Monday 5th January

A bit of a strange one today...

Decided to go to Gretna Gateway with my son Alex and his girlfriend Vicki to do a bit of after-Christmas shopping. We planned the visit so that we might have a chance of seeing the Gretna starling roost following my previous failed attempt. Except that the main shop we were looking for had closed down, so we decided to abandon the starlings and head instead to Carlisle and finish the shopping trip there.

On the way into Carlisle, Vicki noticed a small flock of starlings by Junction 44 but we thought no more of it.  After minor parking hassles we parked the car at Portland Square and hit the shops.  If we hadn't stopped for a burger, we would have missed it...

We were making our way back to the car at 4.30 p.m. and, just after duskhad fallen, Alex noticed a congregation of starlings was building up in the sky above.  We watched as the birds swept from side to side and the flock grew in size to circle more tightly over Portland Square.  That sight alone was spectacular.

Then, just before five they started to swoop down and we could watch as they all landed on the trees in the Square itself with a tremendous amount of twittering and, as we shortly discovered, a considerable amount of bird lime that covered the pavements and the cars on the Brunswick Street side of the square.

Finally having witnessed a large murmuration of starlings, I have to say it was much more exciting than I had ever anticipated. Was this the whole of the Gretna starling roost?  We reckoned there were certainly thousands of birds and it certainly seems they vary their roosting location from night to night - possibly to avoid the attentions of birds of prey?

P.s. My car was more fortunate than most, but hopefully picked up enough good luck to last me the whole of 2015!

Thursday 11th December

Bad weather has all but put a stop to trips out, gale force winds making cycling dangerous this week.

Did attempt a viewing of the Gretna starling roost yesterday after a matinee cinema visit, but only reached Rigg a half an hour after sunset, not having realised that "Mr Turner" was 150 minutes in length.  Apparently Rigg is where they have been settling, although it does seem to vary from time to time.

This morning marked another sporadic appearance of a coal tit around the garden, but more interesting was a strangely marked sparrow I have seen once before.  It has two white wing bars and the first time I saw it I thought for a moment it was a chaffinch.  Perhaps it is slightly leucistic.

This afternoon, took a walk round the Threave Estate, where I was greeted by a wren that was so light brown that I thought it was a butterfly flying across the path in the cold.  Then it sat in the hedge just in front of me like a huge chestnut.

On arriving at Blackpark Marsh lower hide, the whole area was flooded and a first look suggested no birds at all on the total expanse of water.  A second look with binoculars confirmed this, but maybe the birds knew what would happen next.  Contrary to mild weather forecast, a severe storm blew in from the west, turning to hail that was even accompanied by a couple of thunderclaps and sheet lightning.  A flock of barnacles passed by overhead as if disorientated.

Spot the bullfinch

As soon as the storm subsided, birds started to appear but the poor light made it hard to distinguish any colours until I managed to pick out a few widgeon and a several lapwings .  The next thing there were as many as 200 lapwings circling above the marsh, more than I have seen together since the early sixties, when lapwings commonly follwed the plough at harvest time.

Eventually fleeing the hide as it grew colder, I spotted a bullfinch playing in the undergrowth and four dark-coloured deer on the farm field but not much else beyond a few dunnocks, tits and a couple of geese and swans.