Scotland Holiday Day 1 : Dumfries 13th June 2018

The first stage of our holiday, planned to take in a week on Mull as well as several other locations on the way to and from there, was a drive from Manchester to Dumfries where we stopped off at WWT Caerlaverock and also, a new site for us, at RSPB Mersehead.

At the former we didn’t see anything special – though we did get year tick Tree Sparrows – but we had a nice break from driving and also got a close encounter with a blue tit chick calling from a box on one of the main paths; we managed to get within a couple of feet of the bird which seemed to be entirely oblivious to our presence.

We had a bit of time before we could check in at our hotel, The Ship Inn at Gatehouse of Fleet, so we looked at the map and thought we could try a new reserve, RSPB Mersehead, which involved us driving up the Urr Water in order to ford it and come back down via Castle Douglas.

We didn’t have a great deal of time but we dropped in at the reception where we got nice views of Yellowhammer and heard plenty of Skylarks in a field adjacent to one of the main walks around the site. There wasn’t a lot else there – partly because a recent drought had dried out the main freshwater pool and because at low tide, the salt water pool was also lacking in birds. Nevertheless it was interesting to visit another site in the area.

As time was drawing on we headed off for our hotel which tuned out to be quite pleasant – apart from the contusion I got resultant from a bout of cramp whilst sitting on a bar stool !!

Bird Sightings : WWT Caerlaverock 13th June 2018

Bird Sightings : RDPB Mersehead 13th June 2018