Heritage Loch & Calderglen

It was foggy all day down in Cambuslang but 5 miles up the road in East Kilbride it was a crisp & bright winters day.

Nothing much bird wise apart from calling Nuthatch at Calderglen. I predict that Nuthatch will eventually appear on my garden feeders. They are now in all of the bigger parks in the Glasgow area so given a hard spell of weather I think I'll get it in the garden.

Calderglen CP

Greylag Goose (1 of about 15 feral birds present)

Frosted Seedheads

Greylag Goose

Mallards in the Sunshine

Horseshoe Falls at Calderglen

Snipe frozen into the open

Horseshoe Falls

Wintry Hogganfield

Common Gull

Common Gull

Coot

Goldeneye

Goldeneye

Goosander

Mute Swan

Whooper Swan

Whooper Swan

Whooper Swan

Black Headed Gull

Aberlady

For me & Patricia's Christmas night out we had chosen Kilspindie House Hotel convenient for Aberlady. Unfortunately, the weather was often very windy and at times wet.

The Wooden Bridge

Caerlaverock Photographic Course

In an attempt to improve my photography skills I booked myself on to one of the weekend photographic courses at Caerlaverock. As it turned out I was the only delegate and as a consequence received excellent 2:1 tuition from the two local professional photographers who were running the course.

I learned much and now feel I have a solid base to go forward from. In particular I will now be shooting in raw and have a much greater understanding of histograms and the exposure compensation button. I also need to get far faster at altering the settings on the camera! Hopefully that will come with practice.

The following demonstrates some of my work over the weekend :

Loch of Kinnordy

Had been at a retirement party in Dundee the previous evening and came home via Kirriemuir. A reasonably bright day but wish I had had a bit more time.

Most obvious birds were the flock of Grey Lag Geese, with some Pink Feet using the loch to bathe and drink. A few Whooper Swan were also present along with small numbers of Wigeon & Teal. Apparently, at least 1 Bittern has been present on and off and it appears that Kinnordy is now a regular wintering site.

Part of a flock of several hundred Greylag

Cryptic Pheasant

Heritage Loch at Night

Heritage Loch on the north side of East Kilbride