Birds

Birdwatching 1 Group Visit to RSPB Mersehead

Barnacle GooseDespite the dreich February weather members of Birdwatching 1 visited RSPB Mersehead Reserve. When they arrived there was a lot of mist around but this had cleared a little by the time they left the centre where they had a talk by the warden about the changes taking place at the reserve following the acquisition of more land by RSPB. He also explained the arrangements for controlling the water levels in the different areas to suit the wildfowl and waders.

During the visit to the first of the hides the mist cleared and the sun even emerged which made the shelduck and shovellers look more spectacular. There was still a large number of geese at the reserve and many more flew in later in the afternoon. The Barnacle geese (illustrated) will soon be heading north to Greenland and Svalbard.

A total of 30 birds was identified and the members had some very close encounters with a number of Roe Deer.

U3A Birdwatching Group

u3a-bird-watching-group The Stewartry  U3A bird watching group visited the hides at Threave Castle,  near Castle Douglas to look for the first of the winter arrivals. A few  skeins of geese were spotted as they flew south.

Musings of a bird-watcher

By Paul Robinson-Waddington

Going to the U3A monthly meetings in Castle Douglas can have its drawbacks. You stand there minding your own business, when someone whispers into your ear ‘Hi Paul, can you do an article for the next U3A newsletter?’ It‘s then when your brain turns to jelly and panic sets in. I think to myself, what can I write about, what can I say that I didn‘t say in my last article? So I’ve tried to summarise the last 12 months of the Birdwatching group.

Lesser Whitethroat, spotted at Barstobrick

Like all outdoor activities, birdwatching is very weather dependant. Our November 2010 outing was called off because of heavy rain. The December meeting and Christmas lunch was cancelled due to snow covered access roads, frozen ponds and lack of birds at WWT Caerlaverock. January‘s meeting was cancelled because my Doctor said I had the H1N1 (swine flu) virus and we were still in the grip of winter.

What a relief when February came round and the temperature started to rise and the ice melted. The group eventually man- aged to have the birdwatching trip and belated Christmas lunch (soup and sandwich) at WWT Caerlaverock. We were now back on track and in March we went to the RSPB reserve at Mersehead.

There was a slight hitch in April when my wife dragged me off to the wedding of her nephew in South Africa. So whilst I had to suffer the heat of Cape Town, avoid the lions of Kruger National Park, attend a wedding in the sun of Durban and try not to get sea sick on a cruise up the Indian Ocean, the Birdwatching group had a good day out at the Cally Estate in Gatehouse of Fleet.