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