Tuesday 29th December

On Sunday in post-Christmas recovery mode, went for longish bike ride from Lochmaben to Sibbaldbie, but saw basically nothing.  In any case I left the binoculars at home so wouldn't have been able to identify much.

Just on the way back into Lochmaben at the very end of the ride, there was a very large flock of geese that had settled on a farm field. With the naked eye, I reckoned they were greylag geese but they were too far off to identify positively or check for interlopers with out the glasses.

On Monday I had a rather better day walking along the paddy line westwards from Mossvale.  There was a jay clearly visible from the car on the back road to Laurieston, and the inevitable flotation of red kites, holding steady in the considerable wind.  I got a close-up view of one of them hovering just by the village as the walk got underway.

Long-tailed tit

I found a new path from the old railway that led down to the Black Water of Dee, always one of my favourite-looking small rivers. In the railway cutting beyond the bridge, a volley of long-tailed tits were working their way through the trees and I was able to follow them for a hundred yards or so, trying to take photos as they became slightly less tame. Also spotted a treecreeper at one point.

But the real purpose of the visit was to suss out the moorland at the end of Loch Stroan for any birds of prey, in particular hen harriers, as this is where Tony reckons he regularly sees them.  I found myself a nice perch on a collapsing drystone dyke and hung around for a while, but the sum total of widelife observed was a solitary meadow pipit and a skulking roe deer. I don't nkow if it's something I've been doing wrong, but this area hasn't proved productive for birds of prey over a number of visits. At times I have the distinct impression there is less wildlife around than there used to be.

Although I continued the walk back past Mossvale Loch, nothing more was sighted. Dropped in briefly at Kingholm Park as a short-eared owl has been seen there.

Black Water of Dee

Another view

Wednesday 16th December

I'm enjoying this time more than usual but it's still a bit depressing to see how little decent daylight we are getting - a maximum of around four hours here. No wonder primitive man thought the world was coming to an end.

Went out for an experimental walk yesterday in the area of Barwhillanty Forest and Loch Roan, experimental in the sense I had no idea how attractive the area would be in any respect. Initial impressions in terms of wildlife would have confirmed the notion that the world is coming to an end as nothing was around for the first 45 minutes at all.  In terms of scenery, it was however an extremely attractive stretch of mixed wood and moorland and profoundly still.  I would imagine it to be a beautiful area in the summer and the numerous ponds would probably mean lots of dragonfly and insect activity.

Loch Roan

After nearly an hour I did manage to see a couple of pairs of bullfinches - or possibly the same pair twice about half a mile apart.  They seemed almost to be unwisely limbering up for the mating season, perhaps a reflection of the ongoing mild temperatures that have produced only one frost to date.

Apart from that there were only a few coal tits in the conifers and a couple ofwrens muttering in the undergrowth.

On the way back from Loch Roan (private fishing only) as dusk approached, things did liven up a little.  A reluctant buzzard shuffled around the trees, and half a dozen pipits emerged from the rushes to circle around a bit overhead as if irritated by my presence.  Just I was reflecting that I hadn't seen a single crow or gull all day, a crow wandered lazily across the skyline as the car came into view.  The last bird I saw was a single dunnock.

Tuesday 8th December

Appalling weather recently so not likely to get out tomorrow, though I do have a little alternative plan if it brightens later in the week.

Last Wednesday arrived at Bogle Bridge to cycle to Kirkcudbright to catch a rear view of a large hawk about 20 yards ahead of me. It proved to be a red kite and two of them hovered over the road for several minutes in the strong breeze.

The ride itself was pretty much an endurance test but did stop by the moor on the way back to Gelston, just to check if the birds gathering in a nearby tree were indeed starlings.  In the binoculars, it was apparent that some of them at least were redwings.

Tuesday 1st December

Oh dear! New volutary work responsibilities mean I've had a busy fortnight and little time to report on nature events. Not sure if I'll get out anywhere tomorrow so best to catch up now.

Finally I did manage to see some redwings in a field South of Bogrie Moor last Wednesday.  Some were actually sitting nicely in a tree right by the roadside but understandably took fright as I approached in my fluorescent yellow cycling jacket. There must have been about 50 in the field but too far away to get a decent photo on my camera.

Spent a lot of the ride to Dalry trying to keep pace with a member of Dumfries Cycling Club, but did get a good few of some hovering kites on the Crocketford Road a bit before Bogle Bridge. Some long-tailed tits were passing through the trees at some point but I really can't remember when. I did see a good few more today though, when picking up some shopping at the local Halford's.

Spot the parakeet
Dificulty level = moderate

The week before the Brussels attacks I was there, visiting the European Parliament with Amnesty Scotland This was not a very nature-friendly environment but I did manage to sneak off to the Jubelpark to see if the ring-necked parakeets were still as much in evidence as on my last visit 18 months ago.

As soon as I entered the park a familiar screeching sound proved my odds-on suspicion to be correct and they were all over the place, though much more easily heard than seen as I discovered when trying to get this picture (left).

There has been at least one sighting of a ring-necked parakeet in Dumfries and Galloway, with some discussion as to whether they are a welcome arrival or not. Personally I like them.

Previously I think I may have referred to them erroneously as green parakeet.