LittleBitOfBreadNoCheese
Well-known member
I went back a year to the week since my Glencaple based trip but for comparison I tried staying in Dumfries and using the bus to get to the Wetland Centre. There is a 7.43 bus (6A) which will drop you off at either the reserve or castle road end and I chose the latter so I could walk through the wood by the castle. I got to the Wetland Centre just after it opened at 10am. As I expected though I missed a few species by not walking along the Nith from Glencaple and my day total was lower, 43 versus 50 last time. I walked back up to the main road for the 4.15pm bus back to Dumfries.
The highlights were just before the centre I flushed a Water Rail along the Reedbed Ramble walkway and had an excellent side view of it as it flew off into the reeds. At the centre of course there were whole fields full of Barnacle Geese which is the main attraction of this time of the year and I got my first Scottish Pintail. Whooper Swans were dwindling but I still spottted 10 together.
Birds I missed this year included Yellowhammers (!), Curlew and the early Chiffchaff on the river bank but I made up for that this morning by spotting an early flock of Sand Martins just above the weir in Dumfries town centre. There was also a Sparrowhawk which flew over the river at the same place. This morning the river was very high and I counted at least 11 Goosander at the weir. The numbers of Goosander and birders seem to grow in tandem!
As for the Yellowhammers I seem to have just missed the flock I saw last year, the guide I spoke to said they usually get good numbers in the winter but they move off elsewhere come the spring.
The highlights were just before the centre I flushed a Water Rail along the Reedbed Ramble walkway and had an excellent side view of it as it flew off into the reeds. At the centre of course there were whole fields full of Barnacle Geese which is the main attraction of this time of the year and I got my first Scottish Pintail. Whooper Swans were dwindling but I still spottted 10 together.
Birds I missed this year included Yellowhammers (!), Curlew and the early Chiffchaff on the river bank but I made up for that this morning by spotting an early flock of Sand Martins just above the weir in Dumfries town centre. There was also a Sparrowhawk which flew over the river at the same place. This morning the river was very high and I counted at least 11 Goosander at the weir. The numbers of Goosander and birders seem to grow in tandem!
As for the Yellowhammers I seem to have just missed the flock I saw last year, the guide I spoke to said they usually get good numbers in the winter but they move off elsewhere come the spring.
