Birders enjoy spotting species at Lochgilphead
On a cold and frosty late November morning, a dozen well-wrapped folk met at the Corran car park in Lochgilphead on at the start of a trip to Loch Gilp, the Add estuary and the Moine Mhor nature reserve – with a view to spotting all the bird species they could find.
The Argyll Bird Club provides monthly field trip outings around mainland Argyll led by experienced bird watchers.
Notched
The outing on Saturday November 30 got off to a good start, with 20 or so species notched up in the first 10 minutes, the appearance of a little egret being the highlight out on the mud at Loch Gilp.
This bird, a species normally associated with warmer climes, has been a feature there in recent weeks. In recent years, however, it has been increasing in Scotland as a result of the warming climate.
More unexpected was a second little egret that flew in to the Corran corner followed by a third later at the Add estuary. A kingfisher was flushed from the front green bank by a sparrowhawk looking for prey but fortunately evaded capture.
The group of ‘birders’ were quizzed by many town folk asking if something special had attracted the group with telescopes and binoculars scanning over the loch.
What many folk often don’t realise is that Loch Gilp is ‘special’ and a fantastic place for bird life, particularly in winter, when several hundred duck such as wigeon, merganser and goldeneye as well as waders such as curlew, redshanks and godwits come here to feed on the mud and roost along the banks of the Corran.
From regular counts of these species over decades, it is clear that Loch Gilp and its surrounding shores could easily be regarded as Lochgilphead’s local nature reserve and worthy of protection. The group moved down to Ardrishaig where another kingfisher was spotted and then a search out to Loch Fyne produced red-throated divers and two purple sandpipers on Duncuan Island, plus a fox spotted foraging the shore down from Lingerton landfill.
Highlights
Moving across to the Add estuary, a group of six whooper swans were found resting and other highlights included a golden eagle over Duntrune and an adult peregrine falcon over the bird hide at Bellanoch.
Altogether, a total of 58 bird species were recorded, which is not too bad for a winter’s day.
For more information about outings and the Argyll bird club, contact the Argyll bird recorder Jim Dickson by email at Argyllbirder@ outlook.com