Thursday 6 January 2022

Ringing in the New Year in Glasgow 4th January 2022


On New Year's Day I commenced my annual birdlist. Normally this gets off to a lethargic start as inland Oxfordshire, where I currently live, is not blessed with the variety of birds you can find in coastal counties. This year however was different as I was in Lower Largo on the Fife coast of Scotland, literally metres from the huge Largo Bay and all the fabulous seaducks and waders that spend the winter there.

On January 1st, at just after 10am, I stood on Leven Beach promenade, scoped the sea and enjoyed the sight of a flock of ten Long tailed Ducks, the drakes ultra smart in their chocolate brown, grey and white winter plumage. The various other dark blobs visible on the sea materialised, via my scope, into Velvet and Common Scoters, while rafts of Eider swam offshore too.

Sweeping back along the sea with my scope I saw a small, black and white duck with fast beating wings approaching. Seconds later it passed me, not very far offshore, heading west. Predominantly white with black and grey markings and a black bandit mask it was a drake Smew. A definite good find and a great addition to day one of my year list.

Despite the numbers of dog walkers on the beach it is still extensive enough to accommodate  them and allow waders to settle and rest. Sanderlings and the numerous groups of Oystercatchers seemed not to be bothered at all by the disturbance but Turnstones, Ringed Plovers and two Bar tailed Godwits were more circumspect. Later, back at Lower Largo,where we had rented our cottage, at high tide I checked the stone jetty yards from our house and was delighted to discover eleven roosting Purple Sandpipers and double that number of Common Redshanks.
 
After our two week break in Lower Largo we spent a night in Glasgow, as we always do. Tradition dictates that we stay at The Ambassador which suits us just fine as it is in Kelvinside, a nice part of the city and as its name would suggest, right by the River Kelvin.

The broad river flows through the west end of the city in a deep gorge, the banks on either side wooded and with a pathway on either side, down by the river, to walk along. It is a favoured haunt of joggers, dog walkers, tourists and residents who wish to enjoy its pleasant surrounds which provide a welcome alternative to the busy city and its buildings crowding in above the wooded banks of the river.

I took a stroll upriver after we checked in to the hotel, the mid afternoon already beginning to darken as dusk comes earlier in these northern parts and the river, being in a deep wooded gorge, adds to the gloom when you descend to the riverside.

I was looking for a Kingfisher or Dipper to add to my list, both of which can be found on the river but this afternoon all I could see were seven Goosanders, a mixture of drakes and females, whiling away their time under the arching and attractive pedestrian bridge that connects the pathways on either side of the river. They were very tame, doubtless having become used to all the passing human traffic that uses this popular recreational facility. I stopped in the middle of the bridge to muse awhile, looking down at the river, endlessly flowing, fast and strong, a sinuous, opaque mass of olive brown water below me, my thoughts freewheeling and savouring these last few hours in Scotland. 

A small white mark, just visible amongst some snagged broken branches in mid river caught my eye.

Inevitably a river in the middle of a city tends to accumulate random pieces of flotsam from the human population Was it a piece of paper or something else? I looked closer and the white was moving as if being tugged at by the river's current but there was something not quite right and on closer inspection I could see the white was surrounded by a dumpy dark brown body, almost invisible in the gloomy surrounds.

It was a Dipper and as I watched it threw itself, fearlessly into the swirling current and then resurfaced to perch once more on the dead branches, bouncing on flexed legs. It was now almost too dark to see and so I returned to our hotel.

Overnight the weather changed from rain and damp, to a frost cold, bright sunny morning. My wife joined me and we walked downriver this time for half an hour.Nothing much revealed itself apart from a Grey Wagtail and some amorous Stock Doves but walking back, my wife quietly motioned to me that there was a bird perched on the stems of a bush poking out over the river. A Kingfisher!

It flew to the far side of the river and then flew back to settle on a dead  branch overhanging the water. For a minute it did not see us standing motionless on the path but then noticing us flew upriver.A shining jewel of electric blue, flying fast and low above the river.

It was time to collect our things and check out of the hotel but with Mrs U's indulgence there was one more stop to make after leaving the hotel and heading south. A drake Ringed necked Duck was on show just fifteen minutes drive from our hotel, on a lake at Victoria Park in Jordanhill, a suburb of Glasgow. It would not be too much of a diversion to go and add this to my year list before the long drive to Oxfordshire and so this is what we did.

The park was teeming with life, human life in all its myriad forms, this being a public holiday in Scotland. A positive congregation of mums with toddlers and prams had commandeered the play area but I had eyes only for the adjacent small lake, occupied almost exclusively by Tufted Ducks and Black headed Gulls. Somewhere amongst the tufties was the Ring necked Duck but where?

I wandered around the lake on a paved path to a far corner by a small bridge and encountered two local gentlemen with cameras. 

Any sign of the duck? I enquired

To be told........ 

'Aye. It was here but some kids started throwing sticks in the water and it disappeared''. 

This was not the news I was expecting or hoping for.

With Mrs U electing to remain in the car I needed to be quick about finding the duck as we had a long drive in store to get to Oxfordshire. 

I scanned the Tufted Ducks in this corner of the lake with my bins and about the fourth duck I looked at was the Ring necked Duck, fast asleep in the company of some Tufted Ducks. 




'There it is!'

I pointed it out  and we moved closer to get our photos. The duck remained frustratingly fast asleep but eventually woke up, preened some and then went for a lazy swim, posing nicely in the sun.








A nice finale to our stay in Scotland



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