Help Starlings Gretna

[Stuart Watson]

Can anyone please help me with info regarding the Starling flock at Gretna.
I want to visit this weekend but I am unsure of the precise location and of the best time at which to see them coming in to roost. I don`t even know if they are still gathering or have moved elsewhwere.

[Marmot]

Hope this might help.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7252568.stm

[Stuart Watson]

thanks Marmot - you wouldn`t happen to know roughly when sundown comes - its been that long since we`ve had any sunlight up here

[level seven]

Here's some info given to me a few weeks ago on BF when I asked the same question. Obviously the times have changed since then :-

"We viewed from the B7076 west of Gretna,from the Old blacksmiths shop procede along the B7076 towards Kirkpatrick Fleming, after approx Half a mile you see a double gate on the right hand side opposite an obvious parking layby, park there and look over the gate to a small conifer plantation in the
field, around 15.45 the birds start to arrive and drop into roost at
16.00,weather dependant".

I went there and it seemed the best place to go.

[Stuart Watson]

thanks graham - and marmot - most helpful. i`ll have to get my skates on if i want to catch them today

[Jeff J]

Hi,

My wife and I took a trip up to Gretna this weekend to see if we could see this site as it's something we have both REALLY wanted to experience since we first saw it on Bill Oddie's show a couple of years ago.

The annoying thing for us was that the previous weekend we had been on a short holiday to Dumfries and came home through that exact place last Monday... the following day it was all aver the news and in the papers! We must have gone through Gretna at around 3.30 - 4.00pm and just missed it all.

We even detoured to Patton Bridge (near Kendal, Lake District) as we knew it was happening there at this time last year and we had just missed it there as well.

Anyway, we got back up to Gretna this Saturday and got the best views we have ever had of this kind of thing but it wasn't as good as the reports I'd seen - possibly due to the change in the weather (?) which had gone much cloudier and very cold and windy. We asked a number of local people who were all very friendly and they all told us to wait around more or less the same place (B road adjacent to motorway) but on this day, the birds decided to go further away towards the Solway as far as we could see.

We did get some great views as I said mostly from the service station car park from between all the trees!

I has just made me all the more determined to see it again but from a better viewpoint and, hopefully, better weather conditions.

We did see some other good stuff there as well... There was a Kestrel just before the Gretna junction on the motorway that was hovering at a hieght of no more than about 7 feet right next to the hard shoulder. I almost wished we had run out of fuel at that point or something!

Later we saw another Kestrel (I think) down one of the country lanes while we looked around for a good viewing place. It was in a hedgerow virtually at our eye level and looked straight at us as we sat in the car but flew off as we slowed down to try to get a photo - isn't that ALWAYS the way!?

Sorry for going on a bit - just wanted to share.:t:

[Stuart Watson]

hello again ! are there still roosts of starlings at gretna at this late date, or are they all paired up and away nesting. i`m passing this afternoon and wondered if it was worth stopping and around which time?