Well, it’s been quite the place to be, Baron’s Haugh, if you’re a birder or interested in wildlife at all these past few weeks. We had the alpine swift a few weeks ago, and now we have not just one, but TWO great white egrets! They’ve been here since last Thursday when they were discovered by one of our very regular visitors, Jimmy, and thankfully they’ve hung around and afforded us some great views since then. What’s more, they’ve recently been joined by a little egret! Check out these great photos taken by regular visitor Frank Gibbons.
Photos by Frank Gibbons.
Whilst the wildlife has been enjoying itself, so have we, doing more wildlife exploring during our events. This time round we were bug hunting and pond dipping and we found loads of cool creepy crawlies. It really is amazing that even for someone like me, who is out and about on the reserve a lot, when I get to spend time looking for wildlife like this I see loads of stuff I hadn’t seen before. I had a great time and I think the wee explorers did too. Here they are exploring the cemetery marsh.
Photo by Mark Mitchell.
The work of the volunteers and I to remove Invasive Non Native Species of plants from the reserve continues as ever. This month it was the turn of Few Flowered Leek which currently carpets much of the reserve. We spent a fair amount of time digging up specific patches of the stuff in the hope that there will once again be less in a year’s time. We want to keep one distinct section of the reserve totally clear of this ‘INNS’, whilst we accept that to eradicate it from the reserve entirely is a hugely challenging target.
The reserve is looking beautiful at the moment, so I really would encourage you to get down if you haven’t managed to for a while. This picture of the Dalzell burn proves this I think. A cracking place to see a dipper!
Myself and a few hardy folk were out and about for a dawn chorus guided walk on Saturday and we were rewarded for the early start. We saw and heard lots of wildlife including grasshopper warbler, whitethroat, fox, great spotted woodpecker and the stars of the show, the otters! One was on the river and one was on the haugh itself. I always feel really lucky when we see an otter on a guided walk because it is an animal many people ask me about and hope to see on the reserve. So thank you Mr/Mrs. Otter for obliging us!
Photo by Jill Mellon.
All the best,
Mark.