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Clyde Big Birding Day - looking back to last year
In the lead up to this year's Clyde Big Birding day we are going to feature a few of last year's stories as a way of inspiring even more people to get involved this year! #3 - Donald Wilson's Clyde Big Birding Day
Being involved in the Clyde Big Birding Day in an official capacity (member of the SOC Clyde Branch Big Birding Day committee) gave me an understanding of what birds were where generally and who was going to try to record some of the more “difficult” birds. So to that end I decided I would bird my patch around Gartloch first and then see where I ended up.
I set out just after 8am, later than I wanted to and headed for Gartloch pools as I knew there was a lingering and unfortunately injured Pink Footed Goose which would be a good bird to have on the list and I was unaware of any others in Clyde. I spent about an hour and a half birding around the Gartloch pools and then headed to Bishop Loch then Frankfield. I clocked up just over 40 species or so and spent longer than I wanted to as I was BirdTracking, and for some reason at Gartloch I counted every bird seen! I’m glad I did as I notched up 14 singing Sedge Warblers, a record for this site. I then received a message from Stuart Watson asking me what I was up to and that he was at Balmore. I knew Balmore had a good few additions for the day so off I went and met up with Stuart. Again I BirdTracked every bird and there were plenty of birds to count including another 11 Singing Sedge Warblers! I added Jay, Kingfisher, Sand Martin, Oystercatcher and Yellowhammer as well as a few other species to the day’s list. I had in my mind to then get to the coast to add more species for the day. Ardmore was an obvious choice for me and a place I like to bird. The birding was superb with most of the estuary birds on show including Slavonian Grebe, Red Throated Diver, Shag, Eider, Red Breasted Merganser, Linnet, Greenfinch and unusually Wigeon being added to the list. Unfortunately I had to get home by the time we had completed the circuit around Ardmore point as it was after 5pm. We had amassed approximately 90 species between us as Stuart headed to Millichen and then in the evening Palacerigg County Park and with those two sites added Tree Sparrow, Ring-necked Parakeet, Kestrel, Tawny Owl and Long-eared Owl at least. It was a great day and I’m looking forward to next years and looking to see if I can improve on this year’s efforts and my goal will be to record a 100 in a day? I’m not sure if that’s been done before and I love a challenge! Anyone want to join me? Donald Wilson |
Sedge Warbler © John Agnew
Sand Martin © Davie Abraham
Oystercatcher © Davie Abraham
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