Thursday 28th December

A long lapse has been brought on by an outburst of househunting and so no nature activity.  The one thing I did notice was a casual visit to the garden by a wren.  I'm sure this must have happened before at some point but I can't remember the last time I saw one there.

But yesterday I needed to get some fresh air after Christmas and set off to Mersehead following a couple of reports of bramblings in the area, notably on the feeders at the Visitor's Centre which seemed a good idea on a chilly day.

Greenfinches

I duly arrived and found a profusion of birds around the feeders, the first being a yellowhammer that was not to reappear later.  It was nice to see a couple of tree sparrows quite quickly too. The low, bright sunlight made it difficult to see colour and I at first thought there were some bright, small birds that might be of some note. The photos showed some birds obviously had a yellowish tinge and on finally using the binoculars I could see that they were female greenfinches and almost all the others were tree sparrows.

This was in itself interesting as I would never have expected the scene to be dominated by these two species and have never seen either bird in such large numbers.  There were some tits, dunnocks and blackbirds plus a fair few chaffinches but at times every second bird was a tree sparrow or a greenfinch.  It also seemed to me that the female greenfinches were a bit smaller than the males, something I hadn't observed before.

Meanwhile I scanned the chaffinches for anything that looked a bit different, i.e. a brambling but no brambling did appear.

After some time I set off for a wander towards the hides.  Apart from the barnacles, various flocks of which were honking all around the pace, there was a big cluster of birds motionless in one of the bushes on the path to Bruaich Hide.

Linnet

Again the light was difficult but I took them to be linnets.  They sat motionless as I gradually approached as if saving their energy on such a cold day.  In the end they did reluctantly fly off apart from one, presumably their PR Officer who stayed on his/her perch and allowed me to get a close up. 

Apart from that there was precious little to be sighted in the distance on the wetlands and I was having a bit of trouble focussing my binoculars, which got steamed up with the change of temperature on leaving the visitor's centre.

So I decided on a yomp across the beach before returning to the feeders just before dusk.  It was all very enjoyable in the sunshine, very still and quiet but again nothing to be seen (apart from a single heron over the wetland).  The reason in my view was that the tide was extremely far out, and so all the waders, birds of prey etc. move out with it.

Mersehead - very pretty, but no birds in sight!

At the end of the day I spent a good hour watching the feeders until the sun started to disappear.  Still no brambling...

Thursday 26th November

The weather has started to become more seasonal with large variations in temperature and occasional storms.

Did manage a ride out a week ago on Wednesday - an uphill haul to Ae against a very persistent northerly wind.  Did however manage good views of bullfinch, meadow pipit and stonechat before getting blinded by the sun on being transported at high speed back home by the same persistent northerly wind.

Went out for a brief run yesterday before the latest storm closed in and managed resightings of bullfinch on Georgetown Road, goldeneye on the Nith at Kingholm Quay as well as, unsurprisingly, numerous goosander at the caul.  There seems to be no sign of any waxwings yet.

November was also the month of the major fishpond tidy up I have been promising since I was too ill to attempt it last year.  The benefit has been a much clearer view of the four remaining fish (three goldfish, one golden orfe) that are currently being fed on the remains of a packet of past-sell-by-date Cheerios.  Waste not, fishes want not.

Tidy fishpond - with Cheerios

Sunday 26th November

Red Squirrel 

True to my word, I headed for a walk around Castle Loch on Tuesday in lieu of Wednesday's cycling.  As soon as I got out of the car, I noticed a flock of goldeneye on the loch just out from the bowling club, making the sightings of the previous week seem less remarkable. Afterwards I started off by checking out the feeders for a willow tit.  There wasn't one as there was a lot of traffic from other tit family members but I did see a tree sparrow moving around.  I would have got a shot of it as well but this little fellow (right) decided to come along and give a gymnastics display on the same feeder, which of course put everything else off.

Further round the east side of the loch there was this rather conspicuous example of fungal growth (left) that seems to have affected a number of the silver birches, though this was the most conspicuous example. I've no idea what it was.

Unfortunately the weather closed in just as I arrived at the castle and the rest of the walk was a bit of a yomp to get back to the car.  Impressively, it is now possible to walk right round the loch without going on the road except for a very short stretch past the ugly rich houses where the petrol station used to be.

Siskins

As Sunday tennis doesn't seem to be happening any more, I decided to try the same trick today and headed for Castle Loch again.  Unfortunately someone had forgotten to fill the feeders so I decided to head for Eskrigg Nature Reserve, thinking that might be the best alternative for a tree sparrow at least.

Once there of course no willow tit or tree sparrow appeared but I did get nice photos of siskins and goldfinches AND I was particularly pleased to get a not very good one of a treecreeper - not easy as it was constantly on the move. One of the goldfinches seemed to have particularly disinctive black and white rump markings, or maybe it's just a feature of the bird I hadn't noticed before?  The one I didn't get on camera today was the nuthatch, but I've had pictures of them before...

There were also a few red squirrels gamboling around and a lady trying to feed them right in front of her so she could get a close up. One red ran past me, went into her target zone and turned its back on her.

Goldfinch

Treecreeper

Sunday 19th November

A couple of trips to England to do with my voluntary work plus a long lasting heavy cold have cut back on my nature efforts recently.

Anyway got out on a bike ride on Wednesday and again did not get past the Nith before seeing these little items opposite the sewage works at Troqueer.  At first I thought tufted ducks but notable no tufts and not much like goosanders.  On inspecting the photo taken when they were at some distance, I think they are juvenile goldeneye.

Goldeneye

This ride was notable for the very large number of jays I heard screeching around and the sight of their white rumps as they took flight before me.  I've never known there to be so many to be around.  There must have been twenty on the way to and from New Abbey.

I stopped off briefly at Kirkconnel Flow to see if there were any crossbills around.  I didn't see any but a couple leaving the moss had seen them fly over.  There were also a few long-tailed tits around by the car park. A long-tailed tit also turned up in the garden this week but didn't show any interest in staying around.

Moving closer to New Abbey I took a bit of a detour on the path by Kirkconnell Hall towards the estuary, which revealed herons, curlew and a cormorant but by that time my hands were so cold I was starting to lose interest.

I don't think I'll go on the bike ride this week.  Apart from an increasing adversity to cold weather, the more I have got into cycling round in high vis gear at some speed, the less chance I get to be close to especially birds. So I think I may make a change and try walking a bit more over the next few weeks.

Back in the garden the coal tit has been turning up again, and a large amount of feathers in the area of the bird table hint that the apparently daft cat mentioned in a previous post may nearly have succeeded.  No pigeon has visited the bird table since, even though I moved it.

The last butterfly I saw was on 23rd October but there was one reported on Dumfries and Galloway Wildlike and Birding in early November.

Wednesday 1st November

Set off for a bike ride today and wasn't even out of the town when I saw a white bird on the edge of the Nith at Nunholm.  My first reaction was 'little egret' but on jumping off the bike it seemed too small so I decided to move on.  Looking through a gap between the houses I caught another glimpse and started to have my doubts. So I stopped again on the cycle track bridge and looked back to see the same bird, having flown up onto the bank.  This time I got the binoculars onto it and sure enough, it was a little egret, dangling it's black legs behind as it made off for cover.

This reminds me that I forgot to write about my trip to Northumberland ten days ago, when I saw two little egrets in successive days.  One was wading in a pond at the back of Cresswell Beach and another on the River Aln.  They must be getting common over there.  Unfortunately I didn't have a camera ready on either occasion, which made today's spot even more disappointing as I was sure I'd have been able to snap it.

The rest of the ride to Castle Douglas was a struggle against the wind and I only noticed a red kite getting mobbed by a couple of crows.

I had decided to look out for redwing and fieldfare on the way back.  I did see a large powder puff moving into the trees in MacAdam Woods, indicating the presence of a large deer but otherwise it looked as though I would be out of luck.

That was until I spotted just three or four birds in the trees going over a moorland stretch.  I couldn't get particularly close but the poorish photo I took was just enough to show they were fieldfares.

Fieldfares

Wednesday 25th October

Well into autumn now but daytime temperatures continue to hold up well.

Last Wednesday I stopped off at Lochfoot, where there was a flock of canada geese in the shallows.  It was quite a surprise as most geese at this time of year seem to be barnacles.

Canada geese

The other thing I always notice at the nice viewing platform at Lochfoot is the board with illustrations

Bream or perch?

by the local primary kids showing all the wildlife that can be seen on the loch. Unfortunately one of the illustrations appears to be the result of a confusion as the fish depicted is supposed to be a bream but very obviously has some features of a perch, notably the spiny dorsal fin.  Both fish are present in the loch but there wasn't a separate diagram devoted to the perch.

Anyway, I rolled on down the road and was heading towards Beeswing, when I caught sight of a large bird of prey flying skilfully in and out of the woodland.  It was too nimble to be a buzzard, had a pointed wing shape in flight and a palish appearance.  I suppose the commonsense answer is sparrowhawk but that wasn't my instinctive reaction.  I couldn't say it wasn't a goshawk, just that it would be very unlikely at this time of year.

Almost immediately after there was a fleeting sighting of a bullfinch and a female reed bunting. On the way home I saw a red admiral at Shawhead, but haven't seen one since.

This week, riding to Caerlaverock against the sun I cursed the lack of sunglasses and more especially binoculars as there may have been a few redwing in the trees before the Canine Rescue Centre.  There were however a couple of siskins going up the hill toward the Craigs and another female reed bunting.

Meanwhile back at home, my attempt to attract more interesting birds to the bird table misfired spectacularly, as did that of a young pussy cat.

Probably not the best way to catch a bird...

Sunday 15th October

It has been a quiet period between the seasons. A lot of my time has been spent on an overdue tidy-up in the garden including much pruning and chopping so the main forms of wildlife I have seen have been the odd spider and beetle apart from the usual infestation of greenfly on transporting things to the tip.

Temperatures have been fine and red admirals have continued to appear on occasion, the last actual sighting being last Monday.  There would have been more given some sun.  Signs of autumn are however encroaching.  The coal tit has started to reappear though less so than last year when it had a sunflower to deal with.  And numerous quckings from on high clearly indicate that barnacle geese are back in the area.

Trips out haven't produced much.  I did get a shot of female stonechat messing around on the moors at Glenkilns on 20th September and a few willow warblers still in the trees on the way up there.  Last week I saw a single swallow on the way to Kirkcudbright.

Female Stonechat

Yesterday I went for a bit of a walk round Dalbeattie Town Wood, hampered somewhat somewhat by drizzle. Nothing noteworthy appeared, just a few mallards and some garden birds.  It was a nice peaceful atmosphere though, almost eerie in its quite stillness.

Plantain Loch, Dalbeattie

Holiday am Bodensee (concluded)

The ride from Konstanz to Friedrichshafen was quite productive.  There was some nice maple trees near the Insel Mainau (which I didn't visit this time) and an assortment of squirrels, some very red and one in particular with an acorn between its paws. The bird selection was about the same but there was another mystifying pipit type bird I couldn't identify on the way to Wallhausen.  The mystery pipit phenomenon happened at least three times during the week and on each occasion the culprit escaped promptly, suspending any attempts at identification.

After a serene crossing to Uberlingen, I was immediately impressed by the place and in particular by the town gardens, where the bright flowers and the cacti really caught my eye - and I'm not generally the sort of person to go overboard about formal gardens.

The cacti at Uberlingen

At the Pfahlbauten Museum at Unteruhldingen there was a large shoal of small perch, clearly visible in the clear water, plus a couple of cruising carp and a grebe you could watch diving to the bottom to pick up weed.

The last day of the holiday was in one way the best in that it was the only day I actually made a couple of totally new sightings.  

The first was going through the Eriskircher Ried, which seemed to have much more going on than the other wetlands I visited and seems to be a hot spot for orioles.  I noticed a lot of squawking coming from some deciduous trees and after some difficulty got a brief but definite view of a woodpecker that looked 'different'.  I'm pretty sure it was a grey woodpecker and my suspicion was substantiated by an old chap I bumped into who confirmed they are in the area.  

I also got a view of one of the many hyperactive nuthatches and concluded they are slightly more slimly built that the UK variety and have a thinner headstripe, or so I thought.  There was also a good view through the binoculars of a jay carrying an acorn it its beak.  At first sight I thought it might have been a bird of prey but these remained few and far between barring the odd red kite... except for one buzzard I briefly observed overhead.

Mediterranean Gulls

Then right at the end of day I stopped at Lochau on the way back to Bregenz, finding a seat at a pleasant looking estuary.  There were a few birds about but notably some small gulls that flew up the estuary to pick bits of weed from the surface of the stream.  I don't normally have much regard for gulls but these seemed more dove-like apart from some minor bits of squabbling.  I was able to identify them as mediterranean gulls.  In German they are known as Lachmowe which, interestingly, gets translated on internet dictionaries as black-headed gull.  It's only by crosschecking the latin names that you can clearly see that this is an error.

But in a way the star bird performance happened slightly earlier when I was resting at Lindau and a cheeky sparrow took a fancy to my plum tart.  I enticed it onto the table but couldn't persuade it to eat from my hand.

Cheeky sparrow

It was a nice note for the last day of a holiday.

After my arrival home I was pleased to note that a red admiral landed on the last remaining sprig of buddleia on 21st September, the latest I have yet achieved.

Holiday am Bodensee (continued)

On the second day it was a bit of a relief to make a short trip to Stein am Rhein and its beautiful mediaeval buildings.

There wasn't that much to see on the nature front.  A couple of jays turned up as did a couple of black redstarts and both birds turned into regular sightings throughout the rest of the tour.  I've seen black redstarts in Germany several times before and notice they often turn up where there is some sort of intensive agricultural activity, in this area notably maize production.  There was also another very

Small-flowered cranesbill

dark squirrel and a lot of house martins over the Rhein near Diessenhofen, plus a few unremarkable dragonflies.

However I did come across a nice example of this small-flowered cranesbill, which the bike conveniently fell over, framing it nicely.

On the next day I moved on quite quickly, deciding to spend some time looking at the nature reserve at Mettnau.  Unfortunately, part of the path was still flooded from yesterday and all I saw was things I'd already spotted (several coots) but it did have the highest bird hide I have ever been on and produced one flower I couldn't identify.  There are supposed to be one or two rarities in the area so I'd like to know what it was.

High hide

Unidentified flower

This area is supposed to be a home for the camberwell beauty and goldon oriole, but as they are both summer visitors I was more disappointed not to see any birds of prey from the hide.  A massive area of the lake and the wetland was visible.  You'd have thought that something would be on the move.

Holiday am Bodensee

I cycled round Lake Constanz last week, starting and finishing in Bregenz. This wasn't exclusively a nature trip but I was keeping my eyes open as usual for interesting sightings.

On the first day, I took a detour around a part of the Rhine Delta, which quickly demonstrated that the main duck to be seen was the great crested grebe. There was also some sort of long-tailed pipit that didn't hang around, a theme that was to be repeated several times during the week.  Checking in the books it looked like a paddyfield warbler (Feldrohrensanger) but the location was wrong. Out on the lagoon there were a few reed warblers (probable) on the move

In a way the most interesting discovery was a good look at some long-tailed tits that got quite close when I stopped.  At first I thought they were juveniles, but research made it clear that they are a good deal paler than the UK variety and have almost totally white heads.  Of course, a couple of wagtails I

White Stork

saw were of the white rather than pied variety.

Moving on from the delta to the farmland on the edge of the nature reserve, there were a couple of white storks.  I saw storks in Bavaria seven years ago but this time I got a much better photograph.  I also noticed a nuthatch near Arbon that was tapping on a tree trunk as it fed, almost like a wee woodpecker.

Stopping to watch a guy fish (using maggots under an enormous float) there was a single common blue butterfly.  This was to be a rare occurrence.  The weather most days was overcast and the total butterfly sightings throughout the holiday amounted to three common blues (one female), a couple of red admiral, a few assorted whites and one brown, probably an argos (Mohrenfalter) of some kind.

The second day of the trip from Arbon to Gaienhofen was an almost total washout from a nature point of view as the weather was appalling and I spent most of the day cycling into a storming gale with a German couple.

Maine Coon

Before the weather worsened I was slightly amused to be sitting behind a maine coon that appeared to be looking out to sea near the harbour at Romanshorn.  I decided to photograph it when all of a sudden it atrted making for the harbour itself - the reason being that a fishing boat was coming in.

Fragmentary sightings were a kestrel, a red kite and a panicky treecreeper.  There was also a very dark squirrel that I thouight might be a black squirrel, but they don't occur in Germany so it must have been a 'maroon' red squirrel.

Saturday 9th September

As suspected I never got out for a last trip to the Solway Coast in search of late butterflies. On the one day I considered it, the forecast suddenly reversed in favour of widespread gloom.

Bike rides have not been very productive either as they have mainly been training rides for next week's cyling holiday round Lake Constance.  However it was quite interesting to spot a red kite just South of Moniaive on Wednesday and to notice there was a good number of pipits sitting on the telephone wires at one point.  A red admiral nearly flew into my face.

There have been just a couple of red admirals visiting the last tufts of buddleia as the weather has been cooler and brought a fair amount of rain. On Monday, one was flying around in the drizzle and looked to be struggling.  After it settled on some bamboo I decided to bring it into the sun room where it soon attached itself to a curtain rail and became motionless for 24 hours.

I started to wonder if it had gone into hibernation, but eventually it strted flapping against the window.  So I took it out when there was a sunny patch and it duly took off up high above the houses.

One other thing that turned up on my neighbour's garden wall was this wee moth, which I haven't noticed before.

Marbled Carpet

A flick through the Butterfly Conservation website hasn't produced an obvious match but asking around suggests it could be a marbled carpet. Whether it's a dark or common marbled carpet, I couldn't say.

Thursday 31st August

So here we are at the end of August and it looks like my attempt to coax the buddleia into September flowering will only just succeed for a couple of days.  Three out of five plants have more or less given up the ghost and the other two have just a few blooms left and are promising only a few new ones.

First and last painted lady

There's still the odd red admiral or peacock visiting the garden but basically the show is over for another year.  It makes it all the more heartening that one week ago, a single painted lady appeared, the only one I've noticed in the garden this year. Unfortunately, I just  managed to snap it from the underside but you can see clearly enough what it is.

So the summer is pretty much over and, as every year these days, I'm left to reflect how much more I would ideally have made of it. The old wisdom about not making enough time to stop and stare holds good and one poignant moment this morning underlined it.

I had just gone out to fill the bird table and feed the fishes and turned back for a moment to get something I'd forgotten.  Suddenly the sun came out and I noticed that the fish were already feeding and that the tree bumblebee was on the lavender next to the pond again.  I put my foot up on the small partition wall to just watch for a minute and a red admiral flew down and landed on the knee of my cords, maybe ten inches from my face.  It all lasted but a few seconds but I was momentarily transported into a simple joy that is the real reason for being a nature watcher and possibly for living at all.

Meanwhile, the last two bike rides haven't produced much but there was an amusing little incident on the way up to Loch Ettrick yesterday.  I was suddenly aware of some birds screeching and saw a buzzard fly up into a tree in the field to my right. I stopped to get the binoculars out and spotted a couple of fat looking birds I took to be turkeys. But a couple of cyclists following me identified them as guinea fowl, so a sort of first sighting for me.  They didn't seem very doemesticated but, according to wikipedia scaring off birds of prey is one of the things they are used for.  They also help prevent the spread of lyme disease by eating ticks, so I can think of a couple of other places where I should like to see them introduced!

Saturday 19th August

It cintinues to be a very mixed summer.

The peacocks and red admirals are visiting the garden in increasing numbers but I think I have only seen about four small tortoiseshells in total.  So far there hasn't been a painted lady.

Realising that the butterfly season is coming to a close I went bike riding down to the Solway Coast

Wall Brown

at Port of Warren on Thursday, hoping that I might see something out of the usual without doing a major hike.

This wasn't to be but the wall butterfly was out in force, so it was pleasing to see one again after nearly a year.

Otherwise there was a couple of sedge warblers in the trees next to the beach and one bird with a yellow stripe on its side that must have been a goldfinch - except that somehow I didn't think it was.

I was sort of thinking a holly blue or grayling might turn up by chance but in a way it was good they didn't as I only had my mobile ohone with me.

Today I joined the local Butterfly Conservation group walk at Mossdale in very dark and threatening weather.  Fortunately it brightened up and we got an hour or so of hazy sunshine, during which a surprising number of butterflies appeared.

There must have been over 50 peacocks, a good number of red admirals and a single painted lady on the way to the bridge over the Black Water of Dee, after which we spotted maybe 30 scotch argos until the weather closed in.

Painted Lady

Scotch Argos

I also got this photograph of a blue damselfly that I was rather pleased with, though apparently there are a few different kinds of blue damselfly and they are very hard to tell apart.  This sort of knowledge is the result of going out with people with some expertise!

Damselfly

Having researched the matter, I believe this was a common blue damselfly.

After we got past the farm the track was unpassable except in wellingtons, so we turned back as the rain became heavy for a time.  Afterwards there were still one or two butterflies around, including a painted lady, possibly the same one we saw on the way out.

Saturday 12th August

In a couple of ways I should have waited a bit before making the last post.  Later on the same day, I was able to report no less than five peacocks, three red admirals and one small tortoiseshell on the buddleia, plus a green-veined white and a small white elsewhere in the garden.

Then the next day I heard the swifts screeching again although I haven't heard them again since.

Following the garden theme, I've been taking a bit more interest in the bumblebees that visit the lavender by the pond.  I think I may have misidientified one regular species as red-tailed bumblebees when closer inspection shows that they were in fact they were early bumblebees.

Three days ago I noticed that the lavender was being bent rather more than usual by a larger bumblebee that clearly didn't have the stripes of the buff-tailed variety.  It turns out it was a tree bumblebee.

Tree Bumblebee

I got briefly excited about this when the Bumblebee Conservation site showed it as not present in Scotland but enquiries via Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding suggest that it has in fact been present in the South of Scotland for a few years now.

In the meanwhile, I have attempted a couple of butterfly trips that have yielded nothing of note - a quick forage aroung the Caerlaverock Nature Reserve in promisingly bright weather and a walk today around Rockcliffe looking for grayling and holly blue.  Unfortunately, the teatime weather forecast was way off the mark and the sun was scarcely to be seen.

There was an awful lot of this plant growing by the path and next to the beaches, so far unidentified.

???

The flowers look a bit like cowslips.

Monday 7th August

Red admirals are now appearing regularly in the garden as the buddleia blooms though I think the maximum I've seen at any one time is three.  Last week there was also a nowadays rare appearance from a small tortoiseshell.  Then the same day I found one squashed on the patio step so I just hope it wasn't the same one and that I didn't accidentally stand on it when I took the rubbish out.

Today was also the first appearance of a peacock since early spring.  One thing I haven't noticed for a few days is any swifts chasing each other around the houses.  Surely they can't already have departed for Africa?

Last Friday I took a bike trip to the Birkshaw Forest from Lochmaben, hoping to see a few butterflies during an afternoon that was forecast to be sunny.  Birkshaw is one location where the Essex Skipper can be seen, though I would have settled for a bit of variety including a few blues.

In fact the sun disappeared totally and all I saw was a few peacocks trying to warm themselves up on the stones in an otherwise promising-looking flower meadow.  One of them was particularly large and the markings around the rings seemed to me to be more pronounced than usual.

Peacock on the rock

It was certainly in splendid condition.

Also of some interest was this fly the likes I've never seen before and a a fine maple I noticed on the end of a line of conifers.

Mystery fly

Surprise maple

P.s. A small white just turned up on the lavender.

Saturday 30th July

On Monday I again took advantage of a sunnier day to try a walk round Mark Hill at Rockcliffe.  Initial signs in the garden were promising as teo or three red admirals were showing on the buddleia.

I somehow took it into my head that there might be a chance of a purple hairstreak but, although there were a few oak trees on the way back down, there was no sign of anything much at all apart from some whites. Afterwards I did a detour to the Mote of Mark, where there was a nice flower meadow and some more red admirals plus a few meadow browns.

One of them seemed to be behaving slightly different way to the others, flattering way down in the grass, so I took a few photographs in case it was a grayling.  But it wasn't.

In fact the most interesting nature moment was when a couple of red deer crossed over the path early on my way up the hill. This reminds me that I didn't do full justice to the walk around Mabie I did last week.  On the way up the narrow road to Troston, a couple of cars had pulled up.  I couldn't understand why and drove on slowly to discover a lady shepherding a baby red deer that was in the roadside undergrowth to safety.

I also forgot to report that there were a good number of dragonflies around, as there were on Mark Hill.  I think this one is a golden-ringed dragonfly.

Gold-ringed dragonfly

On reflection, I reckon I did the wrong walk today.  More interesting might have been to walk along the coast to walk along the coast towards Point Warren, looking for holly blues.  That may be my next venture.

Friday 21st July

Yellow Underwing

About a week ago I was starting to feel optimistic about butterflies.  An (albeit) tatty small tortoiseshell and a red admiral were early visitors to the blooming buddleia and, while attacking some wayward bamboo, I disturbed this item from the foliage which research suggests to be a yellow underwing moth.  I snapped it just before it crawled under my pullover.

A brief outburst of warm and sunny weather encouraged me to follow up with a trip to see what butterflies were around at Mabie Forest on Monday.  I'd spotted a path off from the road to Troston that I thought would lead to the main butterfly walk near Craigbill Hill.  Sure enough it did, but not with the results I would have expected on such a good day in midsummer.

In fact there was nothing at all on the main signposted walk except for a couple of fritillaries and a few ringlets.  I couldn't believe it.  I would have thought the place would have been teeming with butterflies and started to wonder if the poor weather throughout most of June had aversely affected numbers in quite a severe way.  The contrast with

Dark Green Fritillary

previous visits could not have been more stark.

In fact there were more to be seen on the way to and from the walk, so that I managed to spot dark green fritillary, meadow brown and ringlet on the way there.  Then, having more or less given up on the chance of seeing any blues, the walk back to the car turned up trumps as there were half a dozen male common blues flying around some yellow vetch and also a singular small copper on the path itself.

A couple of green-veined whites showed up late on but obvious inhabitants like small heath and small pearl-bordered fritillary were not visible and I doubt if I saw more than about thirty butterflies (including other whites) in the whole 3.5 hours I was in the area.

One interesting thing I did see (and was pleased to identify) was a common spotted ocrchid, if somewhat past its best.

Common Blue

Meadow Brown

Small Copper

Saturday 15th July

Goldfinch

Sometimes you get a bit lucky.  I've thought for a while that I would like to get a photo of a goldfinch but they always seem to be on the move.  On Monday I was on the way to pick up a prescription when  I noticed one scavenging in one of the gardens near a fairly busy road.  Unfortunately it was skulking when I shot it, in fact it doesn't look in too happy a mood at all.

There was fine weather on Tuesday and the butterflies would probably been about. But I elected to play tennis instead. So often summer is too short to get all the things done that you wanted to.

Meanwhile I have been wondering about the identity of a flower that has turned up in a spare hanging basket, just where the bird table used to be.

Might be buckwheat

There wasn't much to report from the Wednesday bike ride from Castle Douglas to Dalry vis Mossvale.  One thing was that I saw several more buzzards than red kites.  Mainly I was looking out for butterflies and, although the sun was out, there weren't many... a couple of ringlets, several whites that wouldn't settle, the statutory unidentified brown butterfly flying in the tree tops, plus three red admirals trying to warm up on the track through the Ken Dee Marshes reserve. Apart from that there was just one yellow day flying moth I couldn't identify. And no orange tips.

Tuesday 4th July

Busy, busy lately, so this is just a quick summary of what happened on the nature front.

A fortnight ago swifts were flying around the estate merrily.  One bird seemed to be entering the eaves of a house across the road.  I was starting to have ideas of videoing them but the weather broke at the end of the week and I haven't had even heard them screeching since.

That Thursday I had a meeting in Kendal and was surprised to see a grey wagtail hopping around on the pavement in the town centre.  Fair enough the River Kent was not many yards away but I haven't seen one in an urban environment before and if you see a wagtail on country roads. it's always a pied wagtail.

Last Wednesday there was a short bike ride to Ae Forest which I was happy to keep short as I had a heavy cold.  I took my time and looked out for redstarts by the stream just before Amisfield Moor without result in by now downright dreary weather.  On the moor there were a few pipits and a couple of willow warblers to be seen and I also heard a whitethroat on the run down off it.

Just before the crossroads at Ae Forest a large volley of siskins went through the trees, just as a group of fellow cyclists drew up behind.

Yesterday I was at Kingholm Park for other reasons and another mysterious brown butterfly moved away out of the grass just in front of the Pavilion.  That is the third time I've had this experience recently and not been sure what I'd seen, but I'm inwardly convinced it was the same species each time!

Wednesday 21st June

Got out on a small fishing trip on Saturday, mainly to use up some of the bait from the earlier trips this month.  I had intended to go to Lochfoot but the north bank has been rendered virtually inaccessible by extended heavy fencing.  So I ended up legering from the north bank at Mill Loch.

At first it looked like it might be another blank as bites were not forthcoming for a while.  Of course, as soon as I set up a second rod, the bites did start to come and I landed a perch, a roach and two more perch in a fairly short period around three to four o' clock.  After that bites got shyer and harder to detect.  I switched to corn on one rod, retaining red maggot on the other and got another three roach before packing up mid-evening.  None of them were any size and there were no bream.

The catch before release

Another angler told me he had been catching good roach and six bream from the western stretch of the north bank, which seems to be the favoured stretch these days.  However it is an awful long way from the road.  I was exhausted enough after carting the gear as it was!

Yesterday, Vicki and I decided on another quick walk at Kingholm Quay.  Once again it was quite productive and there were a couple of pleasant surprises.

It started quietly setting off towards Glencaple with a brief sighting of a female greenfinch and a couple of ringlet butterflies (first of the year) that flew around restlessly without ever settling plus a green-veined white (probable) doing exactly the same.  There was also an extensive pink-flowering bush that may have been some sort of domestic escapee.

Another unidentified pink flower

We then spotted two or three birds behaving very furtively in a group of dog roses.  I got enough of a view to reckon they might be sedge warblers, but it proved impossible despite several attempts to get any sort of a photo.  Then Vicki used her phone to confirm the spotting and actually played the sedge warbler call a afew times, which immediately drew a considerable response from all around!  So we unconsciously found a new means of identifying bird life.

Shortly thereafter I spotted a fascinating section of rough scrub.  I was trying to follow a small flock of birds entering a tree when a redstart showed up in the binoculars as it settled in the undergrowth just in front.  It didn't stay for long but long enough to identify it positively.  I haven't seen one for a few years now.

On the way back there were more similar encounters with warblers and butterflies, including a couple of willow warblers.  At one point a small brown butterfly settled that I expected to be a small copper.  However it proved to be a skipper.  On appearance I thought it might be a small or essex skipper but they are not common here and not yet officially on the wing, so I suppose that large skipper is the obvious answer.  Frustratingly, no photograph was possible yet again but we did rather better with a single red admiral that was nectaring on flowers - the first of the year for me.

Red admiral

You can see how fresh it looks, so I think it must have hatched recently.

Thursday 15th June

Half of June gone and the promising weather of late May has not continued.

On Tuesday I decided that the aubretia's attempt to invade the edge of the lawn had ended in a stalemate of World War 1 proportions and so was pushing it back and cutting the resulting long grass away when a large green frog emerged from where it had been.  This was ironic as I'm sure I had been telling someone I never get frogs in my garden any more.  It hopped off sharpish but no idea where it ended up as I'm sure it couldn't have leapt the wall.

I interrupted the Wednesday bike ride to do a little foray along the Nith south of Kingholm Quay, as one of the butterfly group told me it was quite good for birdlife.

Peek a boo! Baby Whitethroat

It was indeed a most pleasant short stroll.  I got
a good view of a willow warbler, though not a photo. Then there were some grating noises from some birds from an area of elder bushes and dog roses. The culprits were pretty elusive too, but I finally got a shot that suggests to me they were juvenile whitethroats.  That was one of the species my butterfly contact had indicated (forgot the other one!) and it was sort of confirmed when a senior whitethroat appeared a few yards down the track.

I also got a good snap of a song thrush, a poorish one of a goldfinch and a fleeting glimpse of what I took to be a rather pale looking painted lady - can it still have been one that overwintered?

Continuing the bike ride, I took a detour on the way back to go down to the entrance of Caerlaverock Wildlife and Wetlands Trust.  This only produced a nice sighting of a yellowhammer plus one of an otter constructed in lego before I retreated back to the high road in the grips of a major hayfever attack.

Lego Otter

Friday 9th June

At last a fishing trip...

In fact it was two in two days, or perhaps one and a half since the second one didn't produce anything.

My friend Malcolm Gray was over for a few days early last week as the weather was just starting to break up.  After giving up the idea to go out on the Monday, we eventually got to Brooms Fisheries on the Tuesday.

We did reasonably well and between us ended up with three carp (two for Malcolm), four bream and a gudgeon.  That could have easily been more, possibly double, as we both lost several fish.  Malcolm picked up bites fairly consistently on swimfeeder and prawn.  On the short pole, I had to fiddle around a good deal, changing baits a fair bit and most bites were on bacon bits. His best fish was a common carp of about 4lb and I had a bream of over 3lb.

We would probably have done better if we had got out the previous Friday or Saturday when the fish apparently were still spawning.  I pricked a good few fish so Malcolm's suggestion that my hooks weren't sharp enough may have been correct.

Here's a couple of samples of the catch, both carp:

It was a much different story on the Wednesday when we decided to visit Mill Loch.  We legered from the north bank but did not pick up a single definite bite.  I tried fishing a longer pole both deep and shallow.  It was tricky to manage in view of the obstructions in the shallows and there was no response at all and not even many fish topping.

The cooling weather may again have played a role and one suggestion was lack of oxygenation because of sparse rainfall.  But it had been raining fairly consistently for a day and a half until Tuesday pm and there was no shortage of wind.

I did notice quite a few minute worms and freshwater shrimp when turning over rocks so obsession with other food sources may have been an issue.

I completed a shortened bike ride this Wednesday but there was not really much to report bar nice sightings of a red kite and a couple of goldfinches.  One light brown butterfly passed by the bike in a woodland clearing but brief foraging led to nothing.  It was probably too cold for butterflies.