Our July highlights
A badger was seen wandering around near the Saltcot Loaning and the Peter Scott Observatory. Mostly, badgers are nocturnal and come out at night to look for food but when they are youngsters or if food is scarce, they venture out during the day. The reserve team checked on the badger and determined that it was indeed just investigating its home and wasn’t in any danger. Many of our visitors and volunteers were lucky enough to spot it and regular visitor, Brian Taylor managed to snap this great photo (see feature image).
There has been lots of raptor action in July. An osprey flew over the Folly Pond with a freshly caught fish in its talons, distracting Dave (site manager) from an important meeting he was having: the joys of having an office looking out onto the pond. Peregrine falcon, buzzard and marsh harrier were added to the July list as well.
At one of Caerlaverock’s northern holdings, a family of kestrels was seen. One of the juveniles was spotted first on a branch of a big oak tree. Then the adult was heard alarm calling and it swooped in with food in its talons for the youngsters. That makes this the third year we’ve recorded kestrels nesting on the reserve.
tree sparrow sitting on top of nesting box by Peter Jordan
In other chick news, we can confirm that across all the boxes and including their second broods, our tree sparrows have crossed the 100 mark! In 2023, we had a total of 99 fledglings at the end of the season and this marked an increase of 46% on the previous year. Our efforts to create nesting habitat for this declining species must be working. It will be interesting to see how much we’ve increased on 2023 at the end of this season.
On the smaller side (and if the sun dares to show its face!), we have been seeing lots of dragonflies and butterflies. A migrant hawker was spotted near the Saltcot Merse Observatory. Smaller skipper, green-veined white and small white butterflies were seen in the northern part of the reserve.
Words by Marianne Nicholson
Feature image of badger by Brian Taylor
