Trip reports

Local bird watching outing

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

The weather was undecided as we drove towards Gifford, one direction brighter, with the clouds breaking up a little, another direction dull grey, and drizzle on the windscreen. However by the time our group had assembled, and the seventeen of us had reached our first stopping point, it was warm in the sun, with great light for bird-watching.

We saw a good number of upland birds including red grouse, red-legged partridge, golden plover (brilliant spot Lesley!), lapwing, curlew, snipe, skylark, wheatear and reed bunting. Along with some brown hares, it was a good start.

We set off again across the hills, which were looking stunning in the sunshine, to our second stop and the venue for our prime target -ring ouzel. We knew these had been seen in the area, but with a lot of burn-blackened patches of vegetation on the hillside the birds could be well camouflaged. Walking up the track we saw our first, "every outing should have one" mallard, but this was made a bit special by having five ducklings in tow. To our delight, as we crested a rise in the track ring ouzel and raven were seen One raven conveniently landed on a nearby pylon so we could get an even better look. Then another pair of ring ouzels appeared, and the raven count was increased by a group of five flying against the blue sky. Two mountain hares took our attention for a while then we continued to enjoy the bird life, including stonechats, dippers, a wheatear and meadow pipits. But we couldn't easily drag ourselves away from the ring ouzels and thanks to the wonders of technology, one of our group, on his first outing - welcome Miller - had a recording of the bird's call on his mobile. Does this make it a "ring ouzel tone"??

After being entertained by some pied wagtails as we picnicked in warm sun beside the stream (bliss!) we made our way to the Whiteadder Dam parking area to enjoy great views of common sandpiper, grey wagtail, reed bunting, and a willow warbler moving about among the rocks despite two dogs playing in the stream. Melanistic pheasants were in the area and above us we saw buzzards, a peregrine falcon, swallows and sand martins. We had a moment of excitement when a possible cuckoo was seen sitting on a wire, but it turned out to be a mistle thrush. Good try! After doing a bit more spotting among the bushes and nearby bird feeders we headed for our final stop further along the reservoir. Whiteadder was fairly quiet, with a few greylags, a Canada goose and a pair of tufted duck, so we decided to walk along the farm track. Another masquerading mistle thrush raised hopes for a cuckoo, but no luck. Mallard ducklings, a young mute swan, some moorhens and other usual suspects were seen, and then . . . we did hear a cuckoo, but couldn't locate it. We walked on to watch a colony of sand martins flying in and out of their nest burrows and enjoying the insect feast above the water, and a solitary grey heron turned up late in the day. After a really good birding day we turned back for the cars, and then, third time lucky, we saw the cuckoo. It was confirmed this time as we saw it while calling. Result!

A really pleasant day, spent in good company, seeing great birds. My total was 49 - for me that's pretty good.