Recent sightings update

Hogganfield Park LNR 13th September
12 (9 males) Ruddy Duck on the loch but no sign of the drake Scaup. Around 25 Swallows and 4 House Martins were feeding over the loch.

SECC, 13th September
Adult Peregrine sitting on top of the Finnieston Crane.

Hogganfield Park LNR 12th September
The moulting drake Scaup and 10 (7 male) Ruddy Ducks are still present on the loch, Pochard numbers building up, now 20 (9 males) present, also 9 House Martins and 4 Swallows feeding over the loch. Nearby 2 Whitethroats were at the east marsh.

Hogganfield Park LNR 11th September
A moulting drake Scaup and 10 (7 male) Ruddy Ducks on the loch, 9 House Martins, 2 Sand Martin and 4 Swallows were feeding over the loch. At the east end of the park there were 13 Siskin and 7 Lesser Redpoll

left: Raven being harassed by a Carrion Crow over Cathkin Marsh.

Cathkin Landfill Site/Cathkin Marsh SWT Reserve; 6th September
1 Raven being harassed by a Carrion Crow, 2 Wheatear, 10 Goldfinch, 30+ linnets, 6 Siskin, 1 Heron, 4 Teal and 4 Swallows moving south.

Thursday 6th September 2007

Went in to SECC at 0945 hrs for a meeting and the Peregrine was perched on the Finnieston Crane, it was still there when I left at 1210 hrs.

Went to Cathkin Marsh SWT Reserve near East Kilbride and had a good view of a Raven being harassed by a Carrion Crow over the landfill site. Also saw 2 Wheatears, 2 Reed Bunting, 6 Siskin, 9 Swallow, 4 Teal and an immature Heron.

Returned to SECC to start work at 1430 hrs and the Peregrine was still perched in the same place, it disappeared for a couple of hours and it was still present at 1800 hrs.

Wednesday 5th September 2007

Adult Peregrine perched on top of Finnieston Crane next to SECC at 1600hrs.

SECC on 24th August 2007

Left: Immature Shag at SECC

An immature Shag on the River Clyde at the SECC was a new species for the site, it was also unusually far upriver for this species.
An adult Peregrine perched on the Finnieston Crane was a more expected sight at 1630hrs, 2 Sand Martins were present in the vicinity of the helipad.

Tuesday 14th & Wednesday 15th August 2007 - Fife Area

Went up to Crail in Fife to visit John Anderson for two days. Despite the weather on the Tuesday we managed to get some great views of Little, Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns.

On Wednesday I managed to get some photo's of an Otter that was sun bathing at Leven Mouth in the morning and then had a good afternoon at Fife Ness with the highlights being a feeding flock of around 200 Little Gulls, 2 Great Skuas, 4 Velvet Scoters and a Sooty Shearwater

My thanks again to John for putting me up for the night (or was that for putting up with me !!!!)

Below are some images from the visit (will post some more when I get round to sorting them out).

Adult Common Tern.

Juvenile Little Tern (1 of 16 fledged from 12 pairs at this particular colony this year).

Adult Little Tern.

A very relaxed Otter at Levenmouth, Fife.

1 of 4 Sanderling at Fife Ness on the 15th.

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).