No, not an account of the latest fashions, Start
Birding is just back from a 3 day trip to Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland.
The weather was cold and clear most of the time - perfect for our stay and for
watching flocks of swans, geese and waders.
During
our trip, we travelled the length of the Solway coast, staying at Rockcliffe
which is close to the RSPB reserve at Mersehead. We started out birdwatching at
Powfoot, a beautiful village close to Annan where the sunshine optimised the
intricate colouring of all the wildfowl gathered on the Solway. We started our
list here with flocks of pintail, scaup, wigeon and red-breasted merganser.
After that we visited Caerlaverock Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve. This is one of the best spots to see large numbers of barnacle geese in winter. The entire population of barnacle geese from Svalbard over-winter in the Solway making it an important conservation area. Many whooper swans also over-winter here as do pink-footed geese and many species of duck. Often the fields are full of waders such as lapwing and golden plover and raptors and owls hunt the fields. As it had been quite mild leading up to our trip, there weren't many waders in the fields on our visit but we did get a large flock of curlew. Scanning the fields we found roe deer, fox and hare. We finished the day watching barnacle geese flying off into the sunset.
On the second day we visited an inland loch in the middle of Castle Douglas called Carlingwark Loch. Here we found goosander, goldeneye, shoveler and large flocks of wigeon and teal. Our journey then took us west to Stranraer to birdwatch at Loch Ryan. This is a notable place for large numbers of scaup (and very close views as a pose to distant views in the Solway). This is also a good place for wintering grebes, long-tailed duck, eider and shag and we weren't disappointed. Turnstone, ringed plover, knot, lapwing, oystercatcher and redshank lined the loch and there was also a good show of gulls, wigeon, pintail, tufted duck and mute swan.
On
the way back we stopped at Wigtown which is the book town of Dumfries
and Galloway (the Scottish answer to Hay on Wye). The town
has its own hide and nesting osprey in the spring and the townsfolk ring
the town hall bell when the ospreys arrive each year. In the winter the
hide is a good place to view the salt flats and brackish pools. Here
we had good views of kingfisher and little grebe and more wonderful wildfowl. A
buzzard was feeding on the carcass of a dead mute swan. More barnacle geese fed
on the salt marsh and a grey seal emerged in front of us in one of the channels.
On
the last day we went to (what I think is) the best reserve in the UK -
RSPB Mersehead. It has everything - big sky, open fields, crags, heath, rough
grassland, hedges, reedbed, saltmarsh, scrub, woodland and estuary with a great
beach to walk on. It was a fabulously crisp and sunny day which really brought
out the colours on the yellowhammers in the hedgerow. They were joined by tree
sparrow and reed bunting and we had good views of song thrush. In the woodland
we found treecreeper, goldcrest, blue and great tit. Close to the water on the
edge of the wood, squealing contact calls alerted us to the presence of a water
rail which we found foraging under a patch of rotting wood.
As the water was frozen, most of the wildfowl were concentrated in one area - here we added gadwall to our list. Wader numbers were also low here and no extra species were picked up either on the inland pools or on the Solway. I was really keen to find a jack snipe that had been seen the previous day but the pools were still frozen and time was moving on - we were heading for the Loch Ken area.
At
the feeding station near Laurieston, around 50-60 red kites were perching or
swooping around the hide and fields beyond. Raven and buzzard were also
present. We watched these for a while then headed off to find Greenland
white-fronted geese. This particular flock is often difficult to find among the
undulating landscape and they can be quite flighty, therefore some local
knowledge is needed to be successful. Luckily, the flock was feeding in one of
their favourite distant fields so it was possible to scope them without any
disturbance.
After
this it was time to head off home and we were treated to another fantastic
sunset to end the holiday. We had some freezing fog on the journey back to
Yorkshire, which made driving interesting, but we got home safely to Leeds.
Thanks to my companions for their excellent company on the trip.
