Caerlaverock

 

It's rare that we stay in Dumfries and don't visit the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust reserve at Caerlaverock. It's a wonderful place with a great range of habitats supporting loads of wildlife. It's famous for both wintering wildfowl and dragonflies. 

It has a lovely wildlife garden that's full of butterflies, in the photo below you can see a Painted Lady (at the top) and a Red Admiral with a Small White in the background

We were delighted to also see a Humming Bird Hawkmoth, though it didn't want to be photographed.

As we came out of the wildlife garden, we found a young hare, hiding in the grass

The birds we saw included Shovelers, recognisable by their weird shaped bills, the males weren't in breeding plumage, so not as easy to recognise from a distance as they otherwise would be. 

The aptly named Teal Pond was full of Teal

There were lots of Mallards  

and a few Mute Swans

 As well as the butterflies mentioned above, the insects we saw included Silver Y moth 

 

Common Hawker Dragonfly 

Common Darter Dragonfly (male in the photo below)

 

 

Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria sp)

 

Platycheirus sp hoverfly (the one in the photo below seems oddly interested in the Small White butterfly!) 

and a Noon Fly  

Grazing some of the fields were a number of Balwen sheep, a very distinctive breed of Welsh Mountain sheep 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murray's Monument and Talnotry Woodland and Waterfall

Our second long day out while we were staying in Dumfries took us to the woodland walk at Talnotry, which features waterfalls and a monument to classical scholar and linguist Alexander Murray. First though, we found ourselves at the Forest and Land Scotland Deer Range, where a small herd of Red Deer are kept and looked after. We met Hugh, the oldest stag in the herd

 and watched a hind and her fawn 

Then starting from a car park a bit further down the road, we walked the steep and often marshy route through the woodlands to enjoy the waterfalls and monument. Here are just some of the landscape views 

There were lots of fungi in the woods, most of which we weren't able to identify 

 

Nature Walks around Lockerbie

Back in 2017, we discovered two nature walks near Lockerbie, and this year we repeated the experience. Lockerbie is only a few miles from Dumfries where we were staying, so this made a great day trip. In the morning we visited Castle Loch at Lochmaben. 

It's a lovely loch which you can walk round very easily, mostly through woodland. 

The weather was quite changeable, with dark clouds adding drama to the scene at times

There's lots of wildlife to enjoy on this walk.We saw good numbers of dragonflies, including this male Common Hawker - click on  the image for a closer look at this gorgeous insect! 

There were a lot of Whirligig beetles on the surface of the loch - it's fascinating to watch them as they spin around

We were intrigued by this plant below, which seemed to be a magnet for hoverflies of various species (mostly Banded Hoverflies (Syrphus sp) and Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) - see if you can find any! 

At the end of the walk we came across a large area of ivy, which was also host to a lot of hoverflies, including this Batman Hoverfly (Myathropa florea)

This Red Admiral butterfly was also enjoying the ivy (which is such a good source of food for all sorts if insects at this time of year)

The woodland walk has several wood carvings, like this heron 

and a children's play area which includes dens and these very useful magnification posts, which are a great way for children to get a closer look at insects 

After lunch in Lockerbie we went to Eskrigg Nature Reserve. 

 

This reserve has a lovely wildflower area that was full of insects when we visited. We were particularly delighted to see this Small Copper Butterfly  sharing a flower with a hoverfly that I can't recognise from this angle...

This Painted Lady

and this Small Tortoiseshell 

There were dragonflies here too including this male Common Darter

and a female Common Darter close by (she's much less red in colour) 

Elsewhere on the reserve we found this dragonfly, which looks like a Southern Hawker to me, but please correct me if I'm wrong

It was good to find a Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) 

and this Bog Hoverfly (Sericomyia silentis)

We also saw this handsome Common Sexton Beetle

So it was a wonderful day of walks, and particularly nice to see so many dragonflies, butterflies and hoverflies. 

Shared for Nature Notes. 

A Few Days Away in and Around Dumfries

 We're just back from a wee trip away to Dumfries in the south west of Scotland. I'll share some of our photos over the next few days. 

We stayed in our favourite country house hotel alongside the River Nith. Almost as soon as we got there we went for a riverside walk

 

The other side of the path is lined with fields

We were delighted to see three or four Red Kites flying above the field. The photo below isn't great, but it is a Red Kite! 

Red Kites used to be incredibly common across the UK, but by the 1970s there were hardly any of them and mostly they were only found in mountainous areas of Wales. Since then they've been reintroduced in various parts of the UK, including in the Dumfries area, where now they're quite a common sight. 

As well as the Red Kites, we were delighted on that walk to see a flock of about 50 House Martins hunting for insects above the river. One evening we sat by the riverside and watched Pipistrelle Bats flying around, also hunting for insects. 

Moorhen family at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens

 We had a lovely walk yesterday at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens, always a great place to visit. The wildlife highlight yesterday was watching the Moorhens. Three generations were present. Adults, including the individual in the photo below 

 Juveniles (probably chicks from earlier this year, though possibly last year's chicks), who have duller colours, like the individual below (though some have entirely brown beaks)

and very young chicks like the one below  

Even at this age, the chicks can swim around quite happily, but they can't yet find food for themselves, so the adults and juveniles are busy with feeding duties. We really enjoyed watching this juvenile feeding the chicks