Out and About in January

Finally I feel I am back to traditional birding in Scotland after the wonderful big year in Latin America.

Whilst I ended 2024 with 1445 birds, I start 2025 with zero the same as everybody else. My first bird of this year was a Robin I heard singing outside and tracked down through the curtains in the early morning light. I was still feeling a bit sore from the celebrations the night before and this lifted my spirits. Impressively my second bird of the year was a Kingfisher as I took a look at the Menstrie Suds Pond when setting out on a new year walk. Nice to be able to point it out to my relatives on the walk and a great start to the birding year.

Early in January we took a walk around Gartmorn Dam. The year list was slowly ticking up with the ducks and geese when I was surprised to add a Great White Egret fishing in the reeds on the North East side of the Loch. I took a walk into the woods and was surprised by a commotion ahead where initially I thought a Sparrowhawk took a pigeon. However upon reviewing my photos you can see that this is actually two Sparrowhawks. The one on top is a juvinille. After I paid too much attention they both flew off.

Great White Egret
Sparrowhawk (Juv)
Goosander (Fem)

Next up I visited Kinneil Lagoons. Descent numbers of the usual waders and sea ducks including 12 Greater Scaup fairly close in the winter light.

Greater Scaup

I was also pleased to see two owls in January. A Barn Owl when on a run which obligingly flew in front on and off perching/flying for about 5-6 minutes. I was also able to find a Tawny Owl roosting behind Broomhall Castle in Menstrie.

By the middle of the month my year list was up to 60 and my friend Rick and I took a trip to Musselburgh. I didnt take the camera around the lagoons as I preferred to take the scope and scan the sea. We had nice views of another kingfisher before adding Common and Velvet Scoters, many Long Tailed Ducks, and surprisingly six Slavonian Grebes. On land we added Twite which can be hard to pick up.

On the way back we detoured via Broadwood Loch where a drake Smew had been recorded the day before. The photos aren’t great as this is digiscoping with my phone but it was a lovely day.

Smew (male)

The light was getting poor but we decided to pop up to Slammanan in the hope of catching a view of the Taiga Bean Goose. Just as the day closed we were able to add a small group of a dozen as they grazed by a nearby copse of trees.

The last good bird of the month was reported at Stirling Uni in the loch they have there. A male Ring Necked Duck. I have seen this bird a few times but was still keen to see it again. As I walked around the loch I scanned the Tufted Ducks looking for the telltale differences – no tuft, white ring and black nail on bill, nike tick on the side. A familiar experience of, “oh is that it…? No. What about that…? No. Oh THAT is it”. It always surprises me how it is often obvious when you actually find the target after you had started to think this birding ID lark was impossible. It was actually the greyer side which really stood out in the field. A nice bird, thanks for popping over from America.