Menondering; Drumpellier Nature

It's Nature Friday, as well as FFF. I would like to bring you info boards from the Drumpellier visitor centre that describe the importance of bogs in ecology. And a few pretty pictures of the waterfowl!

Menondering; Drumpellier Idyll

I have told you a little about Hogganfield Loch and the Seven Lochs Wetlands Park. I must get back and try to visit all the lochans in the area. Not all of them have car parks, so a bit of planning is involved. This is mainly because they are all linked by cycle/walking paths. 

As it is, I stretched myself walking around Hogganfield both days I was there. Slow progress, as lots of folk and dogs to stop and natter with. As well as sitting with the geese.

When we moved to Drumpellier, we found an even more delightful setting—I would even say idyllic—for an urban setting. There was a much larger car park and much quieter at night. There was also a visitor centre with toilets and a cafe. There was also a water fountain for filling up the tank. Thank you, Scottish Water!

As you can see from that map, there is quite a bit of walking to be done here. We arrived late afternoon, so we didn't explore too much at that point. In the morning, at 05:30, I did the circumnavigation—another one measuring two km/one and a quarter miles. 

After lunch, I got rash and decided to head for the canal. This proved to be a further stretch than I'd really factored in and added a further two miles to my quota for the day. It also took well over three hours because I met three different people to spend lengthy times chatting with, not to mention lots of dogs who just had to be loved on for a minute or two. During that time, I got rained on - and endured a battering from a fall of hail! Crazy summer.

I have to say, the canal disappointed me a bit, so there are no photos of that. It is possible that I didn't quite reach the actual banks, the path not being all that obvious at that end. Anyway, I slept well that night!

I also received word from Ford that The Grey could go back for the final work, so the next morning, as mentioned to you previously, it was back into Glasgow for that. 

Tomorrow, you will see part two of this wonderful place, with more about its nature.

Menoturals; Hogganfield Loch

For Nature Friday today, I share some of the photos and a video clip from the westernmost of the series of lochs that are part of the urban Seven Lochs Wetland Park. I will also share this post with Eileen's Saturday Critters. See the badges/links in the sidebar to visit more posts on these themes.

The midsummer month was a bit nasty, though. Despite being quite bright while I visited, the wind was straight off the ice—and there had been reports of snowfall up in the mountains! Despite this, finding a free parking spot near the city was a real boon. Hogganfield Loch is actually more correctly referred to as a lochan. That is to say, it is small. Little more than a very large pond, really. However, despite all the buildings around it, there are large swathes of wildflower meadowland surrounding the water itself. There's an excellent, paved path to circumnavigate the banks, with a couple of spots to mingle with the waterbirds. The round trip is exactly two kilometres/1.25 miles, so a decent walk for yours truly and her Rolls-later. One might happily refer to this place as Swan Lake, for there are a great many here, fed by the council on appropriate seeds. However, despite all the signage against it, many people turned up with whole loaves of bread to share with the friendly feathered ones. It is possible to hand-feed the swans here! A bird I generally know to be quite aggressive when up close is very human-adjusted here. I found myself a little torn about this. It is wonderful that so many young people and their parents were having a wonderful time with the wildfowl, but I do feel a hands-away policy, such as in other parks, might be better. Anyway, let the photos now do the talking. Apart from the swans, there were a variety of Gulls, Tufted Duck, Mallards, Greylag and Canada Geese, Coots and Moorhens. I did spot the Little Grebe, but far too distant to get a decent shot. You can just spot it if you biggify the third in this set of shots - top right corner. I must get back there during winter as it gets some fun visiting species...

I am having trouble with Blogger, as it doesn't seem to be taking the hyperlink feature. For a glance at what the waterlands have to offer, let me put the full link here.

https://www.sevenlochs.org/

All that's left is to remind you that next week is Final Friday Feature once again!