My usual Sunday walk around Crookston Castle and Brock Burn turned up a highly unusual record today in the form of a singing Dipper. A check of birdtrack confirmed that I have only recorded this species once before (on 17th December 2016) in 17 years gathering data for the site. In my home square (nextdoor), I record a Dipper on average, once every two years. I have long since concluded that the rivers running through the two squares (the White Cart and the Brock Burn) lack the shallow, stoney stretches necessary to meet the needs of this specialist feeder. While on the subject of local rarities, the Tufted Duck my son and I found in my home square this afternoon was only the third in seventeen years (after singles on 17th February 2009 and 25th November 2016). Other notable records from the two squares consisted of a singing Willow Warbler (my first of 2025), eight singing Chiffchaffs, three singing Blackcaps, two Kingfishers, five Nuthatches (including one gathering mud to plaster a nest hole) and single Goosander and Cormorant.