After the fun with the starlings, I went on a bike ride on Tuesday with fitness in mind and so no binoculars. Noted from a distance three more young buzzards that were sitting in very low trees and bushes, and had the impressiona that this was either a sign of desperation or supreme confidence but wasn't sure which.
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| Dusk at Caerlaverock |
No binoculars meant I couldn't check the flight of a darkish bird that flew in harrier-like fashion across the merse at Caerlaverock but then landed on the shoreline more like a gull, visible at 400 yards. But just a few hundred yards further along the road towards Glencaple I couldn't escape seeing that the swan I momentarily thought I had glimpsed in the nearby rushes next to the Nith was in fact an egret. I stopped to get the camera out and it immediately flew off downstream, but its neck position gave final confirmation that it was no swan.
I should have hung around for a further sighting but was on a sort of schedule and rode on. I meant to go back on Thursday but at the last minute drove instead to the sites at Southerness and Carsethorn where I saw the twite three years ago (only seeing a few redshank and a couple of wigeon for my troubles) since when the weather has deteriorated.
The Dumfries and Galloway Birding group on yahoo indicates that little egrets are now quite often seen in the area, which gives me a slight problem as I thought it was too big for a little egret and that it probably had a yellow beak. Great egrets are still rare here but it could just have been a cattle egret in winter plumage. Either way, it's my first definite egret sighting in this country.
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