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.