Friday 28th April

Sometimes I wonder if I should rename this blog "Nature and Cycling" since all my trips out now seem to be cycling trips. In particular, I haven't been out fishing for a year and a half. Incidentally I forgot to say I saw a hare last Wednesday, lying in a field.

Anyhow, this Wednesday's run was pretty much the opposite to last week's in that the weather started out fair but didn't last. On the way out I was pleased to see that the sand martins are back and busy on the Nith just downstream from the cycle bridge.  It looked to me almost as if they were already feeding young though more likely they were lining the nests or some similar activity.

Sand Martins - nesting area

It was also pleasing to see a single lapwing playing over a farm field between Shawhead and Crocketford, not normally an area in which I expect to see other than common birds.

At Bridge of Urr, I continued my interest in the developing flowers and was struck by a purple flower next to the wall on the way out of the village.  Again, after consulting the Book of Flowers, I'm not sure what it is - common mallow perhaps?

Common Mallow?

Before setting out I had wondered what would be the likeliest: to see or hear a cuckoo or to see two butterflies.  I deliberately rode back through the Glenkilns, which has in the past been a regular home to cuckoos, but, in increasingly overcast weather, there wasn't the least sign of any cuckoo. However I did catch two brief sightings of male wheatears in flight, the first of the season, and so was happy to settle for that.

Once over the hill there was a buzzard and red kite taking stock of each other in the sky, some nice goldfinches, and right on the edge of Dumfries, literally adjacent to the first houses, a skylark could clearly be heard.

And then, going back along the cycle track in a last burst of hazy sunshine, there was a single small white butterfly - just like last week.