Bean Scene

Two weeks until Christmas and I can put the shopping off no longer ! But the shops don't open until later on a Sunday so time to squeeze in some birding beforehand. I took another trip down to Erskine to see if the Tundra Bean Geese were still present. I had seen no reports all week either positive or negative but given the rotten weather and the general dearth of observer coverage in the Clyde area that did not altogether surprise me.

The weather forecast was mostly dry with periods of sun and so the Goose viewing might be favourable, but as I approached Erskine the light was pretty poor, so I decided to do Newshot Island first. There were several hundred Black Headed Gulls on the river with a lot situated around the outflow on the North side. Given the gale we had mid week I was hoping for a Grey Phalarope perhaps, but despite my scrutiny there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. 11 Goldeneye remained however.

The tide was high, and up at Newshot Island there were impressive numbers of waders including at least 220 Lapwing and 60 Dunlin. There were also good numbers of Redshank and Wigeon and a few Teal.

Drake Wigeon in the Gloom

A Water Rail was calling from the reedbed area.

By the time I left Newshot, the sun has come out and I spend some time with the DSLR shooting the view downriver towards the Erskine Bridge:

On to Nether Soutbar.From the road there appeared to be very few Geese around, but after turning the car round and parking up I found this not to be the case ! Rather than where they had been last week, i.e miles away they were in the field adjacient to the road. Not quite as many Greylag as last week, but certainly up to 30 Tundra Bean, this time with very obvious orange legs.

A few Fieldfare were also of note.

By 11:30 am it was time to give up and confront the X-Mas shopping !