FORK Bird Report – June 2007
I will start with the stars of the show who are here. Top of the list is undoubtedly the Goosander, which has bred in the river again after a gap of a couple of years. As I write (10 June) the female is on the river between the Art Galleries and the University, with two half-grown chicks. The young have grown beyond the endearing stage when they leap on mother’s back to move off with her if disturbed.
More of a surprise is the presence of a Dipper at this time of the year – it is usually an autumn visitor. I am trying to observe if it is breeding or not. I described in a previous set of notes the special adaptations it has for underwater pursuit of its insect larvae prey. This bird seems to spurn all that, flying up to take insects in midair, flycatcher style. Our Sandmartins are back at the Benalder Street Bridge. Their numbers are good this year – ten to fifteen in the air at a time – but they seem to be nesting late: there are as yet few comings and goings at the nest-holes. There are a pair of Bullfinch in the arboretum. You have to be patient to spot them in the low branches of the trees, as they are quiet, undemonstrative birds. Worth finding though, as their plumage is stunning, and the different colourings of the male and female complement each other beautifully. Finally, improvements to the Kelvingrove Park pond have not yet attracted much new birdlife, apart from the Moorhens, now up to five adults on the one small pond. They have already had one failed nesting attempt this year (I think the nest sank), but there is now another, more securely built.
Sadly, we have some absentees from the show this summer. I have only had one single Kingfisher sighting, and cannot find any evidence of breeding in the urban part of the river. Grey Wagtails are also much reduced – again no sign of breeding pairs this year. And I’m not seeing Cormorants as often as I did – I continue to wonder if the waterfront roadworks are ‘blocking’ them from coming up the Kelvin.
I suspect that the reason for the ebb and flow of bird species we get from year to year is that the Kelvin is on the borderline as an attractive breeding venue for many species, so that one year we get one half of our possible species present, but the next year it is the other half that appear.
But the surprise element is the half the fun of bird-watching …
This FORK Bird Report is taken from the Summer 07 edition of FORK News