Spent a few hours this morning out and about. Thought I would take a look at Loch Mochrum very near to Maybole and only a few miles from my house. The fishing club have built a small hide overlooking the loch with chairs and visitors book. Bird feeders surround the hide so there is always plenty of activity nearby. Mainly the usual Blue tits and Great tits, with the occasional Coal tits coming to have a feed. Dunnocks and Robins were at ground level picking up the crumbs as was a Wren. Also a pair of Yellowhammers were in the bushes but because the light was poor, I had to shoot at 1000ISO at f5.6, 1/400sec shutter, hence the noise on the photos. Anyway i was pleased to get somekind of shot as I had not photographed this species before. On the water were about 20 Goldeneye a few Mallard and some other ducks, may of been Pochard, but not sure as they were too far away for a 100% ID.
I drove back via Straiton. 
This is a quaint little village with a lovely river running through it. Here I saw a Dipper and so crouched down to watch him feeding in the river. He would bob uop and down on the riverbank and then plunge himself in the water only to resurface some 2 meteres away from where he submerged. He would swin with his little head and white breast showing, not floating like a duck, but 70% of his body was underwater....then he would go under again. I was watching this for about 15 minutes, wish he would come nearer so as to get a photo, but he never did, as the current of the river was taking him further away from me.
Spent a few hours this morning out and about. Thought I would take a look at Loch Mochrum very near to Maybole and only a few miles from my house. The fishing club have built a small hide overlooking the loch with chairs and visitors book. Bird feeders surround the hide so there is always plenty of activity nearby. Mainly the usual Blue tits and Great tits, with the occasional Coal tits coming to have a feed. Dunnocks and Robins were at ground level picking up the crumbs as was a Wren. Also a pair of Yellowhammers were in the bushes but because the light was poor, I had to shoot at 1000ISO at f5.6, 1/400sec shutter, hence the noise on the photos. Anyway i was pleased to get somekind of shot as I had not photographed this species before. On the water were about 20 Goldeneye a few Mallard and some other ducks, may of been Pochard, but not sure as they were too far away for a 100% ID. I drove back via Straiton. 
This is a quaint little village with a lovely river running through it. Here I saw a Dipper and so crouched down to watch him feeding in the river. He would bob uop and down on the riverbank and then plunge himself in the water only to resurface some 2 meteres away from where he submerged. He would swin with his little head and white breast showing, not floating like a duck, but 70% of his body was underwater....then he would go under again. I was watching this for about 15 minutes, wish he would come nearer so as to get a photo, but he never did, as the current of the river was taking him further away from me.
Great to see thatyou are getting out and about again Mark. A most enjoyable blog and looking forward to your next birding visit. Presently back in th eUK preparing for cruise in the Wewsst Indies from next Saturday so hoping for some different birds. Taking the "old" camera rathe than the weight of the Canaon plus lens!
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