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