Archive - June 2020


Archive - June 2020

Week ending 28th June: Baron's Haugh, Hogganfield Loch LNR

I managed out during the two sunny days we had last week. On Wednesday I headed for RSPB Barons Haugh. To give me the best chance of getting lots of pictures I took my Nikon D500 camera along with my Sigma 105mm macro lens, for flowers and insects, and Sigma 600 mm zoom lens, for more distant subject such as birds and animals. In the car park I got off to a flier with pictures of a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly on Pencilled Cranesbill. On my way down to the Marsh Hide I also got shots of a Meadow Brown on a Bramble flower and just outside the hide, a Green-veined White languishing on Bramble leaves.

Small Tortoiseshell


Meadow Brown	Green-veined White

It was very quiet at the Marsh Hide, yielding no birdies. So I tried the next hide, the Causeway Hide, where I was a bit more successful, getting a nice picture of a Coot. Unfortunately, my stay there was interrupted by an invasion of young people with no sense of how to maintain social distancing. My next stop was the banks of the River Clyde. There I accidentally spooked a pair of nearly mature ducklings. The Phoenix Hide was occupied, but from a quick scan from the side of the hide I could see that there weren’t any birds within 100m. I should say that I could hear plenty birds singing from deep within their leafy covers - Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Robin. In fact, I didn’t see much until I got to the Centenary Hide. From there I spotted a Whitethroat belting out a tune from the top branches of a willow tree. My progress around the reserve was temporarily halted by a small herd of wayward, and big, cows. I only managed to pass when they went for a wee paddle in the River Clyde.

Coot	Juvenile Mallard

Whitethroat	Cow

I decided that for the last stage of my visit I would use the macro lens. First to attract my attention was a Sunfly on a beautiful Blue Sow Thistle flower. I got up close and personal with a Common Clusterfly, managing a shot of its compound eye. On more Bramble I caught an image of a hovering Early Bumblebee. Next I snapped a wee beige Carder Bumblebee hanging onto a tubular flower of Common Comfrey.

Sun Fly	Common Clusterfly

Early Bumblebee	Common Carder Bumblebee

On long grass by the river I was pleased to see one of my favourite damselflies, the Emerald Damselfly. Closeby, I also found Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies. I think they are delightful creatures. These were my last captures at the Haugh but I ended the visit fairly satisfied with my haul of pictures, while disappointed that I hadn’t seen many birds.

Emerald Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly	Blue-tailed Damselfly

The next day I ventured to Hogganfield Park LNR, so confident that I would see birds that I left my macro lens in the car. With the sun still shining merrily I started my circuit of the loch with a shot of a small group Mute Swans gathered at the car park end. There were also many Greylag Geese on the water. I came across a stern-looking Grey Heron posing on one of the artificial islands. It seemed totally unconcerned with passers-by. Further out on the water I could see a female Great Crested Grebe diving for fish, but no sign of the chick I saw last week.

Mute Swans	Greylag Goose

Grey Heron	Great Crested Grebe

On the sandy beach beside the swing park there was a very active assembly of Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. On the east side of the island I photographed a Coot feeding her 3 hungry chicks, and on another of the artificial islands, a fair distance from the lochside, a pair of Great Crested Grebes were swapping places on the nest (If you look carefully between the grebes you can see the tip of the pale-coloured egg).

Black-headed Gull	Lesser Black-backed Gull

Coot	Great Crested Grebe

I next made a slight detour to the area north of the eastside pond where I heard a calling Willow Warbler . Not expecting to see it due to the thick foliage, I was pleasantly surprised when it appeared on the low branches for long enough to get a few decent shots. On the grass I noticed the attractive sight of a Woodpigeon nestled in short grass and daisies. By the pond I found some damselflies - Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Willow Warbler	Wood Pigeon

Common Blue Damselfly	Blue-tailed Damselfly

I caught sight of a pair of Small Heath butterflies cavorting above bramble bushes. I was willing them to land but they continued with their aerobatics until they were out of sight. The picture below gives an impression of the moment. I made my way back to the loch side to continue my circuit and I snapped a Small Tortoiseshell sunning itself on a wee sandy patch. My final shots were of the visit were of the cute variety - Mallard ducklings nibbling breadcrumbs thrown in by children who were delighted to see them - as was I.

Small Heath	Small Tortoiseshell

Mallard Ducklings

It was good to see and photograph some birds that weren’t sparrows or starlings or any of the other birds of my back garden that have been entertaining me over the last three months. I feel I took great advantage of the weather, especially since the rest of the week was wild, wet and windy, and dull. Wee Nicky announced that we would probably be able to travel more than 5 miles after July 3rd. Look out coastal birds, we’ll soon be watching you.

Week ending: 21st June 2020: Jim’s Garden, Hogganﬁeld Loch

We had visit from a wee stranger to our back garden this week, a young Grey Squirrel . It looked hesitant and lost, and after looking around for 10 minutes it nipped oﬀ through the hedge.

Grey Squirrel

The House Sparrows were very active, more than usual, as some had demanding ﬂedglings on tow. They are very messy feeders, good news for the ground feeders, and consequently my supply of seed, nuts and fatballs is nearly exhausted.

House Sparrow

We don’t see much of Mr and Mrs Blackbird since my neighbour felled their nesting tree, although I did catch some shots of the female with a worm. There have been hordes of Starlings swooping in to gorge noisily on the fatballs. In contrast to the neurotic Starlings, the much calmer Woodpigeon (another victim of the felled tree), returned to more calmly gather seed below the feeders. It’s cousins the Feral Pigeons were more frequent visitors, descending from the relative safety of the rooftops until they felt threatened by encroaching humans.

Female Blackbird	Starling

Wood Pigeon	Feral Pigeon

I revisited Hogganﬁeld Park LNR once again this week and found plenty on which to engage my camera, such as the many Mute Swans and Greylag Geese making most of people’s generous gifts of food .

Mute Swans Greylag Geese

At the car park (closed due to the lockdown) I was delighted to get close shots of some familiar birds. Moorhen, Greylag and Lesser Black-backed Gulls must have wondered where the cars have gone that brought their folk with bags of bread. Walkers were now returning though, albeit with more dogs and naughty children to chase the birds into the water. I noticed a naughty Magpie with a chunk of bread it had stolen from a smaller bird.

Moorhen	Greylag Goose

Lesser Black-backed Gull	Magpie

There was a very pale Greylag which may be a leucistic bird or perhaps a hybrid. It’ll be interesting to see if its plumage gets darker later in the year. As I strolled around the Loch I snapped pictures of what still felt like long lost friends, until the recent relaxation of the lockdown. Coot, Mallards and Canada Geese seemed to be getting on very well without us.

Leucistic? Greylag Goose	Coot

Mallard	Canada Goose

The summer wildﬂowers were in full bloom. Meadow Cranesbill caught my eye, as did Ragged Robin and Oxeye Daisies.

Meadow Cranesbill	Ragged Robin

Oxeye Daisy

At the small pond to the east of the Loch I was pleased to see a couple of Greenﬁnches , the female hiding in the bushes and listening to the male rasping its voice atop a Hawthorn bush. In the same area I photographed a Whitethroat clutching a moth in its beak just before it descended into the thorny undergrowth to feed its chicks.

Greenfinch

Whitethroat

At the end of my walk I came across a vicious altercation in the Canada Goose ﬂock. One very angry goose was going spare, over what, I didn’t see. It chased any goose that crossed its path until it had most of the area to itself. Gladly, no birds seemed harmed in the outburst. It was pleasant relief to ﬁnd a few Black-headed Gulls quietly preening on some lochside rocks. That was a bit of a change as it is usually the gulls that make most noise. My last sighting was of a Great Crested Grebe chick close to the bank, too close for its parents who were calling anxiously from the safety of the centre of the Loch. It was encouraged back by the promise of ﬁsh (which unfortunately I didn’t see due to poor light and social distancing concerns).

Canada Goose

Black-headed gull	Great Crested Grebe Juvenile

Hopefully the Scottish Government will consider soon a further relaxation of the lockdown regulations to allow travel to the coasts. If they do, I suspect John and I might need to get some camouﬂaged face masks, which, when you think of it, is not a bad idea anyway, considering we’re trying to hide from the birds in the ﬁrst place.

Week ending: 14th June 2020: Hogganﬁeld Loch LNR

Encouraged by a statement by the steadfast Professor Jason Leitch, that we could “drive around 5 miles to exercise”, I thought I’d revisit one of my usual (pre-lockdown) haunts, Hogganﬁeld Park LNR. The car park there was closed oﬀ, but I was able to get a space amongst the many cars parked along Cumbernauld Road, and it wasn’t long before I was walking the lochside footpath, once again enjoying the natural delights of one of Glasgow’s ﬁnest parks. First to catch my eye was a Red Admiral Butterﬂy resting on a Yellow Flag Iris leaf. There were many bees on the Iris ﬂowers, such as the Garden Bumblebee. Nearby on one of the artiﬁcial islands I snapped a well-lit Female Tufted Duck. I also managed to catch a shot of a Moorhen as it beat a hasty retreat from some advancing swans.

Red Admiral	Garden Bumblebee

Female Tufted Duck	Moorhen

The were a couple of families of Mute Swans on the Loch. I watched cygnets feeding in the lochside reed beds, carefully tended by their parents, ever-alert to the threat of untended dogs, of which, sadly, there were a few.

Mute Swan

In the eastern section of the park, less busy than the main thoroughfare, I watched a Magpie devour seed left out for that very purpose. Not long afterwards, a Whitethroat appeared on a path-side tree branch. On the pond there were a few Tufted Ducks and Coots but little else.

Magpie	Whitethroat

Tufted Duck	Coot

As I made my way back to the Loch I passed an area of rough ground that contained Ragged Robin, ﬂowers that lives up to their name. At the edge of the Loch there were a few wild orchids. The two species that I noticed were the Northern Marsh Orchid and, just coming into bloom, the Common Spotted Orchid . The latter was surrounded by Yellowrattle and Meadow Buttercups, a very pretty sight.

Ragged Robin	Northern Marsh Orchid

Common Spotted Orchid

I was delighted to see several pairs of Great Crested Grebes, one of my favourite birds. I watched one pair feeding their ever-pleading chick with ﬁsh.

Great Crested Grebe

There were a couple of geese species present. Greylag Geese mingled with the Mute Swan ﬂock, each eager to receive food from kind people carrying bags of bread. Gathered in the middle of the Loch was a sizeable ﬂock of Canada Geese , who seemed to be sleeping. Maybe they’d had a hard night ﬂying. Also resting were a small colony of Lesser Black-backed Gulls on a pontoon that has been relocated further from the path than on my last visit. A couple of Greylags were sleeping in the middle of motley collection of Lesser Black-backs.

Greylag Goose	Canada Goose

Lesser Black-backed Gull	Lesser Black-backed Gull 4th Cycle

By the edge of the Loch, a single Black-headed Gull was scratching its head just as a Grey Heron ﬂew in to survey the shallows for a tasty morsel, perhaps a frog? A Little Grebe appeared on the scene, making repeated dives in search of small ﬁsh. My ﬁnal shot of the visit was of a Carrion Crow surveying the small sandy beach at the south end of the Loch, waiting for a feeding opportunity no doubt.

Black-headed Gull	Grey Heron

Little Grebe	Carrion Crow

It was certainly nice to get back to Hogganﬁeld, but, have no doubt, it was not as relaxed a place as it had been. Most people were obviously anxious to observe social distance rules, but a few irritating eejits were not as sensible and were causing tempers to rise. Let’s hope that wee Nicola is able to lead us out of the nightmare before too long, despite them.

Week ending: 7th June 2020: Strathclyde Park

This week’s blog mainly documents the delights of a particular walk in Strathclyde Country Park . The walk along the South Calder Water river, that ﬂows into the northeast of Strathclyde Loch, is entirely wooded and lined with wild ﬂowers. My walk there started with a newbie for me at that site, the Wood Cranesbill. By the riverside there were many tall Dames Violet plants freshly in bloom and in sunlit passages, star-like Greater Stitchwort ﬂowers were attracting insects. As I wandered under an impressive arched railway bridge, a main line from Glasgow to London, I spotted a patch of Lady’s Mantle growing through short grass.

Wood Cranesbill	Dames Violet

Greater Stitchwort	Lady's Mantle

I came across a section of the riverbank that was lined with ﬂowering Common Comfrey. To the sound of many bees working from ﬂower to ﬂower I photographed Common Carder, White and Buﬀ-tailed Bumblebees, the latter two were large queen bees as big as your thumb. As I passed a rocky limestone outcrop I noticed some pink ﬂowers of Herb Robert clinging in a narrow damp crack.

Carder Bumblebee	Herb Robert

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Along the path edges I found several places where Water and Wood Avens were ﬂourishing. Both species were starting to form spiked seed heads.

Water Avens

Wood Avens

As I neared the path’s end I managed a lovely shot of a Marmalade Hoverﬂy resting on a sunlit blade of tall grass. I also caught a Grey Squirrel trying to look invisible, clinging upsidedown on a tree, before it realised it wasn’t working and hastily scampered upwards. I crossed the short distance to the Foreshore Carpark. It was completely empty of cars (the Park was closed to cars due to the Lockdown). As I scanned it for wildﬂowers I was surprised to ﬁnd Common Blue Damselﬂies, who are water-dwelling, on the grassy verges. The Loch is about 100m away from the car park.

Marmalade Hoverfly	Grey Squirrel

Common Blue Damselfly

I photographed Red and White Clover, and, in the same family (pea) , tiny Hop Trefoil. Beside a low wall the were a few Yarrow plants.

Red Clover	White Clover

Hop Trefoil	Yarrow

Another common roadside plant, the exotically-named Pineapple Mayweed , was growing in the kerbside. It is actually native to Asia and is a favourite food for foragers. Buzzing of bees attracted me to large bushes of Dog Rose and Rhododendrons. I found mainly Red-tailed Bumblebees deep in the large ﬂowers.

Pineapple Mayweed	Rhododendron

Red-tailed Bumblebee	Dog Rose

There was a large ﬂock of Greylag Geese grazing by the Loch. They were conscious of the many walkers and their dogs and took to the water for safety if they perceived danger. Some on the west side of the Loch had goslings. I noticed a more brightly-coloured pair amongst the more usual dull ochre ones. I suspect these will grow up to be hybrids. Tufted Ducks accompanied the geese on the water but never emerged onto dry land.

Greylag Geese

A very conspicuous white goose was with the Greylags. It was a domestic Embden Goose, probably an escapee from a farm or collection. I snapped a few of the very common birds seen around the Loch. These include Jackdaws, Carrion Crows and Mute Swans. Only a few years ago there were few Greylags and large and swelling number of Swans, but now the Greylags far outnumber the Swans.

Emden Goose	Jackdaw

Mute Swan	Carrion Crow

I hope I’ve given a ﬂavour of the natural delights of the paths along the South Calder water, and Strathclyde Country Park in general. It is a wonderful resource, more known for its water sporting activities, but it is a fact that far more people use it for walking than sailing or canoeing. Give it a try.

Highlights - June 2020

We present picture highlights for June 2020. I’ve grouped them in a series of themes with no commentary. I hope the pictures speak for themselves.

WINGS

Canada Goose	Mute Swan

Starling, Juvenile and Adult

PERCHING BIRDS

Feral Pigeon	Rosy Starling

Whitethroat	Willow Warbler

INSECTS

Common Clusterfly	Early Bumblebee

Hoverfly - Eristalsis Abustorum	Garden Bumblebee

Hoverfly - Syrphus Ribesii	White-tailed Bumblebee

DAMSELFLIES

Azure Damselfly	Emerald Damselfly

HOT CHICKS

Juvenile Coot	Juvenile Great Crested Grebe

Juvenile Greylag Goose	Juvenile House Sparrow

Juvenile Mallard	Juvenile Mute Swan

WILDFLOWERS

Blue Sow Thistle	Dog Rose

Hedge Woundwort	Herb Robert

Meadow Cranesbill	Yellow Rattle

BUTTERFLIES

Meadow Brown	Red Admiral

Ringlet	Small Tortoiseshell

WEE COCK SPARRAS

House Sparrows