| Baron's Haugh R.S.P.B. Reserve Spring 2007. Birds,Nature |
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| As I wandered down the wooded path from a rather vandalised and under-developed car park I became increasingly excited as I descended into the valley of the River Clyde. Baron’s Haugh is a RSB-protected estate sited on the flood plain of one of Scotland’s greatest rivers. |
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A
well-wrapped horse seemed totally disinterested in my scuffling
presence as I searched for the hides with my little load of camera
gear. Before long I found one, impressively set at the end of
an modest avenue of trees. It had recently been painted - to (as
I was told by some birders later) cover up the graffiti. |
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These
buildings sometimes hide truanting adolescents – evidenced
by discarded beer and wine containers. |
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I
set up my gear and I was soon snapping away merrily. A Canada
Goose caught my attention |
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A
Ruddy Duck was scooting about with its blue beak. |
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| I got a great picture of the South end of a Moorhen heading North! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| This Moorhen just doesn’t want to let me see its face! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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What’s
this I see in the middle of the loch? Surely it isn’t –
yes it is! – a Cormorant. |
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Plenty
of Coots too (– or is the plural Coot?) |
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| I'm sorry, but this chick is ugly! ( John P) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Having
satisfied myself that I had captured all I was going to from this
hide I set off round the loch to one of the other hides. I could see that there was plenty of waterfowl activity there and I was determined to get some of it into my Nikon Coolpix camera. |
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At
the next hide a pair of Great Crested Grebe with chick on the
mother's back (can you see it?) were swimming not far from the
hide. |
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I
was alerted by a familiar birdcall – surely it was a Heron.
It was coming from the Clyde. I rushed out of the hide with my
tripoded digiscope to be greeted with a regal sight – a handsome Grey Heron standing at attention surveying it's realm. |
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On
return to the hide I looked more carefully at what I thought was
a pair of Mallards – No! The grey heads and orange beaks
lead me to
believe they are Gadwalls ( or is it Gadwall?) |
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I
decided that I now had a fair haul of pictures to take home to
my computer. So I set off round the path and up the brae to the
car park. As I was
about to get into the car a Chaffinch whistled to me from the
bough of a Ash tree. |
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And
bounding and walking on the grass below this was a Magpie. Its
bold craaaaking call seemed to say to me “what are you looking
– beat it!” I was going anyway! |
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