12th March

A couple of walks with Alex this week. At Mersehead saw reed bunting, pipits, curlew, ringed plover and 18 shelduck on shore. Still several hundred barnacle geese. Area behind beach towards Southerness looks to be worth investigating.

Caerlaverock Nature Reserve today.  Heard woodpecker and several skylarks but no sighting.

Thursday 1st March

Going over the moors by Shap on train to Lancaster, I saw what I first thought was an early swallow flying adeptly at about 50 ft, except I noticed the tail shape was completely wrong - shaped like a half closed fan with an almost straight edge.  All I got otherwise was a dark silhouette as the train sped on and I started to wonder about birds of prey.  The main suspect would be a female merlin, but obviously you can't get the train to go back and check.

Wednesday 29th February

Bike Ride to Ruthwell and Caerlaverock. Largely inspired by TV programme on exercise the previous night so more focussed on exercise than wildlife. Did however manage to see tree sparrow in hedge just before the conifers on run in to Clarencefield and 100 whooper swans in field east of Brow Well. Surprised by tree sparrow as haven't seen them in this area before - completely chance sighting while pedalling at a fair rate of knots. Also probable sparrowhawk and a lone curlew at Bankend. Heard several skylarks at Bankend and Caerlaverock Nature Reserve but could not see them. Paused for 20 minutes to look for willow tits but only more long-tailed tits and others showed themselves. Tide was out and many more curlew were on the estuary sands plus something with a brown head that didn't seem to be a shelduck.

Sunday 19th February

Sparrowhawk sat on top of the bushes outside Parkhead Court - a very good place to look for sparrows! I sometimes wonder why I see sparrowhawks so rarely, as if I'm looking for them in the wrong way or mistaking them for something else.

This also reminds me I chanced to see a couple of tufted ducks on the Nith by Troqueer Bridge a couple of weeks ago.

Monday 13th February

Long bike ride to Ae and Poldivan, then on over moors to Cample, Closeburnmill, Auldgirth, Kirkton. Two bullfinches and goldfinch plus long-tailed tits on the cycleway.  Just a buzzard or two on Amisfield Moor.  A very yellow looking crossbill just past Mitchellslacks turnoff before Loch Ettrick, only my second sighting although appaently there have been many of them in Ae Forest. This was a very cocky bird that flew down to take grit off the road right in front of the bike at three yards range.

Brief resighting of great grey shrike over lunch on the Poldivan clearing and met Brian Henderson again, who told me that my other target for the area, the merlin, is unlikely to show for a month and suggested looking for the black grouse left of the second cattle grid north.

However the wind got up and it was by then too cold for me to hang around long in cycling gear, or to spot more than a couple of pipits on the moortop. On the way down into the valley saw what I took to be a couple of greylags, except that they had a decided ridge just behind the bill.  I do not think they were white-fronted geese and cannot find any photos of greylags with that beak formation.

Completely exhausted after Auldgirth and virtually just letting the wind push me home, I startled a roe deer by Dalswinton Estate.

Tuesday 31st January

Mr Henderson gave me a tip as well, when I mentioned that I was targetting twites but thought they were only in the far West of the region.  The result was today's double visit to the Carse Pow estuary at Carsethorn and Southerness Golf Course.

I may have seen them at Carsethorn when a flock of birds went up from a gorse bush with some rather jittery toing and froing but couldn't get close enough to see them with the binoculars as they settled, camouflaged as they were against the brown of the field edge.  The only option was to go closer and most of the flock scattered leaving only two birds on the fence, one of which was unidentifiable and the other a chaffinch.

I patrolled around a bit but in 2 Celsius with a biting Easterly coming in off the estuary, I wasn't for hanging about and went back along the shore, picking up incidental sightings of oystercatcher, shelduck, redshank and dunlin.

A quick circular walk in the surrounding lanes was warmer and produced several hundred barnacle geese, a dozen golden plover (long time, no see) and lone crested duck and pochard on the trout farm - but no twite.

I had no precise area of Southerness Golf Course to target and decided to walk round it clockwise, starting next to the dunes.  There was very little about apart from more waders and for a long time the only birdies I saw were on the 16th green.

Golf courses are bigger than you imagine but even after a half way rest all I could manage was a couple of meadow pipits and a flock of chaffinches next to a farmhouse by the road.

About to give up, I started to follow the track back toward the clubhouse.  After a while I noticed a side track to a farm field in the centre of the golf course, which seemed to have been ploughed up for the cattle.  There were a few rooks around.

Passing along the edge of the field I saw a large flock of small birds go up in the far corner in a similar manner to those at Carsethorn in the morning.

This time I managed to sneak up to the area where they were feeding on the ground without disturbing them unduly and half hid behind a gorse bush, so that they strayed close enough to identify.  There was no mistaking them - buff necks, yellow beaks and long tails - and so it was easy to distinguish them from the few chaffinches mixed in with the flock.  I even attempted a photo which turned into a 'spot the twite' competition.

Spot the Twite (hard)

So another big landmark within a week!  In the past I thought I might have seen the odd twite on occasion but I would now say they were almost certainly linnets.  The only exception was a posse of ground feeding birds I once pursued at Balcary Bay but couldn't identify.  But that was in the summer.

Sunday 29th January

Today goes down as my first ever twitch.  Decided I had to get out at short notice and elected to head for Loch Ettrick, where a great grey shrike has been sighted.

Having gone too far up the road to Polvidan, turned back and saw a guy with a bird telescope on the side of the road.  Got out and asked him if he was looking for the shrike.  He said he was looking at it right now and let me take a look.  Sure enough, there it was, on the top of an old tree trunk in a reforested area.

Turns out it is a bloke called Brian Henderson of SOC who is writing a study on shrikes in Scotland! So he was able to pass me on a load of further information.  Seemingly the shrike has been eating voles and lizards (in January!) and has also taken a coal tit.  It has teeth in its bill to break the neck of its prey, eats the head then leaves the rest stuck on a tree stump for later.  Except in this case, a kestrel stole one of its dead voles.  Brian has been looking for the pellets it regurgitates and sending them for analysis.  He wants to know why they eat the heads of their prey.

He has also told me there are merlins in the area. Overall a very successful day.  I took a quick walk through the forest further South and there is a lot of walking potential.  All of a sudden I know how I'm going to spend the rest of the winter!

On the way back to the car, I saw a kestrel nosing around the woodpile, as if looking for more dead voles.