Crossbills & More Waxwings

There was quite a sharp frost this morning making the path round the Heritage Loch treacherous. Best today was 2 male Crossbill high over the boatshed. The alders at the West end also held 3 Lesser Redpoll.

The crisp morning produced ideal light for the camera:

Boating Shed & Cafe

Black Headed Gull & Reflection

Lapwing & Tufted Duck numbers had risen to 29 and 61 respectively. There were at least 3 Snipe in the marsh and 5 or 6 Fieldfare were on tops of the trees in the island.

In the afternoon there was at least 100 Waxwing at Queen's Cross on the way up to the Thistle game. A good precursor for a hard fought 2-0 win !

Juvenile Lesser Black Backed Gull on the Heritage Loch

Going Downhill into the Winter.

With increasingly shorter Winter days now upon us opportunities for travel is much more limited and local birding is the better option.

The weather in Glasgow over the last 5 days has been dreary but Saturday morning was brighter and I spent about an hour at the Heritage Loch. Very little change from last week with still C50 Tufted Duck and C15 Lapwing present. There was also 13 Fieldfare in the fields to the West. I haven't been lucky with opportunities to photograph any Waxwings yet although there have been several fairly large flocks flocks in the Glasgow area and indeed I saw a flock of c40 over Rutherglen Cemetery on my way to work on Friday.

Spent considerably longer at Baron's Haugh on Sunday afternoon and I spent some time trying to get some scenery shots of the various early winter scenes:

Chestnut Walk now that most of the leaves have fallen

River Clyde looking South

Bird wise there was nothing of particular special interest. However, there were 31 Whooper Swans, that spend most of their time in the fields around Merryton, on the Haugh and I spent some time from the Phoenix hide trying to get some shots:

 

Duck numbers were also buiding with good numbers of Wigeon and Teal and a few Gadwall.

Taiga Beans

Managed a few hours birding this afternoon out at Slamannan to see if I could locate the Taiga Bean Geese. There was no sign in the fields around Luckenburn Farm but further East at Slamannan I located a distant flock of 67 in the fields just North West of the playing fields.

Driving around I managed to get a bit closer and discovered another flock of 92.

Some birds with neck collars

 

Other birds of note were a few Ravens and a small flock of Bramblings feeding in beeches by the main road

From here I headed back down the M80 and walked round Hogganfield Loch. Lots of Swans & Gulls milling around the car park area but very little on the North side of the loch and certainly not the hoped for Ruddy Ducks. Wonder if I'll ever see these beautiful Ducks again ? I was reading recently that they are now virtually wiped out in the UK. Seems such a dreadful waste to me !

Male Goosander

Whooper Swan

Winter Patch

I spent a good deal of time at the Heritage Loch last winter but stopped going in the Spring once the boating commenced and all the birds were scared off.

Now that boating has stopped for the winter, I had my first look at it this morning. The most numerous duck was Tufted with c50 present. There was also c30 Lapwings:

Best however was c40 Waxwing that flew over and alighted briefly in trees at the West end. With very good numbers both North & West of here I'm hopeful of getting some good images over the next few weeks.