Wednesday 5th August

Continuing cool, damp and windy weather is confirming my suspicion that a lack of any consistent warmth by the end of July means that Autumn will start by mid-August, and so it is already proving this year when the temperatures have struggled to reach 20 Celsius since June.

Currently the Big Butterfly Count is still on hold as far as I am concerned as I cannot guarantee the 15 minutes of sunshine required.

This week's bike ride has also been a rain off, but I did manage on of my rare twitches yesterday in response to the news of two pairs of bee eaters breeding in a quarry near Brampton. Now obviously I managed to see bee eaters in Provence in June but this was a definite news item and I vaguely hoped that it might be possible to see them closer to.

The temporary site put up by RSPB has been really heavily visited and I wasn't too surprised to see a number of twitchers on arrival.  It was also no real surprise to find that the observation post was in fact at some distance from the nest.  However we did catch several sightings of bee eaters flying to and from the nest and occasionally perching on the fenceposts above it. They were too far away to photograph without top-notch equipment but I could make out the colours through my binoculars and it was possible to see them in reasonable detail by telescope. You could also see the hole they were nesting in perfectly clearly.

Twitchers Twitching

The Nesting Hole

Apparently, the only time that bee eaters have nested further North than this was in 1922 at Musselburgh. The chicks are expected to be on the wing in about a fortnight's time, so it may be that even better viewings will result then.

Also in the area were many sand martins, some linnets (spotted by twitchers with very powerful lenses) a couple of crows as well as a kestrel that arrived to interrupt proceedings for a while.

Saturday 1st August

A week of interesting bits and pieces...

Last Saturday Malcolm and I took a quick run down to the Caerlaverock Nature Reserve.  The intention had been to attempt the Big Butterfly Count but as we never had 15 continuous minutes of sunshine, the survey conditions were not satisfied so we turned our attention to a bit of tree spotting, during which I managed to remind myself what an alder really looks like.

Strangely, the best spot was on our way out of the pub that evening, when we noticed that there is a large-leaved lime growing in front of the churchyard on St Michael's Street. Shocking in a minor way that I must have walked past it several hundred times without noticing it was there.

As Malcolm has only seen a red squirrel in Wales, we went to Eskrigg Nature Reserve the day after as I reckoned the chances of seeing them there were odds-on. Unfortunately there was a lot of gardening and maintenance work going on round the lake, which clearly intimidated the local birdies from visiting the feeders and no doubt the squirrels as well.

So we took a long perambulation around the reserve seeing nothing worthwhile but sure enough, on returning to the lake the volunteers were away and the squirrels were already invading the feeders, so we had a good long session watching their antics. The curious thing that no birds of any real interest approached the feeders apart from briefly one female nuthatch and a woodpecker. The scene was heavily dominated by a large number of juvenile chaffinches in feeding frenzy mode, which may accounted for the lack of other species.

On the way out we managed another interesting tree spot, which after much discussion we think we identified as a red oak.

On Thursday I went down to Gretna with the bike to check out the River Sark and the Kirtle Water in the hope of perhaps seeing a few chub lazing around. After an enjoyable diversion to the Auld Acquaintance Cairn near the first house in Gretna, I was astounded to see that the Sark was running at a far higher level than when I last visited in wintertime.  So fishspotting was out of the question, but I would have to say that some spots looked incredibly chubby.  I found it hard to believe that the otters have got them all!

So a week of variations which has highlighted for me how much of nature I have not been taking in as a result of ny preoccupation with birdlife, butterflies and fishing.  I have even bought myself a book on wild flowers, about which I know practically nothing, so who knows...

Meanwhile it appears that there are a pair of bee-eaters nesting near Brampton - after I went all the way to Provence last month to see them!

Large-leaved Lime	Red Squirrel Invasion
Red Oak??	River Sark

More Photographs From Provence

As promised three weeks ago, here are some more photos of birds and other wildlife from provence. Thanks to Cyndy Hutley for providing them. N.b. some are from her previous trips to the area.

As you can detect, Provence offers good opportunities to see things that are uncommon or rare in the UK, plus some others you wouldn't see at all.

Bee Eater Chamois Citril Finch False Ilex Hairstreak Golden Eagle Great Spotted Cuckoo Mountain Goats Red Backed shrike Scorpion Sphinx Oak Moth

Calendra Lark Chough Eagle Owl Glossy Ibis Great Sooty Satyr Lesser Kestrel Ortolan Bunting Rock Sparrow Wryneck