Category: Glasgow City

While making a coffee in the kitchen, Dowanhill Bob, our local sparrowhawk, swooped into the tree adjacent to our kitchen window, perching on a branch about one metre from the window. He happily sat there for a while, looking round for prey, not bothering with us behind the kitchen window at all.

For the first time in weeks, I did not have my Canon handy so I grabbed my little Lumix LX5 compact and took a few shots at it’s maximum zoom of a meagre 90mm. These two images are cropped a little, but not much, showing how close Bob actually was.

I then went downstairs to get my Canon and Lola ran after me barking her head off. Surprisingly, on my return to the kitchen, I found Bob still sitting on the branch. I aimed the camera but saw nothing. While I removed the lens cap, Bob had enough and flew away.

It still amazes me how many people always congregate at the weir in the River Kelvin to admire the heron fishing on the far side, and how few people actually notice this lovely loud and active little bird when walking along the river.

The dippers loud call ‘zit, zit, zit’, similar to that of the wren, is a dead give away. On hearing bird’s call, it is always easily spotted due to its white chest and continuously bobbing movements.

This afternoon, I spotted this dipper on the other bank with the wreck of a car as a backdrop, making for a contrasting image. After the bird moved along the bank a little, I got the opportunity to take some shots ‘unspoiled’ by men, getting as close as possible by stepping on some stones in the water. When I turned to step back onto the bank of the river, I realised that I was the attraction of passers by. My jaw dropped when they asked me what on earth I was taking a picture of.

It’s a very wise dipper, staying on the safe and dark side of the river, as far away as possible from the walkway, busy with people and dogs. The little dipper is undeterred by the action on the other side of the river, and is continuously bobbing on the rocks and dipping in and out of the water. Occasionally, it will swim on or even below water in search of food.

Unfortunately, the river is too wide at this point to get close enough, even with 400mm, so the shots below are heavily cropped, in addition to being taken at high ISO and slow shutter speeds.

Dowanhill Bob, our local sparrowhawk, has been ruling the roost in the West End this winter, terrorising our garden residents, including siskins, goldfinches, robins, chaffinches, great tits, coal tits, blue tits, tree sparrows and even wood pigeons. The only birds that stand up to him and chase him away are the crows.

Our garden used to be teeming with little birds, but since Bob has appeared on the scene, it has been extremely quiet. And when the birds are in our garden, they are visibly on edge, looking round from a branch in the undergrowth, swooping into the seed feeder, grabbing a sunflower heart, and swooping off into the undergrowth to eat it. A complete contrast to last winter, when literally hundreds of birds were in our garden feasting on the seeds, fighting for a spot on the feeder.

We have been seeing Bob daily, when he swoops into Athol lane and perches on the tree at the back of our garden or sometimes on top of the seed feeder in the middle of our garden. Unfortunately, the tree in the back is too far away to get any decent shots, but when he is on the seed feeder, he is within good range as you can see.

He is lovely coloured male and hopefully I’ll be able to get some shots of him in flight soon.

While walking along the River Kelvin, halfway between the Botanics and Kelvinbridge, I spotted a pair of Goosanders standing on the rocky shallows in the middle of the river. The drake had it’s head tucked under his wings, probably having a well earned siesta on the chilly afternoon, but the duck was busy cleaning herself.

I think that, unlike with most ducks (and birds), the duck (female) is actually more beautiful than the drake (male). And I just love the combination of the detail of her feathers with the turned head with crown.

We have seen this Sparrowhawk swooping through our garden for some time now, but three times this week, I’ve actually walked into the kitchen seeing it perched on a branch less than a foot away from the kitchen window. On all three occasions, it had, unfortunately, flown away by the time I got my camera from the hall and sneaked back in to take a close up shot.

This afternoon, it flew into the tree at the bottom of our garden, perched high up, waiting for prey such as the tits and finches that frequent our seed feeders. I took a few shots, although it was just too far away for a real cracker.

Now my camera is ready in the kitchen, ready for the next encounter. I may actually need to park myself with my laptop at the kitchen table tomorrow, keeping my eyes peeled, as a Sparrowhawk swooping down to catch a garden bird is a mouthwatering prospect.

While taking Lola out for a walk along the River Kelvin in the West End of Glasgow, I spotted two cormorants sitting on a derelict railway pillar in the middle of the river. Even though it was a very damp, dark and overcast afternoon, I took my camera out of the bag to make an attempt at taking some shots of these magnificent large water birds.

It was so dull that I had to crank the ISO up to 3200 to get the exposure, while still only achieving a very slow 1/80 at f5.6 handheld using my 70-200mm lens with 2x extender. Above all, it was not easy getting a clear view of either of the two cormorants due to the straggly trees obscuring my view and thorny branches swinging in my face, but I eventually managed to get a few good shots of both birds.

While taking some shots of one of the cormorants, I noticed a movement on the far bank and was surprised to see an urban fox out on the hunt in the middle of the afternoon. Unfortunately, the fox disappeared very quickly out of view after I had managed two shots with the cormorant in focus and the fox out of focus in the undergrowth. The best one of the two (above) probably qualifies for a ‘spot the fox’ competition.

The apparent stalking of the fox and vulnerability of the cormorant in the above shot is in fact an illusion. The two birds were quite safe, sitting high and dry (ok, not quite so dry) on a 10 foot high pillar in the middle of the river, with the fox merely passing on the far away river bank, as the last image illustrates.

Once again, today has proved: never leave home without a camera, irrespective of what the weather is like.