A quick trip around Gretna drew a Waxwing blank but 3000+ Pink-footed Geese had me chasing the huge flock near to the Cumbria border, but alas they did not settle. Nearly 10 o'clock, still raining and still not got out of the car so I drove down to the Solway for a look at the shore at Grateney and Redkirk Point. Not too much going on here apart from the usual large numbers of Barnacles though. Scouring through the D&G bird reports I'd noticed that the Dumfries area had been a good bet for Waxwings so I ambled along past the by-pass (where up to several hundred have been seen in past years) to a site where a few had been seen over the weekend. I felt really uncomfortable looking for birds between a primary school and a prison (hoping that too much peering around the former with binoculars wouldn't result in a spell in the latter!) and with no sign of any Waxwings I decided to retire gracefully.
The visibility was by now awful so I decided on a quick drive up to Lochmaben where a couple of Long-tailed Ducks had been seen on Castle Loch. Pulling in to the picnic site car park I noticed a large "lump" disappearing under the water and as it resurfaced it was nice to see my first decent bird of the day in the form of a Great Northern Diver. I tried a few record shots in the dismal conditions (at least the rain had eased and I was out of the car).
Just as I was settling into the idea of a full afternoon at the loch news broke of 50+ Waxwings in the middle of Dumfries. Twenty minutes later I was watching at least 20 near the Ice Bowl and then the whole 50 or so in between the primary school and prison where I had been standing a little more than an hour earlier! I managed a couple of record shots in the poor conditions but the flock was quite flighty and eventually moved off nearer the Nith.
Returning to Lochmaben I stopped to overlook Kirk Loch on a side road (above). I couldn't see much apart from a few Goldeneye on the water but the shrill sounds of high pitched calls in the tree above the car had me jumping out to find 15 Waxwings overhead. After a couple of minutes they flew off in the Dumfries direction so I made my way down to Castle Loch.
Very impressive numbers of wildfowl on the loch, most notably 250+ Wigeon whistling in one big flock. I managed to find just the adult drake Long-tailed Duck (the immature was still around somewhere), but with the light fading fast I decided on a quick dash to the hide. With dusk approaching a few thousand Starling were beginning to gather so there must be a roost here, large numbers of Corvids (mainly Jackdaws) and plenty of Goosander were congregating too. Good numbers of BHG's were coming in to roost so I decided to dash back to the west side for closer views. Even after 20 years of visits I'm still learning about the birding D&G has to offer. Manchester (and part-time D&Ger, like myself) birder Pete Berry had mentioned that he'd noticed a gull roost at Lochmaben as he passed, so I was keen to give this a go. A small number of larger gulls (mainly LBBG's and fewer Herrings) was gathering near the bowling green and in the gloom I spotted a "white wing-er", and a bulky one at that. It was obviously a 1st winter Glaucous Gull through the 'scope but I wanted better views and made for a rickety old jetty where I watched this bird until nearly dark as well as getting tantalising views of another Glauc'/Iceland flying off over the loch. A Woodcock flushed from the woods as I left was a fine end to a great afternoon's birding in D&G yet again.
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