I contacted Hallie Mason from Ohio in the US about bird watching around Glasgow while attending the EAPC Conference from 10-12 June at the SECC. Her details were passed on to me by Val Wilson (assistant Clyde Bird Recorder) and coincidently she was attending the conference which was being held at the centre.

I arranged to meet her at her hotel on Tuesday 8 June at 8.15am. After introducing myself we headed for the Baron’s Haugh RSPB reserve near Motherwell, it’s a great place to see a good variety of local birds and many of them were new birds to Hallie (lifers as they are known to keen birders) including the Lapwing, a bird that Haillie was hoping to see. The expression on a birders face when seeing a new bird is priceless; it’s one of the greatest pleasures of showing visitors around your local area.

After leaving Baron’s Haugh we stopped off in Strathclyde Park to look through the gulls as Haillie wanted to get a look at Common Gulls which obligingly gave close views to Hallie’s delight, she was also taken by the local Black-headed Gulls in summer plumage.

After a short visit to Strathclyde Park we headed for Lochwinnoch RSPB reserve as the weather was awful and the visitor centre had a feeding station where the birds can be viewed at close range from the comfort of the visitor centre. Hallie was particularly pleased to see the Collared Doves, a bird that had eluded her in the US. We also had great views of a female and juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker coming in to the feeders, we also seen Great, Coal and Great Tits and Reed Buntings at close range which Hallie enjoyed very much.

We headed a short way along the road to look for Dippers but unfortunately they weren’t to be seen. We then went along to Castle Semple Loch for a quick look on the loch and had very close up views of the local Black-headed and Common Gulls, I think Hallie is coming around to the charms of gull watching, they are a challenge but it can be rewarding to check through gull flocks for any rarer species among them.

After leaving Castle Semple Loch we headed off through Lochwinnoch village and headed along through Bridge of Weir on the way to the Clyde Estuary. Amazingly we never seen a single Buzzard, this area is superb for Buzzards but not on that particular day, possibly the result of the heavy rain throughout the day.

We arrived at West Ferry on the south side of the Clyde opposite Dumbarton Rock, we seen Shelduck, Common Tern, Eider, Red-breasted Merganser and Great Black-backed Gull amongst others. After we left West Ferry we headed off towards Walkinshaw Road at Glasgow Airport to look for Yellowhammer but never seen any so used my plan “B” to attempt to see them. We went to the unclassified road at NW side of Glasgow Airport at Old Mains Farm and managed to get superb views of Yellowhammer and good views of a Red Fox that wasn’t amused at us disturbing its peace. We also saw our second Stock Dove of the day, flying away from us as usual lol.

After watching Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Chaffinch’s feeding on Hornbeam seeds we headed off to Longhaugh Point to look for the now scarce Spotted Flycatcher, we heard a bird calling but it proved to be too elusive to see. We did finally get to see a Common Buzzard though; I thought we were going to miss out on that species which would have been a first in that area.

After our final soaking of the day we headed back to Glasgow, I dropped of Hallie off at her hotel after a good day out. Haillie was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and it was a pleasure showing her the local birding spots and showing her some new birds.

My thanks to Shirley Hunter for allowing me to use an SECC company car to take Hallie out birding for the day, it was very much appreciated by both Hallie and me.