Visit to Caerlaverock

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 I took a trip to Southern Scotland today to the North side of the Solway Firth. The WWT have a bird reserve at Caerlaverock that is one of my favourite reserves. Caerlaverock Reserve

The reserve is famous for its winter populations of Whooper swans and of Barnacle geese. These Whooper swans spend their summers in Iceland and undertake the long migration to Caerlaverock. The record time for this commute is 12 hrs at around 70 mph with a favourable jet stream!  The swans can lose 20% of their weight in migration. The image is taken on a pond at Caerlaverock showing the yellow breaker whooper swans together with a couple of the indigenous (orange beaked) mute swans.


The other bird that makes this reserve so special is the barnacle goose that overwinters here in very large numbers.
Barnacle geese breed in the Svalbard Archipelago off  Northern Norway. Up to 12,000 Barnacle geese overwinter here a significant percentage of the World population. It used to be thought that these birds arose from barnacles and turned into birds in the summer leading to some interesting religious discussions as to whether their flesh was fish or meat and what days you could eat it on!
We also saw seven flocks of up to a dozen yellowhammers - great to see as we don't see them near our house. and I have only ever seen them in ones and twos before.

Other interesting birds seen - flock of golden plover, a female hen harrier, sparrow hawk, kestrel, bull finch, teal, widgeon, shoveler duck.

Diary
A frosty morning today. The weather is more settled and getting colder. The male sparrowhawk is still visiting the garden.







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