Just had a few days at caravan,in general the birding was fairly quiet as most of the winter visitors had all departed,and there were very few summer migrants about,plenty of Willow Warblers,Chiffchaffs,Whitethroats,Wheatears but still only a few Blackcaps and Sedge Warblers,and Sandwich Terns,however there were a few highlights.
I found a drake Lesser Scaup on Soulseat Loch and a 1st summer Little Gull the same day there.Amazingly the Little Gull was only my third record for the county(quite a rare bird up there)whereas the Lesser Scaup was the third one I've found in D&G and at least the sixth one I've seen up there.
A nice sum plum Slavonian Grebe on Loch Ryan, good numbers of breeding plumaged Black Tail Godwits,and a few Pale Bellied Brent Geese,and several summer plumaged Red Throated Divers there were the only interesting birds I saw on the loch.
Later in the week I found another Little Gull(an adult this time)l on the same loch as before and on the adjacent Loch Magillie I found a drake American Wigeon which stayed long enough for me to get a few record shots before departing.
A few Great Northern Divers were offshore every day from my caravan,also plenty of Gannets,a few Eiders,and Sandwich Terns as well.

Just got back from a few days at my caravan having had a 9 species raptor fest including 2 Golden Eagles showing well on and off for an hour including perched views of the pair.Also seen were Goshawk,Peregrine,Merlin,Buzzard,4 Hen Harriers(3male/2ringtail),Kestrel,Sparrowhawk and plenty of Red Kites.
On Loch Ryan the drake Surf Scoter was showing well with 3 Velvet Scoter and a flock of 14 Long Tailed Ducks from the same spot.Also on the Loch at least 60 Red Throated Divers,15+ Slav Grebes,2 Great Northern Divers,Black Guillemots,Razorbills,Guillemots,Common Scoter,Red Breasted Mergansers,Eiders,800+ Scaup,good nos. Wigeon and 100+ Pale Bellied Brent Geese.
On Luce Bay we had a flock of 8 Black Throated Divers plus another flock of 3 birds,1Great Northern Diver,single Red Throated Diver,8 Slav Grebes,100 Common Scoter,and a few Scaup and Eiders,and quite a few Gannets already about.
Several thousand Pinkfeet in the area,lots of Greylags,plus 180 White Fronted Geese,and 1000+ Barnacle Geese.Also 120 approx Whooper Swans in several flocks.We also saw 6 Little Egrets at various locations,cracking views of a Barn Owl,a few wintering Greenshank and Bar Tailed Godwits plus several other species of common waders.
And on the way back a Red Head Smew at Castle Douglas and a singing Dipper on an upland burn.

Today was the last day of the Wigan RSPB's long weekend visit, to Caerlaverock and the Dumfries area.
Seven of us spent the morning at THREAVE ESTATE, just west of Castle Douglas, concentrating on the Nature
Reserve near the Castle and the River Dee.

As with the rest of the Trip, the weather was fine, with blue skies!.... and little breeze.

Red Kite...1
Buzzards.....minimum count: 4 plus 1 coming low down the A75 verge at Castle Douglas.
Grey Heron...1
Ravens...3...continually cronking around us, and spending time on the Osprey nest sites and the Castle.
Whooper Swan..1
Mute Swans.......6
Goldcrest...pair
Goldeneye...A Drake.
Greater White-fronted goose(Greenland)...Minimum count 120 (a ''lifer'' for me.)
Wigeon...c250
Goosander...A drake.
Treecreeper...2
Reed Bunting...2
Starlings...6
Blackbirds...10
Robins...10
Long-tailed Tit..small flocks
Mallard...10
Chaffinch...1
Fieldfare...c40
Redwing...6
Jackdaws/ Feral Pigeons a few
Woodpigeon...1
Pheasant...1
Little Grebe...1
Bullfinch ...a pair
Numerous Roe Deer.
An idyllic spot belonging to the Scottish National Trust, although the Castle and the Car park Toilets belong to
''Historic Scotland'', who on this day had locked the modern toilet block and not let the National Trust staff present have the key!








-- Edited by keith mills on Monday 10th of December 2012 10:56:54 PM

Just back from a few days at my caravan,highlight was the 2 Golden Eagles watched hunting for 15 mins today ,both birds hunting low over the ground only a few hundred yards away.The birds were in the Galloway Hills,also 10 Red Kites in the general area.
Other birds seen were
Loch Ryan
40+Slavonian Grebes
30+ Red Throated Divers
Also plenty of Scaup,Wigeon,Red Breasted Mergansers,2 Long Tailed Ducks,1000 Golden Plover,50 Twite,120 Brent Geese,Black Guillemots,Guillemots,Razorbills,Common Scoter and Eiders.
Luce Bay
15 Red Throated Divers
30+ Common Scoter,100+ Eiders,
5 Little Egrets(including 3 past my caravan)
and in the general area
5 Hen Harriers(inc.2 stonking males),3 Merlin,several Peregrine sightings,Brambling,3 Chiffchaffs,2 Greenshank, still,a late Swallow yesterday,2000+ Pinkfeet,3 Barnacle Geese,a few Whitefronts,500+Greylags,Gannets, plenty of Fieldfares and Redwings,and at least 80 Whooper Swans in total.
Finally on the way home a quick nick into Kirk Lock at Lochmaben for the American Wigeon.

Rick Hall wrote:

---

in my quest to assure all my sightings are accurate, i have discovered some bubble popping images. please don't rush up to Newton Stewart in search of a Shore Lark. You probably won't find one. It was almost definitely a 1st winter male Reed Bunting. gutted and embarassed. Poor binoculars and inexperienced birding combined. My apologies.

---

No need to apologise - we've all done it!

Easter Weekend,

Friday. Went for the Red Breasted Goose near Southerness. Found a huge flock of Barnacle Geese and with a little persistence and a bit of luck, picked out the stunning bird. On the way towards the campsite got a Red Kite flying along side the car for a few seconds. What a way to start a weekend break!

Saturday. A walk in a beautiful woodland about a mile and a half north of Newton Stewart roughly 2 miles from the coast. Me and my dad got our bins on an unusual little bird perched in a tree about 3 or 4 feet up. I knew I was on to something I'd never seen before. Facially it's black and pale yellow markings were extremely striking. It sat for a good 5-10 minutes, giving the impression that it was exhausted. I took a sketch (no camera, Doh!). It was a Shore Lark!!!! Really amazing little thing and so chuffed to find this myself as opposed to twitching it. It's a whole different feeling, finding one yourself.
Back at campsite and got a bit of close range sea watching in. Managed to get a Black Guillemot, probable 1st winter, Red Breasted Mergansers, distant rafts of Common Scoters, Red Throated Divers occassionally flew through and managed to get sightings of a one on the water in the bay, which is another lifer me. Also a couple of Common Tern flew through.

Not much else apart from common species, but considering it wasn't a birding break, pretty chuffed with what I managed to see.

2 April . Drive down the A75 to Cairnryan for the ferry, from Gretna.
Highlights from the car:
Many Pinkfeet and Greylag,especially around Crocketford and Creetown
Many Oystercatcher and a few Curlew, Shelduck at Creetown
Red Kite near Shennanton
Peregrine at Cairnryan, with 2 Common Buzzards
Lough Ryan from ferry-17 Gannets, Brent Goose, 4 Eider




-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Tuesday 3rd of April 2012 03:43:58 PM

Friday 25th. Nov.....Ken-Dee Marshes Nature Reserve. (RSPB)

All afternoon with Tom Morton, Jimmy Meadows and more of the Wigan RSPB mid- week crew.
Sunny, one heavy shower.
No sign of the Greenland White-fronted Geese today, just c50 Greylag and c100 Canada geese.

Red Kite....4... low over, and one perched close.
Buzzards...2
Merlin....1

Bullfinch...1 male
Nuthatch.....6
Willow Tit... 1... Great views down to 40 inches!
Coal Tits........Great views ...'staying' on peanut feeders, often 3 at a time.
GS Woodpecker.... several views.
Many Great and Blue Tits and Long- tail tits
Chaffinch... lots

Goldeneye...pair.
Cormorants ...2 with fish
Teal...40 plus
Mallard

This is a beautiful and quiet Reserve with good feeders at the Hides
Super view of Red Squirrel.

-- Edited by keith mills on Sunday 27th of November 2011 04:55:56 PM

Just spent 5 days at my caravan,highligts include

Long Billed Dowitcher ar Wigtown

From My caravan
up to 5 Great Northern Divers each day,daily sightings of Swallows,still 3 yesterday

Auchie Glen
4 Blackcaps
1 Chiffchaff
Siskins
Bullfinch,etc

The Mull of Galloway
30 Ravens in one flock(with an amazing 70 birds seen together earlier that morning)
2 Hooded Crows
and an impressive passage of common migrants,inc. Swallows,Redpoll,Linnets,thousands of Skylarks,Reed Buntings etc.

Loch Ryan
1st winter Glaucous Gull
2 Med Gulls
2 Velvet Scoter
over 30 Slav Grebes each visit
good numbers of Red Throated Divers
2 drake Long Tailed Ducks
106 P.B.Brent Geese
Arctic Tern
pus all the usual Scaup,Merganser,Eider,waders, etc.

Corsewall Point
16 Red Throated Divers close inshore
5 Arctic Tern
2 Black Throated Divers
2 Merlin
Harbour Porpoise
plus Gannets,Kittiwakes,Guillemots and Razorbills

West Freugh
3 Hen Harriers
2500 Pink Footed Geese
80 Greenland Whitefronted Geese
3 Barnacle Geese
Merlin


-- Edited by pete berry on Saturday 29th of October 2011 03:35:45 PM

Just had a great 4 hour seawatch at Corsewall Point
1 Long Tailed Skua
1 Pom Skua(fully spooned)
2 Arctic Skuas
1 Great Skua
126 Manx shearwater
1 European Storm Petrel
2 Red Throated Divers
2 Whimbrel
2 Black Guillemots
200+ Fulmar
500+ Gannet
1000+ Auks
and good nos. of Kittiwakes,Terns(mainly Sandwich)
Yesterday a 3rd summer Iceland Gull and a Great Skua on Loch Ryan

Cheers Rob! Just back from actually staying in glencaple. Incredible two days birding, never done anything like it, or seen anything so localised as the solway weather! About 100 species in total. Highlights were:

a very foggy Caerlaverock:
c.1000 Barnacle Goose
c.100 Yellowhammer
c.50 Tree Sparrow
1 Persistent sparrowhawk, actually attacking the geese!
c.200 Whoopers
c.20 barwits
loads of teal, wigeon, mallard, shoveler, etc.
1 Ross' Goose

Glencaple:
c.200 Barnacle Goose
4 Oystercatcher
5 Goldeneye
2 Rock Pipit
1 absolutely fantastic pure white (probably not albino) redshank, a fantastic looking bird!
1 probable scaup

Mersehead:
Yellowhammer
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Brambling
Chaffinch
Linnet, all of those in a huge 4000+ flock
c.3000 Barnacle Goose
c.20 Pintail
2 cracking ringtails, came right past us going for finches

Loch Ken/ Laurieston/ Red Kite Viewing Platform:
Misjudged red kite feeding time, but still got
3 Kites
1 Ringtail
a brown hare!

fantastic birding, with fantastic views (and pictures ) of all species

Cheers nick, will definitely check out those kites and probably Loch Ken!

Hi, I am going up to Caerlaverock tomorrow, and was going to go to mereshead, what would you get there? I was also looking through the posts, and noticed there were mentions of a kite feeding station, could anyone tell me where it is, or if there is anywhere else worth visiting if i'm in that part of the world, as i'm only up for two days.
Cheers,
Joe

Just back from 3 days birding up there with a mate of mine.Loch Ryan produced the goods with all 3 divers present,Slav,Red Necked,Little and Great Crested Grebes.Plenty of sea duck including a few stonking male Long Tailed Ducks,Red Breasted Mergs,Eiders,Common Scoters,1000+Scaup,500+Wigeon,50+PB Brents,and a few Whooper Swans.Several Tysties ,and a 3rd W. Iceland Gull.Waders seen included,Golden Plover,Grey Plover,Barwit,Dunlin,Knot,Redshank,Curlew,Oystercatcher etc.
The Wig held several hundred Twite,Linnet and Skylark in a massive mixed flock.
Elsewhere we had 250+ Greenland Whitefronts,3000+Pinks,and a couple of stray Barnacle Geese in with them.At Freugh 2 Hen Harriers(1 male/1 Ringtail) came into the roost last night,and a Barn Owl was seen nearby.
We found a little flock of Crossbills mixed in with a load of Siskins in a conifer plantation just above Stranraer.
This morning we found an enormous mixed fock of finches/larks with at least 76 Yellowhammers,loads of Brambling,Reed Bunts,Skylarks etc.etc.And in attendance in the space of 3 minutes we had Peregrine,Merlin and Sparrowhawk.
On the way home we called into Threave to have a look for the Blue Winged Teal,no sign of it,but I found a female Ring-Necked Duck,which was nice compensation for not seeing the Teal.Also there,a drake Scaup,few Tufties,Goldeneye,Whooper Swans,Teal,and several hundred Wigeon.
Last call was at Southerness where a few Purple Sands,Golden Plover,Turnstone and Redshank finished off the trip.

Off to the Dumfries area this weekend for some geese, swans and Clootie Dumpling!

An hours sewatch from my caravan overlooking Luce Bay this am produced the following:
108 Manx Shearwaters
2 Tystie
400+Gannets
12 Sandwich Terns
5 Fulmar
3 Eider
30+auks(Guillemots/Razorbills)

Are the Black Guillemots still nesting in the harbour walls? We have sailed into Portpatrick several times and the Black guillemot nests were always the highlight of my trip. As the boat used to go up and down with the tide, we used to draw level with the nest holes and be able to see the youngsters. The parents often landed on our deck and fledging time used to be about June. Willie the harbour master who can usually be found in the pub (!) used to stop pigeons from nesting in the holes so that they would always be available for the guillemots.

Originally posted by Chris Baines yesterday (12th) at 10:45pm

Knockman Wood Minnigaff near Newton Stewart today 12/05/2010
4 Pairs Pied Flycatcher.
5 Wood Warblers.
2 Tree Pipits.
Good numbers of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs.

Male Redstart.
2 Whitethroats.
Great Spotted Woodpecker.
Cuckoo.

Tuesday 11/05/2010 Wigtown local Nature reserve.
2 Drake Garganey.

Corsewall point am
10 Manx Shearwaters.
Single Red Throated Diver.
3 Sandwich Terns.
Good numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills
Small numbers of Kittiwakes

Wednesday 5/05/2010 Cairnsmore of Fleet.
One lucky observer had a single Dotterel at the summit.
Regards Chris.

Just had a few days at my caravan,the highlight has to be counting 24 Great Northern Divers and 2 Red Throats most in full sum plum from my caravan.I also counted a total of 42 GNDs within 5miles of my van,all the birds were on Luce Bay,I also had a Pom Skua going north up the bay.
Loch Ryan had plenty of sum plum waders including a Knot,Blackwits,Purple Sand,Golden Plover,Turnstone and Dunlin. Whimbrel were everywhere in flocks of 20+,also a single Barwit.I also found a 1st summer Iceland Gull and the 2nd summer Iceland was still present for the early part of the week,2 Iceland Gulls on the same day in May,gull heaven!!.5 Pale Bellied Brents were still hanging about,as were a few Wigeon,Scaup and Eiders.Plenty of Sandwich,Common Terns and Gannets fishing on the loch.
Lots of summer migrants in,including a Swallow with brick red underparts simialar to the eastern Transitiva race,a very attractive bird whatever its origins,and still plentyWheatears and White Wags going through including a White Wag colour ringed on both legs.
Only other bird of note was a Ruff one day on a flooded field.

Just back from a few weeks at my caravan,although June is usually quiet managed to find a Wood Sandpiper,3 singing Quail and a Red Kite a long way from the introduction area.Probably the main highlight though was a Minke Whale which came up less than 30ft. from the fishing boat I was out in,well scarey,and watching 3 Basking Sharks feeding offshore from my caravan in flat calm conditions(you could see the wake from the dorsal fin for 100yds behind the sharks it was so calm)

I had a 5 day break in Dunfries and Galloway at the end of October (24th to 29th), lovely part of Scotland. Although I wasn't on a birding trip I still managed to get some decent birds. Visited WWT Calaverlock, Mersehead and the coast around where I staying in Bar End lodges.

Got a couple of visits in at Caelaverock picking up:
All the usual ducks (good numbers of Pintail 140+, Shoveller 100+, Wigeon 500+);
Barnacle Goose 20,000+ (most off the reserve);
PF Goose 200+
Snipe 5, Lapwing 400+, Golden Plover 100+, Black T Godwits 8,
Merlin (female), Hen Harrier (male),
Buzzard 2,
Peregrine,
Twite 40+
Lots of Roe Deer in this reserve.

Mersehead is a lovely reserve, full of twite on the fields with plenty of yellowhammer, reed bunting, linnet, finches aplenty in the massive hedgerows, while the usual ducks and thousands of Barnacle Geese. Red Squirrels on the road too.

Visited the Red Kite feeding station near Laureston and got over 45 birds, very close up, great place to see them and much better than the M40!? Visted Loch Ken briefly and caught up with Willow Tit near the car park, RB Merganser flying overhead, Wigeon in good numbers with Greylag and the lovely White-fronted Goose (around 25 birds) knocking around in the fields. On the approach road to Loch Ken I saw and photographed a leucistic Buzzard, I really thought I'd found a mega when it flew past the car, but although my excitement got the better of me for a minute it wasn't anything rarer, a lovely bird though, not seen a full white buzzard before,almost ghost-like.

From the lodge I was staying in we put some feeders out and got Bullfinch, Jay, GS Woodpecker and the usual tits, while I got a cracking view of a Tawny Owl and you could here the Barnies flying over every morning. Up the coast and from the bay lots of Oystercatchers (over 4000+), with Scaup, Pintail and Common Scoter in good numbers in the estuary. Well worth a visit.

Couple of hours I think but I did stop off in Wigtown to check out the harbour and second-hand bookshops there.

Hi Pete,

Off to Caerlaverock on Friday and thinking of scooting across to Freugh and maybe Lock Ryan on one of the days.

Any idea how long it would take to drive from Dumfries, and any useful site information especially on the harrier roost if not sensitive - never visited that far west before.

Been back up there for a few more days,couple of highlights,first was mega views of Honey Buzzard in the Galloway Hills,and the second was a Sooty Shearwater whilst seawatching from my caravan(only way to seawatch with a cup of tea,biscuits and Carol Vordemann on the tele!!).The Sooty was with a good passage of Manxies,over 400 per hour passing the caravan.
Plenty of sum plum Knot,Blackwits,Turnstone etc,also the first juvenile Common,Arctic and Sandwich Terns of the year were nice to see.