Hogganfield Loch, Clyde

After a day working in the Glasgow area I decided to spend the last hour or so of daylight having my daily walk at nearby Hogganfield Loch on the edge of the city. As you might expect from an open space right in the middle of a large conurbation, it's busy with a packed car park and plenty of people around. 

Apart from the fact it's about the closest place to where I was working for a walk, I'd gone because I knew that there was a decent selection of birds on the loch and I managed to see red-necked grebe, redhead smew, juvenile Iceland gull and 1st winter drake scaup. However, I wasn't expecting whooper swans, and they really stole the show. I was amazed to see around 20 of them coming to bread on the packed car park, in amongst the mute swans and mallard. To see wild whoopers so tame really made me think that perhaps there is hope for the Richardson's cackling goose currently on the car park at Pennington Flash!

This bird looks to have a smaller more rounded head than the bird at the top of the post which gives it the impression of having a larger bill. I wonder if the top bird is a male and this bird a female?

A small selection of whooper swan heads from Hogganfield Loch showing the variation in bill patterns which is said to be as unique to the individual as a human fingerprint. Peter Scott created a chart of many of the whoopers that visited Slimbridge in the early years. Apparently Bewick's swans show even more variation, but I no longer see enough of them to put together a collage of heads.

This juvenile Iceland gull is the fourth I have seen this year and the fifth since 31st December!

1st winter drake scaup.

Whooper swans coming to bread on the car park!