Hogganfield & Strathclyde Park

Hogganfield in the morning had lying snow from the past few days snow fall but otherwise was bright & crisp. Unfortunately, I could not find anything out of the ordinary.

After lunch I went to Strathclyde Park by 3pm and found a 1st winter Iceland Gull in the roost.

South Ayrshire

Started at Dipple Shore about 8:30 am. Had 2 Purple Sandpiper with a small Turnstone flock, Rock Pipit, Stonechat & Eider. No sign of any Wigeon and so no sign of the American Wigeon.

I moved up to Balkenna and had 6 Wigeon, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone and c30 Linnet.

At South Girvan I had both Red & Black Throated Diver and Razorbill and at Girvan Mains a Great Northern Diver another Red Throat & about 30 Twite. I could not find the reported Black Redstart.

The wind was increasing as the morning progressed & by the time I got to Troon in the afternoon it was pretty strong. I managed a Med Gull at Meikle Crags but no Iceland Gull at Troon Harbour.

Musselburgh & Aberlady

Minus 5 on the way through this morning & still below zero when I arrived at Musselburgh at 08:30. The light was good but disappointingly the sea was pretty empty with only small numbers of Velvet Scoter, Merganser, Goldeneye & Long Tailed Duck and no sign of the Surf Scoter. A few Great Crested Grebes and 1 Red Throated Diver were present.

At the Esk Mouth the tide was going out & despite sifting through the Gulls I couldn't find anything interesting.

Bar Tailed Godwit

Grey Plover

Next stop was Aberlady. A roosting Long Eared Owl roosting in the Buckthorn at the Marl Loch was by far the best. Also loads of Fieldfare feeding on the berries. A tramp over the salt marsh got me c40 Twite & proved that my boots are far from waterproof.

Hogganfield & Strathclyde Loch

Spent an enjoyable 4 hours between the 2 sites on a cold but bright January day. I saw nothing out of the ordinary but tried hard particularly with the Gulls at Strathclyde Park.

Hogganfield had 3 Wigeon but all the Gadwall were gone & there were still no Pochard.

Reflections of Teal....

Juvenile Whoopers

Strathclyde Park had a female Stonechat & a Treecreeper of note.

Part of a large Cormorant flock

Strathclyde Park

The adult Ring Billed Gull was still present but no sign of any of the 2 Iceland Gulls that had been seen over the past few days.

Loch Ryan

After checking out the West Freugh area and Portpatrick & seeing only Pink Feet of note, we headed back to Loch Ryan & checked out the sheltered Wig Bay. There was a good selection here including Great & Slavonian Grebe, Red Breasted Merganser & Black Guillemot. Several Scaup gave close views from the car.

A flock of c50 Brent Geese were in their usual field.

Back in Stranraer I estimated 500 Scaup off the prom along with 2 Pintail. Flock of 10 Golden Plover.1  Hooded Crow.

Earlier I had had a pre breakfast walk up at the 3 Lochs & of note had Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Fieldfare, Redwing & Raven.