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.
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| 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.
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