Final Birding

The last birding photograph is of Barnacle Geese flying over one of the hides at Caerlaverock. Unfortunately I can't pay you the noise they made!

Hide?

I had thought that an observation hide was meant to
1. hide you from the birds you were observing and
2. hide, at least to some degree, itself from the birds as well.

You'll see from this photograph that it isn't the case here. There are some neatly camouflaged low hides at Caerlaverock, but also a couple of towers like this one.

Birds - continued

A larger selection of birds this time. You'll see Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Mallards (male and female), Wigeons and, of course, Feral Pigeons - including 2 in flight!.

More Birds

This time they are wigeons.

Birds

This photograph was taken at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust at Caerlaverock, Dumfriesshire.



The three swans with the yellow, black-tipped beaks are Whooper Swans and the single swan with the orange beak is a Mute Swan. The goose is a Canada Goose.

The wood itself

I thought it might be a good idea to let you see what the wood itself looks like since it has been specific items you've seen up till now.

It is reasonably open with a good variety of tree species, so a large variety of birds are attracted.

Obviously this has both good points and bad, since some of the birds will prey on others. We witnessed this today in Culzean Country Park when we saw carrion crows kill two ducklings which were crossing open ground with their mother. She tried to protect them, but each time she turned to drive off one attacker another swooped behind her. Nature in the raw.

Tree Fungus

This was also taken in the Wood of Cree. I've no idea what the name of the fungus is, but it's as hard as concrete.

Possibly a viewer might identify?

Wood of Cree 3

And yet one more waterfall to see. These, by the way, were before the recent rains came, but the burns were still carrying a reasonable volume of water.

Wood of Cree 2

The is a picture of more waterfalls further down the burn from the previous one. You can see how clear the water is in the stream below the waterfall.

Wood of Cree

Another picture from the Wood of Cree. A lovely little waterfall. I'll post a shot tomorrow from a different angle.

Bird Trip

Firstly, can I apologise for not posting for a few days, but I screwed up my desktop system right royally and I'm only starting to recover it.


Friday last we had a day out with a bird course in an RSPB reserve in Dumfries and Galloway. I managed to get a photo of this Great Tit, but we saw (and identified) a great many species.

We were on the course as we have just started birding and it is great to have people there who know where to look and what the various birds are.

I've a group of photos from the reserve (not birds) and I'll post a few in the following days.

Marrbury Smokehouse

OK, it's one of the + photographs as it was taken at the Marrbury Smokehouse Shop at Carsluith Castle in Dumfries and Galloway.

This is the source of absolutely the best smoked product you can buy - the salmon especially, but the rest of what they sell is superb quality.

You also should eat there. I had Ruby's seafood chowder for lunch - to die for!