Latest sightings
A knee injury won't stop me
Normally I'm running about the reserve, fixing fences, cross-cutting wood, building nest boxes the list goes on. I almost never sit still. However, for the last couple of weeks this has not been the case. A knee injury has left me predominantly stuck indo
29 March 2024
Between showers, spring arrives
We've been enjoying a seasonal shift in some of our wildlife sightings here at Caerlaverock. Spring showers, between blue skies and rainbows, are beckoning tree buds to leaf, blossoms to emerge and more flowers to begin blooming. Since the rafts have been
27 March 2024
Wetland Word of the Week 4
For week 4, our wetland word of the week is...... firth. A firth is a narrow inlet of the sea or an estuary. It comes from the old Norse for fjord. In Scotland, famous firths include the Firth of Forth, the Moray Firth and of course, our own Solway Firth.
25 March 2024
Spring sprang sprung
A lot of change is happening across the site. It feels as if the moment you start to appreciate and grow accustomed to the bleakness of the winter, a flash of colour appears suggesting the changing of seasons. The longer days bring more warmth and energy,
20 March 2024
Nighttime escapades
Pitch black. Jacket zipped up. Torch at the ready. It is night and a group of us are standing in a field at Powhillon, one of the northern holdings of WWT Caerlaverock. We get the go ahead and switch our bright torches on. We are looking for eye shine.
19 March 2024
Wetland Word of the Week 3
Our Wetland Word of the Week for week 3 is...... dabchick which is another name for little grebe. It's name comes from the word 'dap' which means to dip lightly or suddenly under water. Dabchicks are known for their fantastic diving, clumsy walking on lan
18 March 2024
Nature... a force to be reckoned with
Lynda attended our writing workshop on the 9th of March and very kindly has shared her writing with us.A morning Thumbnail Nature Writing workshop at WWT Caerlaverock. The theme was to explore “haecceity”, a term new to me. A quick Google search state
17 March 2024
Making a mess at Powhillon: The Wilder, Wetter Caerlaverock Diaries no.1
My first week as Project Officer has been as busy as you’d expect for Caerlaverock. We had a digger out at Powhillon (one of our northern holdings) with the aim of making some scrapes, channels and blocking drains. The site looks very messy now but it w
14 March 2024
What is WeBS?
Ever heard someone referring to webs and then when they started talking about birds instead of spiders were a bit thrown? Well that's because they were talking about WeBS, the British Trust for Ornithology's monthly Wetland Bird Survey. It is a UK-wide su
13 March 2024
Is it a skylark?
I’m out on the merse one morning conducting a survey. The sun is shining. The wind is calm. All very picturesque. Suddenly a bird starts singing, effortlessly rising higher and higher in the air, its song seems to last forever. I’m mesmerised. But the
11 March 2024
Wetland Word of the Week 2
Our second wetland word of the week is...... flobby, a Scots word used of clouds meaning they are large and indicating rain. We get a lot of that down here at Caerlaverock, being in South West Scotland but it definitely keeps our wetland wet! Scots is
11 March 2024
Green winged teal and more sightings highlights
We have had a special visitor causing a bit of a flutter this week: a drake (male) green winged teal. It was first spotted on the Folly Pond this Wednesday (6th March) and was moving around the site the rest of the week. Very similar to our Eurasian teal
9 March 2024
Wetland Word of the Week 1
For our Words for Wetlands programme we are creating a dictionary of wetland words. Our first is merse......meaning the marshy land where the river meets the sea, specifically applied to the Solway Firth. Merse is the word we use when talking about the sa
7 March 2024
We all know what March means...
It’s getting to that time of year: we are nearing the end of daily swan feeds.The swans are getting ready to head back to Iceland for their summer holidays. We are seeing fewer and fewer of them on the Whooper Pond during the feeds and will soon be able
4 March 2024
From yelling 'stick together' to 'it's all about me!'
It’s a day where the distance is hidden, the close is blurry and grey and so as I head down the Saltcot Loaning, I lean more to using ears than eyes. We love to label and compartmentalise times of year but today fits no man-made season: my ears tell me
27 February 2024