Drake Lesser Scaup (with Tufted Duck), Auchenreoch Loch D&G 30 March 2008 (more of that later).
Kirkonnell Flow.
Looking towards Criffel with New Abbey in the foreground, March 2008. Arrived back in Paris from Cuba mid morning 29th March, jumped on a plane to Manchester to be picked up by Angie and having a shower at home by 6 PM. Jumped in the car and safely in the bolt-hole at Southerness by 9 PM. Match of the Day and asleep. Not bad!
Birding at Milton Loch, March 2008.Sunday 30th started well with Barnacles over the caravan before it was light. Rain after breakfast restricted us to a bit of birding from the car around Arbigland (first Chiffchaff of the year) and there seemed to be a bit of a Fieldfare movement with 210 seen in total on the Southerness Peninsula. Kirkonnell Flow was rather poor once again with just a Chiffchaff, Treecreepers, Great-spotted Woodpecker and a Grey Wagtail (a D&G year tick) to trouble the notebook.
Loch Kindar near New Abbey is a place I'd been longing to look at for some time and today was the best opportunity. I was not disappointed with 1,000+ Pink-footed Geese on the slopes above the loch, 3 Greater Scaup and a Slavonian Grebe on the water. We'll be keeping an eye on this one in the future.
With the weather showing no sign of improvement we decided to take a look at a new site at Glenkiln Reservoir. The sky cleard as we arrived and although we saw nothing of note at least we bumped into our first D&G Jays of the year.
The world's biggest telescope. No wonder my shoulder aches!
As the weather had improved we took a walk around Mersehead - very nice but nothing of note apart from stacks of Barnacles. But a quick stop at Auchenreoch Loch near Crocketford produced a raft of Tufties so we had to take a closer look as there had been virtually nothing there all winter.
The ducks started to swim away but a grey mantled bird grabbed our attention. It looked good for a drake Lesser Scaup but worryingly the mantle looked a rather uniform grey at this distance and no vermiculations could be seen. We left the bird just about as far away as it could be and decided to return the next morning.
