Scotland Visit Day 6 : WWT Caerlaverock : 13th September 2011
On the Tuesday morning we drove from Stirling to Dumfries. The weather wasn’t brilliant but the worst of the storms seemed to pass in the night. We had planned on going over to the west coast and then driving down and then inland again to get to Dumfries but since this was where the bad weather was coming from we decided to take a more direct inland route. As it happens this afforded me at least (since Anne was driving) a good view of a Hooded Crow. I had seen it flying across the road and then wheeling round and coming back to land on a roadside post. I couldn’t decide what it was but suspected it was a Hooded Crow ; a suspicion confirmed as it flew off just as we drove past giving a clear view of its body and wings. This is a bit ironic since we had been looking out in particular for a Hooded Crow to add to our year list when we had been up north. In the end we had to wait until we were nearly at the borders to see one.
Taking the direct route also had the advantage of getting us to our hotel in Dumfries by lunchtime so we settled into our room before getting back in the car and heading off for the nearby Caerlaverock Wildfowl and Wetland Trust Centre. A quick cup of tea and we set off. Apparently the gales of the previous night had blown in all sorts of exotic birds that the staff had been recording but they weren’t to be seen at the hides we had time to visit and I suspect you had to be a lot nearer to the sea Solway Firth than the the public can get to in order to see some of the birds named. Still, we saw plenty of birds and we had a good afternoon.
We started off at the Peter Scott Observatory which overlooks the Whooper Pond where there were no Whooper Swans, it being a bit early in the year yet. We had to settle for two Mute Swans with their sole surviving cygnet, a single Greenshank missing one of its legs, around sixty Mallards all in eclipse, some Shovelers, some Tufted Ducks, a Scaup and a couple of Moorhens. We stayed to watch the 3pm feed before walking on to the Saltcot Merse observatory (hide) where we could see a large flock of Lapwings, lots of Canada geese and Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls. I fancied I saw a Ringed Plover and Anne thought she was a Tern but the birds were a long way off and even with a scope it was a job to make many of them out. There was clearly a lot of activity and large flocks of waders at the sea edge but it really was to far away for identification – at least for me !
We walked back down the avenue where there were dozens of Swallows, House Martins and House Sparrows flying around and headed for the Folly Pond hide. Here we were much closer to the birds and there were plenty of them. There were a hundred or more Teal, some Black-tailed Godwit, several Ringed Plover, Shovelers, Greenshank and a Snipe. There was even a Pied Wagtail or two. According to the warden there there were also Widgeon and Dunlin there but I couldn’t see them and I’m not sure that she didn’t mean that they had been there earlier in the day. We stayed until very nearly closing time before returning to the hotel.
Bird List
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Mute Swan | 3 |
| Canada Goose | 100 |
| Teal | 100 |
| Mallard | 60 |
| Shoveler | 4 |
| Tufted Duck | 4 |
| Scaup | 1 |
| Moorhen | 2 |
| Ringed Plover | 10 |
| Lapwing | 100 |
| Snipe | 1 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 2 |
| Greenshank | 3 |
| Herring Gull | 30 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 30 |
| Rook | 60 |
| Carrion Crow | 40 |
| Hooded Crow | 1 |
| Swallow | 20 |
| House Sparrow | 20 |
| Pied Wagtail | 2 |