Thursday, 15 October 2015

15 October 2015

Events to report in the way of direct sightings have calmed down considerably.

There was photo last week on Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding of a redwing arriving in the Caerlaverock area, so I turned my attention away from trees and plants and took the binoculars on yesterday's bike ride for the first time in a month.

The result was yeat another lovely Autumn run in steady sunshine once the chill South East wind had died down, but absolutely nothing of major interest sighted apart from a small flock of curlews by the Nith.

Other subscribers to Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding have also seen green woodpeckers and, more impressively a turtle dove down by the seashore somewhere. Here green woodpeckers are on the edge of their range and I shared my theory that they move around a good deal, making them hard to tie to a location. But I did not know we even have turtle doves.

In the garden, a coal tit has been appearing on the bird table, which I at first attributed to a change in feed to include sunflower hearts.  But in fact I think one often turns up at this time of year.

Birds often take a tour of the silver birch in the front garden looking for aphids and other insects. This year I have on at least three occasions seen a red admiral settling on the leaves of the silver birch. I don't recall this happening before and so can't help wondering why they are doing it. Are they taking sap off the leaves?

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