Tuesday 27th December

As it's a mild winter with no evidence of a waxwing irruption or any twites locally, I've been keeping indoors, but a nice surprise leaving the gym last Wednesday was a flock of around 100 siskins descending onto a small lime tree near the entrance.  They seemed to be finding plenty to eat.  I have not seen such a large flock before.

News of some exotic sightings - notably willow tit, bittern and Bewick's swan tempted me to a walk at Castle Loch today, unfortunately truncated due to steady drizzle.

Did not see any of the above but, having stuggled to identify a mixed convoy of ducks, did see nuthatch and pleasingly 3x treecreeper (first in a long time) apart from tits of all three main varieties. All swans were mutes.

Willow tit was reported near the castle and the area does look promising with many dying trees and dead wood.

Monday 21st November

Brief trip to Clatteringshaws yesterday to check reports of crossbills by the visitors' centre.  I think I may have seen a couple but hard to confirm when peering directly upwards in misty conditions.

Castle O'er Forest walk.  After the trip to Clatteringshaws yesterday a forest walk seemed like a good idea.  Planned an extended route on the main forest roadways as it was wet.  Quickly saw a flock of bullfinches on the edge of the first conifers. Heard but did not see pipit on the moor by the iron age settlement.  Walking north behind the settlement, a lot of small birds high overhead (siskins?), then a few goldcrests in a lone deciduous tree (long time, no see) and two pairs of red deer as the sun came out.  Strange to see bullfinch and goldcrest ahead of chaffinch and blue tit, but these appeared on the NE corner of the route, along with other tits and a single woodpecker at the very top of a pine tree.

Thought this would be the day of no long-tailed tits, but hey presto, they turned up in the last half mile within sight of the car park.  More goldcrests where bullfinches had been.

Pleasantly eerie atmosphere throughout the walk.  No wind, totally silent and so warm the midges were out.  Plenty of mature trees with cones, but no crossbills.

Sunday 13th November

Longer than planned bike ride.  The plan was to continue along the Cairn valley past the Dunscore turn off, following the road (not a recognised cycle route) up into the moors to check for birds and see how steep it got, then turn back with a view to doing a circular next summer via Drumhumphry, Crocketford and Milton and home via the Military Road.

I knew it was only 10 miles to Corsock from the Dunscore turn off, and when the uphill proved to be a fairly gentle affair, it was just too tempting not to attempt the whole lot - so I ended up missing Drumhumphry and doing near on 30 miles while hurrying it a bit to make sure I was back in town before dusk.

Once again there were long-tailed tits all over the place.  As soon as the Cairn sidled up to the road, they were around but also again spotted a linnet (getting good at linnets!) in the top branches of a tree. Shortly after there were a couple of jays.

After that there was nothing extraordinary all the way to the Dunscore turn  apart from long-tailed tits and a young red deer I startled near the estate past the Shawhead turn off, which ran parallel to the road for a hundred yards before making an escape over the pheasant wiring.  I checked for dippers in the shallower bits of the Cairn but didn't see anything more than a heron startled by a farmworker crossing a bridge.  And of course a volley of long-tailed tits in the scruffy hedgerow past one of the farmhouses.

By now the road was in the middle of farmland that looked like it would offer more traces of pesticides than wildlife.  Once I topped the rise into the moorland proper, it was a brilliant downhill ride and looked superb - except that it was stunningly silent all the way to the T junction for the Corsock turn.

I may have sighted a couple of meadow pipits on the way into Corsock (where have all the meadow pipits gone?) but otherwise that was it!  What would it have been like in summer?

However the Law of Irregular Returns was again proved on the road to Crocketford, when I first saw a buzzard and then two pairs of red kites circling the area near Mawhirn Cottages.  This is the furthest I've seen them from their release point on the other side of Loch Ken.  Then just five minutes later, I saw my first fieldfares of the winter, a little group of six on a farmer's field.

Even the unpromising stretch along the military road had a couple of surprises with a lttle series of junior buzzards, and, just East of Lochfoot, another lonesome kestrel patrolling the young trees that have started to grow there, rather as if they were part of some conservation project.

Monday 7th November

There was also a profusion of sparrows feeding in the bushes outside my mother's place yesterday, and making a major racket.

Today set off on the Glenkilns loop via Terregles and regretted it at first as it was cold and misty.  But the mist cleared a bit before Shawhead and the sun got out. Came across a field full of greylag geese and some canada geese at the back.  Slightly further on spotted a few linnets, although I only eliminated twite after looking in the bird books.  The neck is the best distinguishing feature by the looks of it.

There were two small buzzards on successive telegraph poles on the road up to Glenkilns Reservoir, where there were lots more greylags and canada geese as well as some mallards and the inevitable pair of black swans.

I saw a couple of volleys of long-tailed tits in the trees at the back end of the lake (they are doing well) and, almost to order a few stonechats on the way over the moors, messing around in the dead bracken.  Unfortunately, the weather seemed to get colder again as I went down into the Cairn valley from the tops, so I wasn't for hanging around on the way back.

If I'd named two birds I wanted to see today it would have been linnet and stonechat, so you can't really have better than that. And the bright light over the reservoir and the moorland made for some lovely views - great to be out on the bike again.

One bird NOT seen today or on Friday was the meadow pipit, so perhaps they're all away to the merseland.

It made me think that winter isn't too bad a time with days like this. I think my key targets this year will be twite and waxwing, so that's something to aim for.

Friday 4th November

Walk round Geltsdale reserve.  Amazing how often a few birdwatching sightings occur in a short space of time, while long periods on the same trip remain barren. This phenomenon needs a name so I shall call it provisionally the Law of Irregular Returns.

Immediately I arrived a bird of prey flew over that wasn't a buzzard.  It had the build of a harrier but flew too high, too steadily and too fast.  All I could make out in the binoculars before it disappeared was some black and some grey.  It wasn't the white-tailed eagle sighted there in October (which was probably one of the juvenile passage birds that come down from Fife from time to time) so I don't know what it was.  Maybe harriers do fly more purposefully sometimes, when looking for new venues?

Moving on, three ladies immediately stopped me to see if I could tell them what birds they had just seen in a farmer's field.  After consulting the RSPB guide, we agreed fieldfare and redwing were the most likely and, sure enough both have been reported at the Information Centre.

As soon as they left I was pleased to sight a male kestrel perched on top of a tree as they've become a rare sight the last couple of years.  But after that - nothing!

Well, there were a few sparrows by the farm, some coots on the tarn, a couple of blue tits and a few crows, but nothing noteworthy, nothing that you set out to actually see.  The Law of Irregular Returns - QED.

So I spent a couple of hours vainly hoping for a one-off ring ouzel or the reported crossbill (surprisingly reported since there are only a couple of small swathes of conifers).  I was also feeling increasingly tired, having not been out walking for several months and drove off early - just as a heavy downpour moved in.

Meanwhile, I have been noticing quite a few long-tailed tits around the estate and there was a coal tit on the bird table. Glenys was lucky enough to see a sparrowhawk in the garden after she put some bread out for the numerous sparrows.

Thursday 14th October

By contrast, everyone else at Brooms was catching nicely on feeder today but I had a poor time on the pole, ending up with two commons, one of which was albeit a good size fish - and a gudgeon!

It was probably my own fault.  I think I picked the wrong swim on the west bank, thinking the SE wind would bring fish my way.  It was a swim where I've caught well before, but earlier in the year.  As well as missing lightning bites, I hooked and lost several fish and, in retrospect should maybe have changed to a larger hook size of a more normal pattern. Worm was only attacked by smaller fish (accounting for the gudgeon) so I decided to go on the swingtip in the middle of the session and got a frustrating series of touches and pulls, and two lifts that almost had the swingtip horizontal before fading into nothing.

Back on the pole at dusk I tried pellet briefly but got more lightning bites I couldn't hit. On the last cast with a decent size lobworm, I struck into a good fish that came off after a few seconds.

Easy to think that I got this wrong, but even so I could have had seven or eight fish on the bank rather than just three.

Tuesday 4th October

Very belatedly, I got round to my first serious fishing trip since April!

Everyone else was on the feeder at Brooms F1 pond but I stuck with the margins, feeding two swims either side of me on the short pole in swim 11 - and to good effect.

I took one nice mirror and a common on meat to my left but couldn't connect with any bites in the right hand swim as the fish stripped the meat off the hook in lightning quick time.

Switching to worm in the left hand swim I got a barbel, and then a really nice barbel that I reckoned was about five pounds, as it overlapped the large Brooms landing net at both sides:

Barbel

You never really get an idea of size from net photos but I take size 11 wellingtons, so it's over 2' long and took me about 10 minutes to land on the pole.  It was certainly the biggest I've caught.

Switching back to meat and saying to myself that barbel fight harder than carp, I hooked into a juicy mirror with almost no scales that set out to prove me wrong and took even to longer to land.  I estimated that it would have scaled 7lb.

Mirror Carp

On the last cast, I hooked into another big fish that snapped the line as soon as I applied any pressure and, unfortunately, it was a bit too late to tackle up again.  Possibly there was a weakness in the line but using 3.5lb bottom and 5lb above, you'd have thought the elastic would have coped with most things up to 10lb.  My first instinct was that it was a big'un that turned its head at just the wrong moment.

Overall I had ten fish, three mirrors, three commons, three barbel and one chub. Only one carp took worm and only one barbel took meat.  The chub was one of only two fish from the right hand swim when I finally hit one of the lightning bites, raising the question whether chub were responsible all along.

All in all a smashing return and a much better size of fish that was coming in on the feeders.

5th - 12th September

Holiday in Corfu, where there were still plenty of swallows and, if I am not mistaken, some of the red-rumped variety.  Also a number of very large birds of prey gliding at high altitude that I could not identify.  They weren't buzzards.

A couple of light-hearted attempts to catch fish off the rocks on sweetcorn (!), the second of which was looking promising as I could see the fish scouring around the bottom and taking the free offerings - until a huge wave from an ocean liner introduced storm conditions into the microcosm. Once they had subsided and the bottom cleared again, the fish had moved on.

Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to fish for the large numbers of mullet hanging around an outlet from the nature reserve next to St Spyridon Beach, as a sign in Greek and Italian said no fishing.  No rule against feeding them though and I could conclusively prove that mullet will eat sweetcorn, making it to my mind a better potential bait than bread, which they just knock to pieces most of the time.  On Rhodes, I saw the Greeks catching them on houmos paste, float fished at distance, and was duly impressed.

Previously had been watching out at home to see if my theory that swifts will not be sighted or heard after the end of August is true. I think I did hear a couple yesterday, so perhaps sighting a swift in September is just about possible. Swallows are also suddenly scarce around the estate, although tonight I was out with some people who live in farming areas and tell me there are still plenty around.

23rd July

Went a bit astray on a walk at the RSPB reserve at north end of Loch Ken, mistaking the boundary for a footpath.  Ended up in deep reeds and with major hay fever outburst.

The big compensation occurred on the approach path, when I got good close up views of two or three sedge warblers - not uncommon but a first for me.

It also rained and got wet feet as on the two previous trips this week.  Decided this will be the last of my walks in this frankly awful summer.

21st July

Bike ride and walk round Kirkconnel Flow. Fairly quiet overall. Saw two ringlets, one meadow brown and one small heath, a first sighting although not uncommon. Apparently Large Heath is also present. Large number of meadow pipits on central bog, so might be a place to look for merlin. Also roe deer in binocs whilst watching pipits. Heard several but only saw one bird of prey, too far away to identify. Also heard possible redpoll. Walk round the bog is hard work as mostly rough underfoot.

17th July

Walk at Moffat Community Wildlife Reserve.  Willow warblers, redstarts.  Plenty of butterflies in spite of mixed weather -  ringlets, meadow browns (several although apparently in decline elsewhere) and two small tortoiseshells.  Pleasant mixed habitat.

Also did Earshaig Walk.  Lots of siskins, spotted woodpecker and excellent view of male redstart on way marker  Lots more ringlets and two large(?) skippers.

13th July

Brief walk at Knowetop Lochs where saw several jays. Bike ride from New Galloway down Loch Ken and back via Bellymack/Laurieston. Swift flew out of an eve and almost crashed into me on New Galloway High Street! Siskin by Black Water of Dee and many red kites on way back. Goldfinches, ringlet butterflies. Stopped at Ken Dee Marshes to look out for wood warbler, but no sign.

24th June

Day before yesterday bike ride to Penpont via Morrinton.  Bullfinch by station, first sighting for a long time.  Also whitethroat on minor road west of Cairn.  Return journey ruined by heavy rain.

Today RSPB Geltsdale, Stagsike/Woodland Walk.  Nice mixture of habitats.  Surprised to see linnet on farmland.  Black swan and canada geese on lake, then osprey being mobbed, seen from distance on way into woods.  Several meadow pipits and two kestrel.  Female stonechat and, saving best for last, female whinchats near Howgill Farm - another first sighting.

17th June

By today the weather was really closing in so the result was a short morning walk in Dunwich Forest before heading home.  I might have heard a green woodpecker, but once again, the woodland birds were simply not coming out to play, apart from the several magpies that are everywhere.  A brief dartford warbler suspect moved on too quickly to be verified through binoculars.  But I did see three male red deer cross my path, already showing impressive antlers.  On a last circuit looking for a mystery bird hide shown on the displayed map, a volley of tits passed my way including at least one marsh/willow tit - the habitat would suggest marsh tit but I can't tell the difference with any confidence.

So the woodland exotics - green woodpecker, tree pipit and nightingale will need to be left for another day and only the first two will be possible locally.  In a way it's good to know there's still something to aim for near where I live, which is why not seeing sedge warbler or egret didn't concern me much. But I really wanted that woodpecker...

16th June

Walberswick Common drew my attention as possible area for dartford warbler and green woodpecker.  Fortunate enough to meet a woman from Natural England awaiting a school group, who gave me a map and some directions so I could plan activities around the anticipated rainstorm, which lasted nearly three hours while I read in the car.

The main targets were not co-operating, even in spite of combing the woodland and getting a little lost right in the middle of dartford warbler heathland.  But two very pleasant walks led to jay, reed warbler, bearded tit (including a close-up of a female this time), marsh harrier, buzzard (not so common in Suffolk), cetti's warbler and several rather cocky reed buntings who absolutely refused to leave their favourite bushes when I walked right underneath them.  There were also some otter tracks near the old mill.

15th June

Minsmere on short break in East Anglia. An incredible visit, in that I sighted virtually every bird I wanted to see in the minimum amount of time.  Bearded tit, the main target appeared within 40 minutes of arriving, along with reed warbler.

I pretty much expected to see an avocet from the East hide but to see one ten yards out immediately on entering staggered me a bit.  Soon I added spoonbill and flamingo along with various others (that actually interested me less!) thanks to the guidance of one of the RSPB staff. These were: black tailed godwit, gadwall and spotted redshank.

I not only heard but saw cetti's warbler on the way to the bittern hide, where marsh harriers were in action. The occasional bittern was on the move and visible in flight. And then a squadron of hobbies moved in with a spectacular display to feed on the pond dragonflies.

I didn't see the little egret but on moving to the last reed hide, clearly heard a water rail.

Not much was happening in the woodland so I decided to return to the north wall to see if I could improve on the bearded tit sighting, and sure enough a male appeared briefly on the very edge of the reeds.

Many of these spots were aided by wardens and experienced watchers nearby, but eleven first sightings on the same outing has to be a bit special.

12th June

Visit to Newtonairds Garden with Mum to see hostas.  Spotted flycatchers nesting in boxes along outbuilding - a total chance but first sighting for years.

A few days ago a fellow train traveller pointed out a number of cinnibar moths that were eating up all the ragwort plants near the signal box.  Apparently they can totally decimate an area of ragwort.

Cinnibar Moth

12th May

Bike ride from Penrith to Hawes Water in pursuit of ring ouzel - unsuccessful.  Other results not spectacular.  Male redstart at same point just North of hotel on way there and way back.  Thrush, stonechat.

3rd May

Bike ride from Lochmaben to St Ann's, returning East of Water of Ae.  Several isolated curlew (although one had a rather straight beak).  Lovely grey wagtails and a nuthatch at St Ann's but no redstart.  Numerous goldfinch, willow warbler, a few lapwing over farmland.  Swallows and martins now more in evidence.  More orange tips but could not see a female.  Also peacock, red admiral, small tortoiseshell.  Buzzards but no kestrel.  No tree creepers - haven't seen them for a while.

26th April

Threave Castle and Gardens with Glenys.  Head of female osprey was sighted poking out of nest. I thought I saw the female chasing off a rogue male but everyone else was too busy chatting to notice.  Orange tip butterflies.  Some sedge/grasshopper warbler reports from hides on river. Actually sighted some swallows, and a good vioew of a chiffchaff in the Garden.

19th April

Last minute fishing trip with Alex to celebrate my birthday.  Contrary to my belief that last minute trips are a bad idea, this was best visit to Brooms yet.  Fished SE corner of Bruce's acre. Warm day, very slight westerly wind. Catching a chub first cast, I feared we'd be plagued by smaller fish but after that the carp were virtually climbing up the pole.

Must have had nearly 30 (lost count) plus four chub and a decent skimmer.  Most were small commons but also had three decent mirrors and one common that were over 5lb and some tremendous fights.  All fish on double sweetcorn glugged in honey fished just on bottom, which must be the first time at Brooms I've caught all fish on the same bait.

Only one carp seemed to be a definite F1, strengthening our belief that John (owner) moves fish round a lot.  He probably sells the really large ones.

Mirror Carp

Common Carp

15th April

Bike ride the day before yesterday to Gallaberry Plantation and Applegarthtown Nature Reserve.

Very overcast. Many sand martins dogfighting above the water and some willow warblers (both locations) - first seen this year.  Only one chiffchaff heard but almost impossible not to hear them around Dumfries.  Have heard a swallow at home around 4th April, but didn't see it.

Bike ride to and into Ae Forest.  Black rabbit by roadside, quite a way from nearest farm so presumably an escapee.  Good to see kestrel hunting, showing some have obviously survived, also buzzards in mating flight (or two males having a fly-off)?  Wheatear on moor, the earliest I've seen them and passing pipits.  Siskins drinking from a puddle in the forest track - could almost have run them over.  Again heard but did not see skylarks.

2nd April

Up Criffel with cricket juniors.  Several pipits, buzzards on way back.  One bird I'm not seeing is kestrel, in line with observations at SOC that they are struggling vis a vis buzzards. Lack of voles during last two hard winters may well explain.

28th March

Mirror carp

Fishing again at Brooms. Although colder than last time it felt warmer, as wind was light from E/S.

Fish very much on the feed and everyone catching.  I had 14 carp (5 mirrors) and one barbel, all but one on margin pole next to NW corner.  Most fish on meat, but worm also scored well when they got finicky.  Good run of mirrors mid-afternoon 3lb, 4lb, 5lb and 4lb with 3lb+ barbel around the same time.

Heard first chiffchaff of summer.  Blue tit stripping rush heads right next to me but not willing to pose for photo.

20th March

Good weather and so first fishing trip of the year to Broom's, although actually quite a chill wind there.

Barbel

Fished pole on meat in the margins on swim 79 of F1 pond.  Three small golden commons short of 2lb and two barbel between 3.5 and 4lb, confirmed by John as hen fish.  These two were in excellent nick and fought like crazy for several minutes.  Apparently a surprising number of barbel are being caught in matches for the time of year, but mainly on the tip.

Lots of carp splashing about in the middle but didn't get the feeling they were feeding.  Short walk to check for birdlife but no sign apart from a few magpies and calling buzzard.

15th February

Eskrigg Nature Reserve, Lockerbie for first visit.  Nice walks, lake area heavily doctored by human hand and large supply of nuts and bird food around main hut.  Big flocks of chaffinches and siskins. Also all three tits, brambling, goldfinch, nuthatch, gs woodpecker.  Occasionally scattered by passing raptor (not seen).

Very little to see or hear away from this area.

A week ago there was also a female siskin in the garden, on nuts in the pear tree.  First and probably last this winter - few conifers in garden these days

29th January

Did Great Garden Birdwatch with totally unspectacular results.  Only one blue tit and no chaffinches.

Wed 25th January

Bike ride in Annandale.  Lochmaben to just South of Johnstonebridge, Applegarthtown Nature Reserve, A709 back.

Siskin, jay plus numerous buzzards, chaffinch flocks on the way North and a large flock of swans including whoopers past Fishbeck.

14th January 2011

I should have started writing a nature diary ages ago!

On a walk at Colvend Coast got superb view of peregrine falcon.  Saw it from afar as I went behind a hill. Lucky to see what I though I was a buzzard sitting on the drystone wall just West of Port o' Warren. In the binoculars it was clearly a peregrine, cheek stripes clearly visible.  Then it went up and flew right over me, slate grey male.  Probably a young bird?

Also jackdaws doing acrobatics over the cliffs, great tit giving exhibition of alarm call and a couple of meadow pipits.

There has also been a song thrush in garden - have seen it two or three times.