Thursday 30th January

Rain. 7/11/8c. SW4-6

Got invited out with 3 lads from the Clyde Birds Facebook group and despite the truly horrible weather i had a brilliant time with 3 new species* added to my Clydeside list.

MUGDOCK CP

Common Buzzard 1

Ring-necked Duck 1 *

Jay 1 *

HERITAGE LOCH

Greater Scaup 1 (1st Winter drake) *

HOGGANFIELD LOCH

Whooper Swan 9

Roe Deer 3

We visited 3 other sites but dipped on our target species (Black Grouse, Great Grey Shrike & Ring-billed Gull). Think it was asking too much to add 6 new species in the one day.

Ring-necked Duck

Greater Scaup

Scarlet Elfcup

Tuesday/Wednesday

Not a lot happening over the last 2 days apart from a few pics. The first 2 being from the canal on Tuesday and the rest from a quick visit to the Glasgow Botanics on Wednesday.

Edinburgh part 2

A few shots from the Royal Mile & backstreets.

Edinburgh 24th January

Has I said in my previous post, we were going to spend the weekend in Edinburgh for Linda`s birthday. Our room in the guest house we chose is beautiful and well worth the money...and in my 55 years it`s the first time i`ll have ever slept in a 4 poster bed.

As time was ticking on, we had a quick cuppa then out to capture the last hour of daylight and the first hour of darkness.

Thursday 23rd January

Sunny spells. 8/9/7c. SW3

RIVER KELVIN (Garrioch Rd > Inn Deep)

Felt more like Spring than the middle of Winter and that was emphasised with a couple of my sightings.

Dipper 2 (1 in full song)

Grey Wagtail 1

Hawthorn Shieldbug 3

Snowdrops

Spring Squill

Spring Snowflake

We`re off to Edinburgh for the weekend for Linda`s birthday, so i don`t think there`ll be much wildlife but there`ll be ample opportunity for a few scenic/architectural pics.

What a week...

...last week was!!

Nice to have something to blog about now that the weather has settled down after the strong winds & frequent heavy rain.

Anyway, the main highlight was a Great Spotted Woodpecker that came into our back court to feed on the suet balls, yesterday. I managed to grab a record shot thru the kitchen window.

Thursday 9th January

Rain. Sunny from mid-morning. 3/6/-1c. NE2

F&C CANAL (Ruchill St > Clydebank)

Just the usual/regular species seen...but one of them provided a first ever scenario for me.

Cormorant 10 (8 River Kelvin)

Grey Heron 4

Mute Swan 9

Tufted Duck 26

Goosander 5

Sparrowhawk 1

Grey Wagtail 1

Fox 6 (inc a pair coupled together/mating)