Return to Dumfries - Day 1

I took a trip to my former home area to catch up with friends and with some nature-related objectives.

The two main ones were to give myself a chance of photographing a cuckoo and to hopefully see again the pearl-bordered fritillaries at Mabie Forest, as the latter do not exist in the North East and cuckoos have been infrequent so far, though strangely Malcolm and I heard one the wek before.  Secondary objectives were to see a whinchat or wheatear somewhere and, as a complete longshot, a golden eagle if I got really lucky.

Day 1

On the 25th, I set off North by bike to explore the area between Dunscore and Corsock and the southern end of the Glenkilns.

Weather was not especially favourable as the wind was strong, the temperature cold enough to more or less eliminate the possibility of bee or butterfly sightings, while showers and dark conditions further discouraged much waiting around for birds.  Immediately on setting out a dog had a bite at my cycling trousers and the first of many red kites appeared in the Midpark area.

Just going on to the Eastern end of the moors, there were a number of willow warblers working an interesting bit of woodland scrub and a really annoying, invisible bird chuntering away in a dense hawthorn bush, so I couldn't get a photo to check it out.

No cuckoo showed up in the area I had particularly targeted just before the downward slope off the moors but I did hear one calling consistently down the valley towards Corsock.  Unfortunately it was a bit distant.

On the road to the Glenkilns I stopped briefly at a place where there used to be red squirrels and tits but the feeders were conspicuously empty.

I had hoped a cuckoo would show up near the road at Craigadam Woodland but further down there was one calling consistently.  It was an area where I once saw one in a low tree and also spotted a whinchat, but this time it was well back in the pines and even with a diversion, I couldn't locate it.  Of whinchats there was no sign.

Having more or less given up it was some surprise when I heard one calling quite near to the stone sculptures on the descent off the Glenkilns.  A couple of times there was even one calling from further on the hills on the other side of the valley.  I did manage to see the first one in the binoculars briefly but try as I might I couldn't get it on the camera.

Must be a cuckoo in there somewhere!

All day a number of red kites had appeared from to time.  On the way to Terregles, I saw this one and only and rather noble looking buzzard.  It seems like buzzards are the minority species in the area these days.

Noble Buzzard

A little further along a single common carpet moth appeared by the roadside.

One feature of the day was the outstanding number of bluebells still in bloom.  Normally they would have been finished by early April according to one friend.  Nature is weeks behind itself everywhere this year.