Mersehead RSPB reserve

On the second full day of our trip to Dumfries and Galloway we went to the wonderful RSPB (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) reserve at Mersehead.

We were both surprised to realise that we've never visited this reserve together! Generally on our holidays to Dumfries and Galloway we go to the WWT (Wildfowl and Wetland Trust) reserve at Caerlaverock, and have never gone to Mersehead, despite my fond memories of working there briefly one summer many years ago.

Anyway, Mersehead is beautiful.

There are extensive areas of  reedbeds which are home to a range of birds, but while we were there they were totally dominated by the wonderful sound of skylarks, which were flying high in the sky and sometimes swooping low to chase each other through the reeds.

On the beautiful lagoons, we saw our first ever pintails and good numbers of other ducks including wigeon, teals, gadwall and shovelers. This is the first time I've ever seen shovelers other than the lonely male who lives on the Figgate Pond and sometimes appears on other random ponds round Edinburgh. It was nice to see a group of this beautiful duck, the male is very handsome.

The most amazing thing though was to see the fields full of barnacle geese, feeding.

 

Just before we left the reserve, the vast numbers of geese lifted into the air, hooting and sweeping round in circles, only to land and then repeat the same thing all over again. The Germans have a wonderful word Zugunruhe which sums up this restlessness of the migrant animal about to depart. There's no doubt that those barnacle geese will very soon be on their way to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.

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The RSPB Big Nature Festival this year is happening on 23 - 24 May at Musselburgh, my favourite birdwatching place. I'll be reporting back from both days.

For Nature Notes

Kippford and Rockcliffe coastal walk

On our first full day in Dumfries and Galloway, we went down to Kippford as we had read there is a lovely coastal walk there. Everywhere was shrouded in a mysterious low mist when we first arrived

We walked along the coast and then up into woodland and the sun came out

We followed the 'woodpecker trail'

though we didn't hear any woodpeckers at all!

There were some lovely lichens and mosses on fallen trees in the woods

When we'd walked through the woodland we found outselves on the top of the hill,

with spectacular views 

then we climbed down again past gorse-covered rocks

and reached the cockle-shell beach again

and passed a garden decorated with strange creatures made from driftwood, rocks and found items

It's a lovely walk and if you're ever in that area, do check it out!

Toads and herons

I haven't finished blogging about our time in Dumfries and Galloway yet but I thought I'd come back to Edinburgh today. Yesterday we walked round Arthur's Seat, on a blustery and changeable day. The herons are already setting up home in the trees round Duddingston Loch, though you may not be able to see them, there are 13 occupied nests in this photo.

Later on in the walk, we checked out the small pond near the top of Arthur's Seat and were delighted to see this pair of common toads mating in the water

The rabbits of Friars Carse

One of the things we love about staying at Friars Carse is being able to watch the local rabbits.

This was the view from our bedroom

and a family of rabbits spent a lot of time on that area of grass. Including these two youngsters, photographed by Crafty Green Boyfriend.

Click on the photos to get a better view!

Friars Carse Hotel

Over the next few days, I'll be blogging about our recent trip to Dumfries and Galloway. We stayed, as we usually do, in the Friars Carse Country House Hotel, which sits in an extensive area of parkland alongside a beautiful stretch of the River Nith.

The photo below, taken from the riverside walk, shows the hotel nestling in amongst the trees.

It isn't exagerating to saythat you could spend a whole few days without leaving the hotel grounds and the immediate surroundings. At the moment the ground is covered in spring flowers, including wood anemone

dogs mercury

Wood anemone and dogs mercury are both indicators of ancient woodland, showing that this stretch of  riverbank has been covered in woodland for centuries. The wood sedge is also out at the moment, though this photo isn't particularly good.

 I was intrigued by the ash buds, which are just starting to emerge and look really odd at the moment

The hotel grounds are also full of wildlife. There were several oystercatchers around, we suspect they were preparing to nest on the rocky shores

Other river birds included goosanders and grey wagtails, but no kingfisher for us this year. The trees were full of birds, including nuthatches (the first time we've seen them here), long tailed tits and tree creepers.

We saw a red squirrel but also a grey squirrel. The greys are just moving into the area and could be bad news for the reds. (The reds are the native British squirrel and are often out competed by the larger, bolder grey, also the grey squirrel carries squirrel pox which can be fatal for the reds, though the greys are immune to it.

We saw several peacock butterflies, this one feeding on butterbur.

We sat by the river in the evenings and watched pipistrelle bats flying around and we saw a tawny owl fly across one evening. In the middle of the night, I heard what I think was a barn owl....

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more.

Back Home!

We've just had a lovely few days away at our favourite hotel, Friars Carse, near Dumfries. It's a lovely hotel, set in its own extensive grounds, with lovely riverside walks and serving excellent food. The weather was amazing and we enjoyed exploring some of the many lovely places in the area and saw lots of amazing wildlife including red squirrels, hares and many species of birds! I'll blog about it all in the next few days, once I've sorted my photos out!

I was delighted on getting home to find I had been placed in two writing competitions!

My short story inspired by the dog who 'works' in the local kitchen showroom won the latest Literative contest.

and I came second in the Edinburgh International Science Festival SciKu contest.

Frogs and Spawn

It was a beautiful sunny day today, perfect for sitting in Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden and watching the frogs. There's plenty of frogspawn in the pond and a fair number of tadpoles too. Some of the spawn are very fresh and some of them are already starting to wriggle around.

and every once in a while a frog poked its head out of the water to say hello

We think this frog is probably four years old, so another year before it's fully mature and ready to start mating and laying its own spawn.