjoy a bit of bird watching aim to arrive early and leave the park before 11am.

 

Moving on to the Saturday (26 April 2014) and the 'far east' or  should I say, Lothian. We should have been heading to Inversnaid but the weather conditions looked promising for a 'fall of migrants' on the east coast so we literally changed direction.

 

We visited a number of locations and had some really good sightings. At Torness we found a good few summer migrants with Wheatear, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Swallow prominent. We also saw a Yellow Wagtail - a photo from the same location taken in 2012 follows .....

 

Yellow Wagtail - May 2012

 

The highlight, however, was a Yellow-browed Warbler, possibly the first mainland Scotland spring record! Last autumn there was a huge influx of these birds to the UK and indeed a few appear to have over-wintered in southern England - could this have been one of these birds? A record shot follows .......

 

 

 

We also visited Skateraw, Barns Ness and Musselburgh Lagoons/River Esk and we were extremely pleased to eventually get views of the long staying Surf Scoter at Musselburgh as well as our first Common Tern of the year. In addition, there were 100s of Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Turnstone (in summer plumage), Gannets and, quite frankly, just a wonderful spectacle of 1000s of birds.

 

We missed out on a few other rarities - Wryneck and Hoopoe - and my prediction of us finding a Red-backed Shrike somewhere along the east coast sadly failed. However, shrikes were found at Barns Ness on the Sunday and Torness on the Monday! 

 

So another good tip, find out when and where I am bird watching along the east coast and plan to visit the day after!!

 

Finally, some recent sightings from Greater Glasgow, courtesy of the SOC Clyde Grapevine:

 

28 April 2014

Three Grasshopper Warblers reeling at Balgray Reservoir.

26 April 2014

Single migrant Wood Warblers in song at Mugdock Country Park and Linn Park.

24 April 2014

A Green Sandpiper, two White Wagtails and a drake Pintail at Bridgend Farm Pool, near Kirkintilloch.

23 April 2014

Two Crossbills over Linn Park in the morning, later in the evening a Nuthatch near the waterfall.

 

Although not within the Greater Glasgow area, I would also mention the Pied-billed Grebe that has been present at Loch Thom, Inverclyde for a number of days.