Migration at Caerlaverock
It’s that time again folk that I come on here and have a
good old ramble about what’s being coming in and out of the reserve over the
last few days.
Well where to start I guess with the big white guys first! I mean
Whooper by the way. These guys are still being annoying. Good numbers come into
the Folly Pond to roost over night but then at first light their off to the
nearby stubble fields to feed up. We have recently put down a top of barley on
the back on the Folly Pond to try and entice the birds to stop around for the
day, and it has worked today... well kind off worked.... we had just over a
hundred birds when i got in the morning, and only eight remained behind when
the rest flew off. These birds have remained present on the Folly Pond all day,
but have still yet to make the trip over to our feed pond.
Barnacle Goose numbers remain stable with around 7,000 birds being present on
the reserve the last few days. Numbers in the Caerlaverock district are around
16,000 so you can’t really miss the geese.... unless it’s really misty I
suppose......
Wigeon numbers have continue to grow. Our birds mostly arrive in from Greenland
and numbers will continue to build over the next few weeks. We currently have
just over 1,000 birds around, with good numbers on the Folly Pond, Whooper Pond
and Flood Ground.
A similar story as well with the Teal, Tufted Duck, Shoveler and Gadwall.
I keep talking about all the long distance migrants but I have forgotten about
the more short distance 'migrants'. These birds can be Canada Geese,
Kingfisher, Mute Swan, Greylag Geese etc.
Our Mute Swans we get here do not all stay here, the vast majority of them come
in from all the local Lochs, or lakes (for those reading in England) and spend
the winter here with our Whooper Swans. Some of our Mute Swans have come as far
as Clyde and a few of 'our' birds have been seen in the west of the region,
100+miles away in Stranraer.
I mentioned Kingfisher so I best chat about these beauties! A very long time
ago, ages before I came here, we use to have Kingfishers a bit more frequently
than we do now. Since I have been here the Kingfishers arrive here in early autumn
and try to spend the winter here. This is a common 'migration' with Kingfishers,
where they move toward to coast come winter. This is commonly said because in
coastal areas they can be guaranteed a free moving water body while the inland
water courses start to freeze over. Sadly if the Kingfisher have a Scottish
accent and come and visit us they could well have met some difficulties. Over
the last two year the reserves water bodies have completely frozen over and the
Kingfisher which try to winter with us have struggled and moved on. Hopefully
we will have a lovely warm winter and this won’t happen this year....
One bird which sound be sunning its self a lot further south is the Swallow. We still actually have a single bird around the reserve trying to catch flies over the Whooper Pond. He is pushing his luck though staying up here this late.....
Anyway I think 500 words are more than enough to put everyone to sleep so until
next time, night night!
Mike
