Wednesday 24th May

Lesser Redpoll

Last Wednesday I had a lovely short run coming back over Troston from Beeswing.  On the way up the hill in the brief period of reasonable sunshine, there were green-veined whites and orange tips everywhere and on the top I reckoned I'd seen a couple of birds with a bit of white on their tails that I didn't readily recognise.  They flew into some young conifers and started to feed so I hung around and they turned out to be lesser redpolls - the first time I've seen one for four years.

I stopped a bit later to forage for willow warblers but instead there were three cuckoos singing simultaenously from different directions - not something I've ever heard before.

I was so pleased with that run I decided to repeat that part of the route again today.  This time I headed to Beeswing via Kirkconnel Flow and encountered a minor mystery.  Just past Mabie, I glimpsed what looked like a meadow brown over the grasses to my left. There were cars behind me just after a bend so stopping would have been unsafe and I couldn't investigate.  Annoyingly there were a couple of other brief flashes of brown between New Abbey and Beeswing but totally unidentifiable.

The problem about this is that the meadow brown isn't on the wing yet, and neither are the other species that it could possibly be mistaken for.  It wasn't a wall butterfly and too big for a small heath, so I have to record an open verdict.

Then there was a young red deer past Kirkconnel Flow that took a look at me before sprinting 300 yards across the pasture to get away.

The run back over Troston was unluckily during an overcast spell so today only one butterfly on the whole of the run to Whinneyhill. There was a bullfinch and a couple of willow warblers.  But my main hope was to see a cuckoo and, during a brief stop where a walking route crosses the road, I heard one that I managed to trace to a somewhat distant treetop.  So I finally managed to get a photo of a male cuckoo, albeit at a considerable distance.  Lesser redpoll however did not make a reappearance.

Distant cuckoo

Meanwhile I got a pleasant surprise while labouring away in the garden last Thursday, when I heard the first swifts chasing each other around the estate.  It may be my imagination but it struck me that it was early for them to be around - to be precise 18th May.  I must check this out.