Sunday 25th March

Following various legal delays, I ended up staying with friends and relatives before moving in to new house.

Malcolm and did a nice inland walk along the line of the restored Alnwick railway line, where we saw a couple of youngish goosanders scooting along the Aln after a good view of a wigeon at Amble the previous day. An eider duck also sailed in on the tide at some speed.

Wigeon

Waxwing

Joining my sister Hilary at the weekend, we did a bit of twitching in the hope of catching up with some waxwings that had been showing up in the middle of Forest Hall.  They were still there alright - two of them, also juveniles apparently.  It was hard to get a decent shot and this was the best I could manage.  The colouration seemed distinctly pale and I wondered if this is typical of young birds rather than the result of low sunshine.

These birds stayed in the same location for a fortnight or so and by the end of it, local residents were complaining about them.  They certainly weren't too shy about standing in the middle of the road to get a better view.

Our attempt to see a scaup on Killingworth Lake later in the day did not work out and mostly there were just more wigeon and a more adult (I thought) goosander plus swans / canada geese and other bits and pieces.

Goosander

Thursday 8th November

Malcolm was over so we did a little nature ramble on Monday, with the idea of ending up at Gretna for the starling murmuration around dusk.

A quick ferret around Dumfries for waxwings proved unsuccessful so we headed for Ae Forest.  In retrospect we might have been better taking a walk along the River Annan as there was once again precious little to see at Ae Forest itself beyond a few tits and robins.  It may just be down to bad luck

A dapper Dipper

but I still have a feeling That the Hairstanes Windfarm Project has lead to a decrease of brid sightings in the forest.

However we did see a few redwings and thrushes in the village itself and, just as we were on the way back to the car there were nice views of two individual dippers on the Water of Ae.

Unsure of timing, we abandoned the idea of a coffee break and headed straight across to Gretna, arriving around 3.15 p.m.  We could have sneaked a coffee as the first birds started to turn up about 4.05 p.m., 20 minutes after sunset.  The location was just South of the Gretna turnoff from the M6 north, on the service road to Metal Bridge.

The birds were still circling the area as 4.40 p.m. when the dark and cold finally drove us off in search of a cafe.  Without any real evidence we felt the display stopped almost immediately afterwards.

Here's a video from the later stages of the murmuration:

Wednesday 30th November

Of course I should have realised that the unidentified waders in the last post were in fact turnstones. I'm really not quite sure how I missed that as I've seen them before. Perhaps the photo made them look bigger than I was expecting.

Last week mainly avoided the great outdoors in view of ongoing cold snap, but on Sunday visited Northumberlandia with my sister - a surprisingly barren place for birds in view of the fact that it's been established for a few years. Just two swans on one lake and a couple of crows and seagulls. More exciting was a kestrel hovering over the edge of the huge opencast mine next to it.  It made me remember how rarely we see them now in Dumfries and Galloway.

I have spent some time out looking for waxwings but couldn't find them at the ice bowl or in where sitings had been reported, nor around St Michael's churchyard, where they often attack the yewberries.

Waxwings in Georgetown

Heathhall

Then following a lead on twitter I amended my planned bike ride today and found them just a few minutes away on the main road out of the estate towards the Craigs. They seemed to be still roosting. Also it looked to be a bigger flock than reported elsewhere.  I counted them and there were about thirty.

Had a bit of spare time so took a detour to Caerlaverock WWT and quickly saw a stonechat moving across the road.  I then regretted not having brought a pair of binoculars as there were a couple of birds that were hard to identify at distance, including the statutory barnacle geese (no binoculars needed).

Returning through the same area, I then did spot a kestrel, making it two in four days.  Very pleased after my wistful thoughts about kestrels on Sunday.

Whooper Swans

To top that there were about 100 whooper swans in a field just past the Brow Well riding east - not a totally rare sight, but pleasing nevertheless..

I returned through Heathhall, but two groups of waxwings on the same day was asking too much.

Monday 21st November

Rather slim pickings over the past few weeks, but here's a summary of what has happened.

Last Wednesday, did a windy bike ride to Crocketford and back through the Glenkilns. Three long-tailed tits passed through a tree on the cycle track and a red kite was sailing around just South of Crocketford. On the way back there were good sightings of three more kites and a buzzard.

Squirrel on Guard

Stopped on the hill where red squirrels and tits often come down to feed, but few did.  The one squirrel that did turn up seemed more intent on guarding the feeders than eating itself, though it did take a couple of bits of apple.

The following day, I followed up news that waxwings are in the Dumfries area, but didn't see any in the obvious areas of Dock Park and St Michael's Churchyard though the latter already contained plenty of yewberries and the blackbirds and thrushes were making merry.

On Friday I travelled to Alnwick and paused briefly at Bolam Lake where a couple of male goldeneye were visible.

Unidentified

At the coast over the weekend there was not a whole lot to see.  However the rocks at Alnmouth contained some sanderling and redshank, plus these waders (right) which I haven't been able to identify. I'm wondering if they were juvenile plovers.

Also unidenitifiable were some large brown-looking diving birds that we at first mistook for seals, but they were too far off to even hazard a guess at.

At home my favourite coal tit is still busy and was picking minute grubs out of the pear tree today.

Friday 19th December

Trips out are drying up in the run-up to Christmas, so not much to report this week.

One untypical visitor to the bird table was a rook, taking advantage of the remains of nan bread from an Indian takeaway. The trees on the way out of the estate produced a flurry of goldcrests on Tuesday - not unknown as I have seen them in the garden before.

I have been looking out for waxwings in St Michael's curchyard and surrounding area but still no sign.  It's probably too mild.

Wednesday 8th January 2014

Bike ride to Castle Douglas.  Lone whooper swan sitting in field just past Crocketford.  One strong flying bird of prey not identified  - looked a bit dark to be a buzzard but low light was tricky.

Just one redwing in distance coming back over Glenkilns and none of the flocks of three weeks ago. Perhaps they are already going back to Scandinavia in the mild conditions.  Also no waxwings around as far as I can tell from checking sites and occasional run past the churchyard.

Wednesday 5th December

Walk through Locharbriggs end of cycle track waiting for new car keys. Visual conditions very pretty.  Goldfinches around and main tits including long tailed. Some dunnocks about too.

On Sunday revisited St Michael's Churchyard. Waxwings still around same location but in smaller numbers.  Today only around 15 in tree. Still have not got close enough to see the fancy wing and tail coverings.

Wednesday 21st November

My No1 birdwatching target for the winter has been achieved! 40 waxwings in large tree on Glebe Street and also plundering yewberries from St Michael's churchyard  - but they made off to another large tree around Brooms Road car park area when visited by the resident sparrowhawk.

This is the culmination of a story going back two weeks when they were first sighted in Dumfries, since when I've visited every site where they appeared without success.  They have even had the cheek to turn up in Georgetown in small numbers. About ten days ago sat it out for a while in the churchyard but there were only coal tits and chaffinches around, which scattered all of a sudden, upon which I caught site of the sparrowhawk (female) which is how I know it visits regularly.

Also had first ever goldfinch on bird table about ten days ago after putting out sunflower seeds.