I’m not one for travelling far and wide, but as part of my 40th birthday celebrations, Boss chick agreed to me going off to D&G for a ‘big day.’ Originally, the plan was for a ‘Big 2 Days’ involving sleeping in the car, flasks of soup, etc, but Boss chick killed that idea off pretty quickly.
Anyway, the scene was set for my ‘Big Day’ and with typical GreenSand precision I researched the best places to go to maximise the birding opportunities. Alas, with typical Green Sand indecision, the plans changed daily.
The plan I settled on was to visit Ken Dee Marshes RSPB before dawn for a night walk, hopefully for an owl of some description, followed by daylight sightings of willow tit, white- fronted geese, and of course, Red Kite. The first three would be lifers, incidentally. From there, head to Mersehead RSPB for barnacle geese and tree sparrows- one lifer and one year tick. Followed by a stop off at Southerness Point (knot, sanderling- lifer and year, respectively) and finally WWT Caerlaverock- the aforementioned Nirvana.
Come mid- afternoon on Friday, and I’m finalising my plans (rather than working, naturally) and I opt to forego Ken Dee marshes and Mersehead, and instead spend longer at Southerness and Nirvana, I mean Caerlaverock. On the basis of this, I got the relevant post codes and Bridtrack sightings lists. Preparation, eh?
Late Saturday, I arrange with my birding mate Bluebill to travel down together- the green-winged teal was still hanging around, which would understandably be a lifer for me. The ‘get there for dawn’ plan involved meeting at 5 am- seriously over-estimating the distance to D&G, incidentally. All goes to plan, until midway down the M74, we have a brainwave. Neither of us have been to Ken Dee. Lets head there, and see what its like. Only problem being, how to get there, without the postcode, etc. A swift stop at a services, and lots of scrabbling about in rucksacks and the car boot, and I found an old RSPB booklet, which at least gave us the closest town.
Buoyed by this, we followed the Sat Nav religiously, along rapidly deteriorating roads, until we finally, blessedly, reached Ken- Dee Marshes just after dawn. At this point, incidentally, it was -4 degrees, so just as well I wasn’t kipping in the car boot.
The reserve itself was one of the best I’ve been to. Appreciably wild, there was plenty of LBJ action on the main path down. Plenty of winter thrushes, fieldfare chacking noisily, plus blackbirds. Moving onward to the goose viewing point, we suffered slightly by having to look into the sun to see the geese- typical Green Sand, it rains for a week, and I get blinded by sunlight. Anyway, lots of pinkies and greylag, plus one white domesticated goose which briefly got us both all hopeful and excited. No such luck.
Anyway, lots of pheasants, too many, really, after them being my bogey bird earlier in the yea, I’m scunnered with them. A very mobile flock of chaffinches flitted about, then finally, Bluebill got the WF geese. Cue Green Sand’s dance of lifer shame, albeit it was to keep me warm as well. Bluebill got a glimpse of a red Kite pouncing on something low down, but worryingly, this was the only sight of it.A pair of roe deer and a fearless fox were mammalian highlights.
On through the reserve, we stopped at the first hide along the path- a good mile or so walk from the viewing area. From this hide, we dipped on willow tit, but did manage to get nuthatch feeding. No kites, but the nuthatch showed well, and the mix of coal, great and blue tits made for good viewing.
By now, and wary of time marching on, we made our way back to the car. A jay, loud but skulking, made its presence known, and we got a flock of linnet showing well in a tree. A second nuthatch was even better, and was no more than 6 feet away from me, when we heard the call of a red kite. Cue much hunting skyward, until we saw it, perched majestically atop a tree. Stunning bird, even in binos. The view in Bluebill’s scope was truly wonderful.
By this point, other folk were arriving, including a couple who seemed unimpressed by the kite- familiarity breeding contempt, etc. Onward now to Caerlaverock, as long as I don’t crash the car by frantically pointing out a beautiful kite soaring above us…
Anyway, the scene was set for my ‘Big Day’ and with typical GreenSand precision I researched the best places to go to maximise the birding opportunities. Alas, with typical Green Sand indecision, the plans changed daily.
The plan I settled on was to visit Ken Dee Marshes RSPB before dawn for a night walk, hopefully for an owl of some description, followed by daylight sightings of willow tit, white- fronted geese, and of course, Red Kite. The first three would be lifers, incidentally. From there, head to Mersehead RSPB for barnacle geese and tree sparrows- one lifer and one year tick. Followed by a stop off at Southerness Point (knot, sanderling- lifer and year, respectively) and finally WWT Caerlaverock- the aforementioned Nirvana.
Come mid- afternoon on Friday, and I’m finalising my plans (rather than working, naturally) and I opt to forego Ken Dee marshes and Mersehead, and instead spend longer at Southerness and Nirvana, I mean Caerlaverock. On the basis of this, I got the relevant post codes and Bridtrack sightings lists. Preparation, eh?
Late Saturday, I arrange with my birding mate Bluebill to travel down together- the green-winged teal was still hanging around, which would understandably be a lifer for me. The ‘get there for dawn’ plan involved meeting at 5 am- seriously over-estimating the distance to D&G, incidentally. All goes to plan, until midway down the M74, we have a brainwave. Neither of us have been to Ken Dee. Lets head there, and see what its like. Only problem being, how to get there, without the postcode, etc. A swift stop at a services, and lots of scrabbling about in rucksacks and the car boot, and I found an old RSPB booklet, which at least gave us the closest town.
Buoyed by this, we followed the Sat Nav religiously, along rapidly deteriorating roads, until we finally, blessedly, reached Ken- Dee Marshes just after dawn. At this point, incidentally, it was -4 degrees, so just as well I wasn’t kipping in the car boot.
The reserve itself was one of the best I’ve been to. Appreciably wild, there was plenty of LBJ action on the main path down. Plenty of winter thrushes, fieldfare chacking noisily, plus blackbirds. Moving onward to the goose viewing point, we suffered slightly by having to look into the sun to see the geese- typical Green Sand, it rains for a week, and I get blinded by sunlight. Anyway, lots of pinkies and greylag, plus one white domesticated goose which briefly got us both all hopeful and excited. No such luck.
Anyway, lots of pheasants, too many, really, after them being my bogey bird earlier in the yea, I’m scunnered with them. A very mobile flock of chaffinches flitted about, then finally, Bluebill got the WF geese. Cue Green Sand’s dance of lifer shame, albeit it was to keep me warm as well. Bluebill got a glimpse of a red Kite pouncing on something low down, but worryingly, this was the only sight of it.A pair of roe deer and a fearless fox were mammalian highlights.
On through the reserve, we stopped at the first hide along the path- a good mile or so walk from the viewing area. From this hide, we dipped on willow tit, but did manage to get nuthatch feeding. No kites, but the nuthatch showed well, and the mix of coal, great and blue tits made for good viewing.
By now, and wary of time marching on, we made our way back to the car. A jay, loud but skulking, made its presence known, and we got a flock of linnet showing well in a tree. A second nuthatch was even better, and was no more than 6 feet away from me, when we heard the call of a red kite. Cue much hunting skyward, until we saw it, perched majestically atop a tree. Stunning bird, even in binos. The view in Bluebill’s scope was truly wonderful.
By this point, other folk were arriving, including a couple who seemed unimpressed by the kite- familiarity breeding contempt, etc. Onward now to Caerlaverock, as long as I don’t crash the car by frantically pointing out a beautiful kite soaring above us…
