My aunt and I spent 4 very enjoyable days at Caerlaverock last week. For those of you who are not familiar with Caerlaverock it is a WWT reserve on the Solway Firth and famous for its overwintering barnacle geese. The barnacle geese count had reached 12000 just before we arrived. A barn owl had laid a late clutch and a webcam had been set up featuring the sole surviving chick. We had a few sightings of the mother hunting in the night. In addition we also saw greylag, canada and pink-footed geese with a barnacle/greylag hybrid, whooper and mute swans, mallard, wigeon, shelduck, curlew, shoveler, teal, golden plover, moorhen, snipe, tufted ducks, greenfinch, goldfinch, pied wagtail, bluetit, fieldfare, chaffinch, house sparrow, kestrel, collared dove, long tailed tits, robin, meadow pipit, short-eared owl, dunnock, great tit, coal tit, carrion crow, starling, jackdaw, wren, redwing, stock dove, goldcrest, grey heron, buzzard, gadwell, black tailed godwits, treecreeper, pheasant, feral pigeon, song thrush, pintail, red-breasted merganiser, lapwing, great black backed gull, linnet, skylark, dunlin, oystercatcher, ringed plover, common sandpiper, tree sparrow, mistle thrush.
The WWT staff also set out peanuts and honey for badgers. We reaped the benefit of this in the evening as we watched the badgers' antics. Also seen from time to time were roe deer. In all we had a wonderful time.
We made a short visit to the RSPB reserve at Mersehead, but bad light and a bitter wind curtailed the visit. Definitely on our list to visit again.
Posted by dawnc at November 8, 2004 10:12 PM