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Sat 6th March 10.30 a.m. Get fit, get a warm glow and help improve the quality of our river for wildlife and for everyone! Wear old clothes and strong shoes or wellies. We will provide gloves and grabbers. Meet at Kelvinbridge Subway Station, Great Western Road. We usually finish around 12 Sat 6th February 10.30 a.m. Get fit, get a warm glow and help improve the quality of our river for wildlife and for everyone! Wear old clothes and strong shoes or wellies. We will provide gloves and grabbers. Meet at Ha’penny Bridge House, just outside the west end of the Botanic Gardens, off Ford Road. Or cross the Botanic Gardens Bridge and turn left along the walkway. We usually finish around 12 Well, how delighted were most of you with the last issue emailed to all who have an email address? Full of colour as well as literary delight? Those who received it in magazine form, through the post, at greater expense to us missed out on the colour. This a historic issue as well, as it is the last issue edited by Susan Milligan. Actually, it is being edited by both Susan and Debra Hopkins, who is being good enough to take over as editor. So a big thank-you to them both, one to Susan for six years of hard work, and the other to Debra, who has taken this on as a very new FORK. Cliff Giddings has organised two excellent canoe trips on Loch Lomond. I am not a canoeist so cannot judge, but have heard how good they have been and they are free! A FORK has hired Cliff to take her, members of her family and work colleagues on a trip and they loved it. Now there is a Christmas present with a difference! I have written about our (that is ‘our’ rather than FORK’s) goldfinches that feed outside the window I can look out of as I write. They continue to arrive no matter what the weather. Recently, a very handsome bird of prey – a male sparrowhawk – arrived and sat on our rowan tree. To my knowledge, it was the first time Fionna or I had ever seen one, but he was unmistakable! What an excitement! I may say the goldfinches have made themselves very scarce which is not surprising, as we read that the sparrowhawks’ main dishes are finches and birds of a similar kind. Yesterday FORK was invited to have a stall in Anniesland College’s hall. Charles Thompson, of Ha’penny Bridge House fame, arranged a splendid show. We were up and running from 10 a.m. to shortly before 2 p.m. There were six other stalls. We were beautifully looked after, being treated to warm scones with butter and jam, and tea and coffee, and lunch in their excellent refectory. The natural follow-on from this is that we will be able to attend, with Charles’s permission, many more public events and so get our name better known. Our (Fionna’s and my) little car can transport Charles and his exhibition with ease and yesterday Ann Brackenridge was good enough to join us in case we got too busy for Charles and me to cope. If anyone has not attended any of Louis Kitchen’s river ‘three-minute kicks’ before or after our clean-ups, they are excellent and fascinating I am told! (See page 11.) Louis (one pronounces the ‘s’ at the end of his name) is a highly qualified biologist and we are jolly lucky to have him. So, those of you who rather like this idea, come along to the clean-ups! And while talking about them, the barbecue that Charles cooked us after the last clean-up was excellent and fun. Most of us ate it in the dry and comparatively warm Ha’penny Bridge House. In the summer there were several Mallard broods on the river and Song Thrushes were seen feeding young opposite the Arboretum and downstream near the new extension to Glasgow Academy. Robins, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Wrens and Long-tailed Tits all bred successfully but the Sparrowhawks did not return to last year’s nest site near Belmont Street bridge. In July a Heron at the fish ladder beside the weir was seen feeding on a plentiful supply of eels, swallowing them after a rather undignified struggle. A nearby Herring Gull was not so lucky, losing the fight when the eel succeeded in wriggling free and dropping back into the river. Cormorants, Moorhen and Dipper are also present, and sightings of Kingfisher have been more frequent in the Kelvinbridge/Kelvingrove Park area. Grey Wagtails were observed at Dawsholm, in the Arboretum and near Belmont Street bridge. The last Swifts were seen in mid-August but numbers seemed low this year. By the end of October there were five Goosanders by the Botanic Gardens footbridge – four females and a juvenile male. A week later two males had joined the group. On 16 November a male Blackcap was eating rowanberries – normally insectivorous, Blackcaps, like other  Male Backcap. Picture: Hazel Mills species such as Dunnocks, Robins, Blackbirds and thrushes, change their diet in autumn to take advantage of the abundant supply of fruits. The Blackcap is about the size of a Great Tit but a more slender build, with a medium-sized blue-grey beak and grey legs. The black cap of the male gives the species its name – in females and young birds the cap is a russet brown. Scotland has about 56,000 breeding pairs but in winter the population drops to somewhere between 150 and 1,000 birds. These are not breeding birds who have stayed behind to overwinter here – it is believed that Scottish breeding birds are all migrants, leaving their breeding sites in August and September to spend the winter in Africa, north of the Sahara. Our winter Blackcaps are likely to be migrants from central and northern Europe. To end this report I have included a species list, compiled over the last few years, of birds seen along the Kelvin from Dawsholm down to Benalder Street bridge. At present the total stands at 48 species but I am sure readers will be able to add to this from their own observations. How lucky we are to have to have such amazing diversity on our doorstep. Please do get in touch with any additional species. I would be delighted to hear from you.
This FORK Bird Report is taken from the Winter 2009-10 edition of FORK News On 21 JAN three volunteers under the direction of the depute convener Charles Thompson met up at HBH to do a mend , fix and recycle day . Charles said the aim of the day was to highlight some changes with the use of HBH and also to get our hands dirty by sorting broken or unwanted items out and doing general maintenance and cleaning. The day was successful in that a few items were repaired, unwanted items recycled and the place was left that bit tidier. Images attached enjoy .
Best regards,
Last winter walkI was fortunate enough to join five other intrepid FORK volunteers who braved the weather and accompanied one of Charles and Allan informal winter walks. The pace of the day was suitably informal and catered for those, who wanted to view some of the Rivers Wildlife and those interested in our heritage. Along with gaining a fascinating insight from Charles on the significance of some structures along the Kelvin a wide variety of birds were spotted, including dippers, tufted duck, wagtails, long tailed tits, heron, cormorant, merganser and a possible sighting of a golden eye (this sighting did evoke some discussion). We all made our way back to HBH where we had a winter warmer in the form of hot baileys and headed back to our respective abodes. The two events on the 15th Dec and 15th Jan respectively went very well and I understand that they will continue. There has also been a suggestion that there may be some similar walks in the future perhaps combining a walk with a stop off to enjoy a bite to eat. Best regards Hi there. Just a reminder that there is an open invite to come along to HBH on this Friday 15th January, for a nature walk and coffee. An informal gathering aimed just for people to enjoy the area and share Natural history and heritage knowledge. Dress for a cold winters day and turn up for 10.30 am. It is a second of these fork activities and I will be the first aid qualified FORK volunteer. Thanks Allan Shreenan Sat 2nd January 10.30 a.m. Get fit, get a warm glow and help improve the quality of our river for wildlife and for everyone! Wear old clothes and strong shoes or wellies. We will provide gloves and grabbers. Meet at Kelvingrove Park at War Memorial (park entrance at Kelvin Way Toilets and over main Bridge) We usually finish around 12 There’s also a barbecue after ever clean-up Winter Gathering – 15 DecemberDue to lack of interest there will not be an organised talk and nature walk with hot drinks , However , Ha’penny Bridge House will be open for those members wishing to drop in between 10.30 and 14.30 tomorrow . All Welcome . FairbridgeJust to inform members that HBH will be getting used by Fairbridge (Strathclyde) on the 17,18 and 21 Dec 09 for a drumming workshop called ‘ jamit ‘ . So between 10.30 and 14.00 on those days, there will be a group of approximately eight young persons with a worker learning drumming skills , please be aware . This is the second large community charity, based in Glasgow to use HBH as a venue and to work in partnership with FORK It is hoped that this particular group headed up by Colin Gourlay will choose FORK and HBH in the future . |
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