allanpcameron
Well-known member
All winter I been hearing of waxwings all over Scotland and never seen one.
Over the winter there are a large number of red berry trees beside the M8 motorway through Glasgow and I always thought that'd be a good place for waxwings to congregate. But how do you slow down to look closely at the trees beside a fast flowing motorway!
There's a website with sightings for the Clyde area (www.clydebirds.co.uk) which I follow and it kept saying there are waxwings on these very trees, able to be seen from the road parallel to the motorway (Fastnet St Cranhill). So for days I've been driving along the road, hoping I don't look too suspicious to the locals. Today, after many days times trying, there they were, certainly around a dozen waxwings feeding happily. That's a new life list one for me.
Yesterday I went to Ardmore Point which is on the river Clyde and saw some wheatears, one male, two females. I was glad because that was the bird that got me back into birding. I was at my neice's wedding last September in Northern Ireland and saw some birds, and at the time I thought, "I used to know the name of those!", when I got back and looked them up they were wheatears. So to see them again now in April is a great pleasure. Also yesterday: shelducks, eiders, red breasted mergansers, redshanks, curlews, meadow pipits, pied wagtails, jackdaws, carrion crows, longtailed tits, oystercatchers, but the wheatears were the highlight.
Also, things are going really well with my garden feeders. I've regularly four tits, (great, blue, long-tailed and coal). four finches (gold, chaff, green and bull), large numbers of siskins, the usual garden suspects of robins, blackbirds, sparrows,dunnocks, starlings, collared doves and wood pigeons. Yesterday a beautiful redpoll, again a lifer for me!
Over the winter there are a large number of red berry trees beside the M8 motorway through Glasgow and I always thought that'd be a good place for waxwings to congregate. But how do you slow down to look closely at the trees beside a fast flowing motorway!
There's a website with sightings for the Clyde area (www.clydebirds.co.uk) which I follow and it kept saying there are waxwings on these very trees, able to be seen from the road parallel to the motorway (Fastnet St Cranhill). So for days I've been driving along the road, hoping I don't look too suspicious to the locals. Today, after many days times trying, there they were, certainly around a dozen waxwings feeding happily. That's a new life list one for me.
Yesterday I went to Ardmore Point which is on the river Clyde and saw some wheatears, one male, two females. I was glad because that was the bird that got me back into birding. I was at my neice's wedding last September in Northern Ireland and saw some birds, and at the time I thought, "I used to know the name of those!", when I got back and looked them up they were wheatears. So to see them again now in April is a great pleasure. Also yesterday: shelducks, eiders, red breasted mergansers, redshanks, curlews, meadow pipits, pied wagtails, jackdaws, carrion crows, longtailed tits, oystercatchers, but the wheatears were the highlight.
Also, things are going really well with my garden feeders. I've regularly four tits, (great, blue, long-tailed and coal). four finches (gold, chaff, green and bull), large numbers of siskins, the usual garden suspects of robins, blackbirds, sparrows,dunnocks, starlings, collared doves and wood pigeons. Yesterday a beautiful redpoll, again a lifer for me!