Saturday, October 30, 2010

An afternoon walk along the Cart as far as Hawkhead Estate, and returning via Hawkhead Woodland produced lots of birds in very good numbers. A count of over thirty Stock Doves feeding on stubble west of Leverndale Hospital was particularly notable. The commoner corvids were also present in the area in very good numbers while passerines were represented mainly by Chaffinches flitting between fieldside bushes and Fieldfares "chak"-ing overhead. Only Woodpigeon seemed to be present in smaller numbers than usual.
Plenty of Starlings were whistling from the rooftops and pylons around Hawkhead. Several small birds in the trees around the swing park turned out to be Redpolls [169] (with a few Siskins near the top of Hurlethill). Up at the Hurlet, quite extensive floods had appeared in roadside fields and had attracted good numbers of Black headed Gulls. Finally, raptors included a Buzzard next to the busy Dykebar Roundabout and a male Kestrel disturbed at the entrance to the wood.
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Managed to add Fieldfare and Stock Dove to the Bull Wood/Leverndale square species total (which now stands at 51), Siskin to Hawkhead Woodland (now 36) and Herring Gull to Hawkhead Estate (now 59).