There were fourteen Mute Swans on the Queen's Park boating pond this afternoon. However no Tufted Ducks were present (possibly all on Maxwell Park Pond where I counted 36 a few days ago).

Today I walked from Castlemilk over the Cathkin Braes down to the James Hamilton Heritage Park, then from Carmunnock back to Castlemilk. Best birds were lots of singing Skylarks and the long-staying drake Scaup on Mains Loch. Two Japanese Cherry trees at the entrance to Castlemilk Swimming Pool did their best to lift what was otherwise a gloomy, blustery day.

Today was another day of persistent rain and gusty winds. However three Stock Doves feeding on the ground at Nether Pollok Playing Fields lifted the gloom a little.  

The two Pollok Rooks' nests which had been started when I checked last Sunday were looking more-or-less finished when I checked today. A pair of Mistle Thrushes were nearby and prominent singers included Song thrush, Greenfinch and Dunnock. There has been a noticeable influx of Lesser Black-backed Gulls into the area, and a corresponding decline in Black-headed Gull numbers.

Some of the best birds at RSPB Loch Leven today consisted of Tree Sparrow, Pintail, Gadwall, Jay and Stonechat. Birds at Hogganfield Loch included Whooper Swan and Oystercatcher. Botanical highlights were flowering Lungwort and Marsh Marigold. Frogspawn was in Hogganfield Marsh.

This morning, five Goosanders were on the stretch of the river in Battlefield where they have overwintered. A lone darke further west may have been guarding a female on a nest. Three wagtails swooping over the tops of the tenements on Kilmarnock Road could have been Pied or Grey. 

An hour spent in an extremely wet Lochwinnoch was mostly taken up counting Rook nests. Here is the summary of the counts I submitted to Birdtrack: "27 nests in the vicinity of Auld Simon Kirkyard; seven nests along East End and seven nests along Gates Road. This gives a total of 41 partially-completed or completed nests. There may have been others elsewhere in the monad but these were the most obvious (noisy) and all concentrated in a relatively small area".