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.

Hogganfield

Hogganfield on a very grey Glasgow morning. The recent freezing conditions had partly frozen some of the loch. C35 Wigeon were present having presumably been forced off somewhere else by the conditions. There were also c15 Whooper Swans, 2 Buzzard & a Kingfisher.

Heron on ice

Gadwall - Digiscoped in poor light (2 of about 6 present)