03 January 2010 Strathclyde Loch

Another night of freezing temperatures, it was still -4c at 11am, the loch was further frozen and the area of water at the Calder burn mouth further reduced.

Dave Abrahams got me on the 2w Ring Billed Gull but attempts at photopgraphy were in vain. I find the view at distance through the camera difficult & whilst I thought I was taking the bird, the images when I got home only showed Herring Gull !

This is what I should have photographed:

2 w Ring Billed Gull
(Pic courtesy of Keith Hoey)









True to form the Ring Billed quickly departed.

I was finding the piercing cold uncomfortable, but an obliging Redpoll provided some comfort:

I moved round to the Water Sports Centre but there was little in the way of wildfowl, the river being almost frozen. A few tits. long tailed & coal fed in the bases of the trees overhanging the river. The intense cold prompted an early finish.