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| Waxwing |
Sunday 28 November 2010
100 Waxwing in Garden...................... well nearly !
Approximately 100 of the little beauties in trees adjacient to the railway line viewable from the dining room window late morning. Not a garden tick (I have had small numbers flying over the garden in previous Waxwing years) but this was certainly a record number.
Saturday 27 November 2010
Brrrrrrrr its Freezing !
About 2 inches of snow hit the Glasgow area last night and caused its usual chaos with cars sliding all over the place.
Undaunted, I headed to Hogganfield mid afternoon. There was only 3 small pockets of open water one of which was close to the car park and was thronged with ducks, geese & swans. By dusk there was close to 400 Grey Lag Geese present with at least 2 Pink Feet. At least 10 Whooper Swan were close to the car park making full use of the grain that the Council were putting out and of course the bread that passers by provide.
Some images from a freezing Hogganfield:
Undaunted, I headed to Hogganfield mid afternoon. There was only 3 small pockets of open water one of which was close to the car park and was thronged with ducks, geese & swans. By dusk there was close to 400 Grey Lag Geese present with at least 2 Pink Feet. At least 10 Whooper Swan were close to the car park making full use of the grain that the Council were putting out and of course the bread that passers by provide.
Some images from a freezing Hogganfield:
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| Wild Greylag Geese are very approachable at Hogganfield |
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| Coot in fading light |
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| Drake Goldeneye |
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| Pink Foot & Greylag |
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| Whooper Swans |
Sunday 21 November 2010
Mega Grebe
A Pied Billed Grebe, the 1st in the UK for 10 years, had been found in Greater Manchester about 10 days ago but today (20 November) was my first opportunity to twitch it.
Leaving Glasgow at 4am on a cold foggy morning I did myself absolutely no favours whatsoever by not properly planning my route. On reflection once I got to Preston I should have carried on south on the M61 and then on to the M62 and that would have brought me in through Rochdale which is close to Littleborough where the bird was at.
However, my route along the M65 resulted in me getting lost in Burnley before eventually taking the scenic route to Littleborough. Even when I got to Littleborough I struggled to find Hollingworth Lake. The moral, I'm getting a proper sat nav for my Christmas !
The Pied Billed Grebe showed very well, down to a few yards at times, and the following record shots were obtained:
The bird's features including chunky size, thick bill with a black spot and no pale panels on the back of the neck were all fairly obvious.
The Pied Billed Grebe was almost the only bird on the lake with only a Canada Goose and a Great Crested Grebe worthy of mention.
By 10:15 I headed back west again and, surprisingly, found my way to Southport with little problem. I contemplated doing Martin Mere but took one look at the car park and decided that it was probably a bad idea. The overflow car park was literally overflowing. Marshside had comparatively few visitors and getting into hides etc was absolutely no problem. The only annoyance is Marine Drive that is very busy with cars although once you are below the reserve banking you hardly notice it.
Bird wise Marshside was an absolute delight with thousands of Ducks, Geese and Waders present on a beautiful winter sun lit afternoon. Large flocks of Pink Feet were in the far fields with some Greylag and Canada. Large flocks of Waders, including Black Tailed Godwit, Lapwing & Golden Plover and Starlings constantly wheeled around. Huge flocks of Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal showed how important the reserve is as a wintering site for these birds.
Particularly notable birds were a female Merlin and 1 Ruff. Some images from a terrific afternoon:
Leaving Glasgow at 4am on a cold foggy morning I did myself absolutely no favours whatsoever by not properly planning my route. On reflection once I got to Preston I should have carried on south on the M61 and then on to the M62 and that would have brought me in through Rochdale which is close to Littleborough where the bird was at.
However, my route along the M65 resulted in me getting lost in Burnley before eventually taking the scenic route to Littleborough. Even when I got to Littleborough I struggled to find Hollingworth Lake. The moral, I'm getting a proper sat nav for my Christmas !
The Pied Billed Grebe showed very well, down to a few yards at times, and the following record shots were obtained:
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| Pied Billed Grebe |
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| Pied Billed Grebe |
The bird's features including chunky size, thick bill with a black spot and no pale panels on the back of the neck were all fairly obvious.
The Pied Billed Grebe was almost the only bird on the lake with only a Canada Goose and a Great Crested Grebe worthy of mention.
By 10:15 I headed back west again and, surprisingly, found my way to Southport with little problem. I contemplated doing Martin Mere but took one look at the car park and decided that it was probably a bad idea. The overflow car park was literally overflowing. Marshside had comparatively few visitors and getting into hides etc was absolutely no problem. The only annoyance is Marine Drive that is very busy with cars although once you are below the reserve banking you hardly notice it.
Bird wise Marshside was an absolute delight with thousands of Ducks, Geese and Waders present on a beautiful winter sun lit afternoon. Large flocks of Pink Feet were in the far fields with some Greylag and Canada. Large flocks of Waders, including Black Tailed Godwit, Lapwing & Golden Plover and Starlings constantly wheeled around. Huge flocks of Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal showed how important the reserve is as a wintering site for these birds.
Particularly notable birds were a female Merlin and 1 Ruff. Some images from a terrific afternoon:
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| Black Tailed Godwit |
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| Drake Gadwall |
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| Moorhen |
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| Drake Pintail |
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| Shelduck |
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| Drake Shoveler |
Friday 12 November 2010
Waxwings more Waxwings
My route into work over the past week has produced regular flocks of 30+ Waxwing in Burnside.
There was also 30+ in trees outside the office on the 8th of November.
There was also 30+ in trees outside the office on the 8th of November.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Lochmaben & Caerlaverock 06 Nov 10
Iain was at my house for 8am and we were off down the M74. The first stop was Lochmaben.
Several large flocks of Pink Feet were overhead. The loch held reasonable numbers of common ducks including both Goldeneye and Tufted.
The woods are reputed to hold Willow Tit but despite searching we did not connect. A Nuthatch was heard calling and we had some Siskin and Treecreeper.
We headed for Caerlaverock and were there for about 11:30. A Green Winged Teal had been reported from the Campbell hide and we found it roosting with Teal:
We later saw it more clearly on open water and were able to confirm the vertical white stripe was present on both sides on the breast.
A winter plumaged Spotted Redshank was present from the same hide.
The Avenue Tower hide produced our first big flocks of Barnacle Geese and a female Merlin:
A single Ruff was also on the flood.
We did the Swan feed at 2pm but other than the spectacle it produced nothing of great interest.
We spent some time round at the Folly Pond late afternoon where a Black Tailed Godwit was of particular interest.
Several large flocks of Pink Feet were overhead. The loch held reasonable numbers of common ducks including both Goldeneye and Tufted.
The woods are reputed to hold Willow Tit but despite searching we did not connect. A Nuthatch was heard calling and we had some Siskin and Treecreeper.
We headed for Caerlaverock and were there for about 11:30. A Green Winged Teal had been reported from the Campbell hide and we found it roosting with Teal:
We later saw it more clearly on open water and were able to confirm the vertical white stripe was present on both sides on the breast.
A winter plumaged Spotted Redshank was present from the same hide.
The Avenue Tower hide produced our first big flocks of Barnacle Geese and a female Merlin:
A single Ruff was also on the flood.
We did the Swan feed at 2pm but other than the spectacle it produced nothing of great interest.
We spent some time round at the Folly Pond late afternoon where a Black Tailed Godwit was of particular interest.
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| Drake Teal |
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| Barnacle Geese |
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