Palacerigg Country Park; 2045 - 2220 hrs

Long-eared Owl at Palacerigg

Wednesday 11th July
Went for a walk through Palacerigg Country Park in Cumbernauld, we walked along the trail through the moor and at 22oo hrs we came across an adult Long-eared Owl and 2 juveniles in a small conifer plantation. The juveniles were very elusive but the adult flew around us a couple of times giving great views.
There was also a male Kestrel hunting over the moor and several Meadow Pipits were present - John Molloy & Caroline Brown
Sightings from 9th July
While waiting for the bus on the way to work I was greeted by the calls of 2 Crossbills which flew SW over Alexandra Parade Train Station, Dennistoun, Glasgow at 0630 hrs.

Sightings from 4th July
I was contacted by Judy Hyde and Helen Armstrong regarding a day out birding, they were over from Connecticut, USA and were keen to go birding around Glasgow. I picked them up from Finnieston at 0725 hrs and we headed for Baron's Haugh; we managed to get good views of Grasshopper Warbler, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Gadwall, Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting, A Greenshank was seen from the Centenery Hide but it flew off over the hide. We then headed to Hogganfield Park LNR to have a look at the Geese and ducks on the loch as well as good views of Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Whitethroat and Grey Heron around the east marsh.
After Hogganfield Park we headed for Cloch Point, I had mentioned the possibility of Manx Shearwater there and Judy was keen to see them. When we arrived at Cloch Point we were greeted by 12 Manx Shearwater headeing north and they were close in so we got great views, we also had good views of Gannet, Shag, Eider and some distant views of Kittiwake and Manx Shearwater feeding offshore towards Kilcreggan.
After a food stop at the Hungry Monk at Langbank we drove a short distance to West Ferry as Judy was keen to see Shelduck, the birds were distant but we managed to get some good views through the telescope, we also saw Common Tern, an Osprey hunting at Dumbarton Rock before flying off towards Havoc, 5 Goldeneye, large numbers of Curlew, 6 Linnet and several Meadow Pipits. Judy was very keen and it was great to see her reaction when she got one of her several 'lifers', it was a good day out with a total of 67 species (not bad for the Clyde area in July).