After 3 days of no electricity, I was MIGHTY glad when the lights popped back on last night.  We even had our first barbeque of the year!! Wasn't the warmest but at least the sun was shining.  The wind is still bitterly cold here but that hasn't detered some hardy ospreys returning to the UK.  Reports are in of a male osprey at Loch of the Lowes, Perthshire, and also a possible sighting much closer to home at Castle…

Well glad the sun came out today and started the thaw.

Have attached some photos of what it was like at home on Friday.

It's with baited breath that I go into the Visitor Centre these days.  Any day now an osprey could appear on the nest.  Already there has been an osprey sighted at Annan.  Could this be the Caerlaverock birds returning?  We will just have to wait and see.  3 other opsreys have been seen further south, so it really could be any day now.  So here's my request - get out there and get your eyes to the sky.  You might just…

Well at least it is dry for the moment! Down on the bay the
pack ice has started to form again and Monday’s ice cold wind was a bite of the
arctic. It is surprising when you see the news that the Channel Islands have
snow drifts we are getting an easterly blast of the continent and last year in
places the temperature was 18 degrees. The birds do not seem to mind but I feel
that our frog spawn which was laid last week…

The Geese have been most obliging today with some wonderful view of Barnacles a few flying in pairs I presume starting to pair ready for the long flight back to Svalbard. The Lapwing have been doing there thing as only a Lapwing can dive bombing display in there pre breeding season displays redshank have been splitting up into twos after a couple of months of hanging around in groups.

The Shelducks have been pairing…

I am glad to say that we have decided to have another Open Day this year on the 14th April at the end of the Wildlife festival already got several stands including Lisa Hooper the local Artist to come once again which is great news.  

It is with great sadness that I write to say that Mr Bill Campbell, one of our first volunteers in the Wigtown Bay Visitor Centre, sadly lost his battle with cancer on the 3rd January, at Dumfries hospital, with his family at his side.

Bill started as a visitor interpretation volunteer in July 2011, when the RSPB first started looking after the visitor centre in Wigtown County Buildings.  Bill's enthusiasm for nature…

Just wanted to extend our best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2013. 

The next guided walk at the Crook of Baldoon is on Sunday 13th January - a perfect reason to walk off some of the Christmas excess and see what's around at the busiest time of year for wildfowl on the Crook.  Peak numbners of pink-footed geese can be seen in Wigtown Bay in January/February, so now is the time to visit.  Hope you can join…

T

The 12th of the 12th 2012 was an auspicious day not only for the couples getting married at the other end of the county at Gretna Green. We at Wigtown had our Volunteer Christmas party for the Crook of Baldoon reserve, Wigtown Bay Visitor Centre and the other Galloway Reserves.

We had a great spread of food and tea and coffee up in the Visitor Centre, and all in all a great afternoon was had by all.

The afternoon…

What a beautiful day!  A crisp blue sky, long fingers of frost on the grass and large mounds of ice over the lower reaches of the merse and chunks floating out to sea on the tide.  I would never have believed it was cold enough last night for ice in the sea at midday but there it was glistening in the sun. 

Today was a great day for a guided walk at the Crook; the sun was shining to warm us and all was crunchy under foot making…

If you go down to the Crook of Baldoon this week, take a close look at the ruins of old Baldoon Castle, on the road to Baldoon Mains farm.  There you might see the lonely ghost of Janet Dalrymple wandering the grounds of the ruin in the early hours, her nightdress splattered with blood.  She is said to haunt the castle most often around the anniversary of her death, 12th September. 

In the middle of the 17th Century, Janet…

Hello everyone,

Below are details of a few extra events that I'll be running for families in the Wigtown Bay Visitor Centre during the holidays.  So if you're looking for a way to keep the children occupied drop in to the County Buildings for some fun and games.

What's for Dinner - Owl Pellets: Sunday 14th October 2-4

Gaggles fo Geese - Wednesday 17th & 24th October 10-4

Feed the Birds - Saturday 27th…

Wigtown in Bloom was this year's Winner of the Scottish Natural Heritage Biodiversity Award 2012, sponsored by SNH and Beautiful Scotland (part of Keep Scotland Beautiful)  It is wonderful to get recognition for the work of the community, RSPB and D&G Council Ranger service in keeping Wigtown green and highlighting what Wigtown and Wigtown Bay has to offer the local community and visitors.  The local Primary school…

Winter is coming the first 17 Pale Bellied Brents seen today on the southern half of the Crook and around 400 golden plover and tonight two sceens of geese went south east very high, suprisingly we still have swallows feeding as well.

this has been a very strange year.

Today had to return some bat detectors to our friends at Threave after our Wood of Cree Bat Walk which went very well actually saw my first Daubenton catch some insect of the surface of the water. Anyway as I pulled up I noted the hirundines massing, they were mainly Sand Martins with a few swallows. A spectacle at any time but against a rare almost blue sky it struck me how much like a piece of sheet music they looked and…

On the 28th August we have a joint event with Council Ranger Elizabeth Tindall a 'Mud walk' out on the estuary. Elizabeth has you might expect is very knowledgeable about the mud's of the LNR and has lots of interesting facts and information about the wildlife that inhabit this seemingly desolate part of the bay. Wellies are needed and over trousers if you have them. 

And on the 30th August we have a bat walk…

Been out cutting the rush in field 2 today it is a slow job doing a double pass but once done it is looking well for the next three weeks till the rush grows again. we till treat the regrowth in october if the weather allows reduce the rush.

a lot of meadow pipits feeding on the fly attracted by the cattle that are aftermath grazing. Two buzzards following today they have not learnt that I am not cutting so low as the…

Today Alexa and I have spent a very wet and windy day at the Wigtown Agricultural Show,

Love Nature is our motto and we got close to raw nature today

We were in two minds about doing the show considering the very poor forecast for the Tuesday night and Wednesday. Having looked at our site with the Trade Steward on Tuesday night  and the Organisers allowing us to move to a cancellation site in a more sheltered position…

After the excitment of last Tuesday, we have not seen any sign of HJ or indeed EP visiting the nest.  The local ravens have been regularly hanging about the nest, and have taken to removing all the twigs that were brought in by the ospreys last week.  We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed for next year and hope that one of the males returns to the nest. 

After an absense of about a week, the peregrine falcon has…

latest figures from the BTO Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) show that four of our breeding waders have reached their lowest levels since the survey started in the early 1990s.

declines of 19% for Oystercatcher, 18% for Lapwing, 40% for Snipe and 13% for Curlew.

Another bird that has recorded major decline in recent years is the farmland bird the Skylark, with a significant 7% decline between 2010 and 2011 , and since the…

What a fantastic week it's been.  Last Friday evening 14 of us were at the Crook at dusk, bat detectors at the ready, and were rewarded with many signals picked up from the pipistrelle bats which were darting back and forth all around us.  The moth trap set gave us a time to pour over the books on Saturday morning and identify the eight moths which had been caught ( and later released ).  Paul's superb photos show up…

Turns out blue HJ is a very young male bird.  He was ringed at Caerlaverock in 2010 as a chick, so he is only 2 years old.  Most ospreys don't return to the UK until they are 3 years old, but they have been known to return early to look for mates and suitable nest sites.  So HJ is clearly hoping to get ahead of the game. 

HJ's mother was unringed but his father was green AW, one of Wigtown Bay's chicks from our female…

EP our male from previous years, that has been hanging about in the area has just turned up on the nest.  HJ didn't seem upset by this, so maybe he's a she??  A raven is flying around too.  All go today!!

SUPER EXCITING NEWS!!!

This morning we have an Osprey sitting on the nest!!!  Blue HJ is the leg ring and it may be a male as there a few fresh twigs on top of the nest.  He's a beautiful bird sitting having a good preen on the branches above the nest.  Here's hoping he likes the look of the nest and hangs around for a while.  Today the bells of Wigtown rang to welcome an Osprey back to the nest.  I'll let you know…

Have completed the WeBs count for wetland birds in July on todays high tide.

A couple of note are the Bartail Godwits and Golden Plovers a 176 Curlew and the two types of Tern  

 

Cormorant

8

Grey Heron

4

Shelduck

8

Mallard

7

Oystercatcher

9

Golden Plover

49

Dunlin

14

Br tl Godwit

9

Curlew

…