Return to Dumfries - Day 2

The search for birds continued, similar weather to Day 1 with slightly less wind again largely ruling out the possibility of butterflies and bees.

I did an old trick and drove the bike to Ken Dee marshes enabling me to forage further West.  The first target was the Laurieston area where I have heard cuckoos a couple of times before.  However my progress was quickly interrupted on the road over when I could clearly hear a cuckoo calling from  a conifer spread in the middle distance.

Annoyingly again, I couldn't catch sight of it but stopped at the very next field where about three red kites were performing acrobatics.  By the time I got off the bike, removed two layers of gloves and got the camera out they had moved on.

I was just about to do the same when the cuckoo flew right by the road, hotly pursued by two smaller birds - an impressive view.  It settled in a small tree along the road but soon retired some distance away.  I did not know that cuckoos get mobbed but I suppose it makes sense if the pipits etc have worked out what they are up to.

I rode on amongst a chorus of willow warblers and chaffinches and spent time in a certain area where a golden eagle is reported to pass by.  Needless to say there was no sign, nor indeed of any other bird of prey which was a little surprising.  There were just plenty of pipits and the odd skylark singing.

Things remained quiet until heading towards Girthon I heard exactly the same insistent chattering from a hawthorn bush as I encountered yesterday.  This bird was even more invisible.  I wondered about lesser whitethroat but it was only when I replayed the video I attempted that I realised it was a sedge warbler.

Must be a sedge warbler in there somewhere!

This was rather annoying as I have heard sedge warblers before and should have recognised it.  Perhaps I eliminated it on the basis that there was no marshland nearby though on reflection there was a small stream as was the case the day before.

At this point I realised I was quite a way behind schedule and pedalled on at some speed for a late lunch at Kirkcudbright.  This was a bit of a pity as I passed through some interesting territory and someone told me the day after he had seen grayling at Carrick.  I wish I had known that in advance.

The idea was to cycle back slowly to Laurieston from Ringford but a sudden shower sapped the enthusiasm and I did not pay much attention to the cuckoo calling north of Ringford, nor the one south of Laurieston.

After Laurieston I had warmed up a bit and was considering a quick run round the reserve at Ken Dee Marshes to check for peid flycatchers and wood warblers.  But just past the spot where I saw the cuckoo that morning I stopped to inspect the undergrowth and spotted a cuckoo in a tree further along.  I just managed to get a mediocre shot of it before it flew on further to a telegraph pole and started singing.

Before I could get a better shot peering through the trees it bolted up the valley, singing all the time, and made itself scarce.  It was probably the same bird as earlier.

Cuckoo

Thus was a minor ambition achieved in the very last mile or so of the expedition. By the time I reached the car, it was too late for further escapades and I headed back to the B&B.