Mum's Gone to Iceland

Saturday was a dull with a light drizzle when I left the house at 9:30 am. Cathkin was quiet with very few birds and my counts of only 5 Tree Sparrow & 1or2 Reed Bunting at the feeding site being really low in comparison to the previous two winters when the weather was far worse.

14 Pink Feet flew over and there were 2 Stock Doves. 12 Snipe were flushed from Windlaw Marsh.

2 years ago I counted c150 at this site. None today, presumably due to the mild winter ?

Up at the Heritage Loch there was lots of Gulls drinking & bathing presumably after having come over from the tip. I quickly got on to a Juvenile Iceland Gul, then another and another. Typically I had no camera ! These birds are presumably part of the large UK influx that followed the Atlantic gales of 2 weeks ago.

Other notables included 1 'Argentatus' Herring Gull, 90 Tufted Ducks, slightly up on last week, 30 Lapwing at the West end and a single drake Pochard, presumably the one that was here earlier in the month.

Returning with the camera early afternoon, I discovered what was probably a different one from the ones in the morning making four for the day.

After the hospital I finished at Cathkin Marsh in the late afternoon. Hoping for a SEO or such thing I was limited to c10 Reed Buntings, 3 Yellowhammer, 2 Skylark and c20 Chaffinches.