Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Holiday 2021 Day 2 Thursday 29/04/2021

The trouble with Bed and Breakfast, is the Breakfast!! or more to the point, the time of the Breakfast, 8 o'clock, meaning we missed the best part of the day birding wise! On the plus side we did get delicious Scrambled Eggs and Bacon!! To be honest we needed the rest as well after the long journey!! Also to be honest it is not as important in the less disturbed sites of Scotland.

Today we decided to look for Red Squirrels, so headed for Eskrigg Nature Reserve near Lockerbie, where we spent a fruitless couple of hours looking for them without success😢. Apparently according to a local "some woman" was feeding them on the other side of the wood so hadn't been seen on the reserve for a couple of weeks!!! However it was a cracking little reserve with plenty of Woodland bird activity and a small lake which had a Mandarin Duck on it which despite scanning it for 20 minutes I couldn't find😀!!

We did however have cracking views of several woodland specialties including Siskins, Nuthatch, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, lots of Coal Tits, a Sparrowhawk glided through, Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming, on the entrance track there were Linnets and a Song Thrush and a Kestrel nipped about in general staying out of camera range! The walk around the reserve was lovely with the trees covered in moss and lichens and plenty of flowers appearing!

Linnet

Chaffinch

Nuthatch

Blackbird

Nuthatch

Robin

Siskin

Mute Swan

Fungus

Bullfinch

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Willow Warbler

Coal Tit

Siskin

Flower by Margie

Closest we came to a Squirrel

Flowers by Margie

Flower by Margie

We left here and headed for the hills, the Grey Mare's Tail Waterfall to be precise, We lucked into a Warden in the Car Park, who told us there were 2 viewpoints one a short 10 minute walk where we could view the falls from the bottom, or the longer 45/50 minute walk to the top where the views were even better, having walked miles around the woods earlier we opted for the shorter one😃😂

Bridge near Carpark

Meadow Pipit plenty of these about the area

The view from the bottom

At this point we saw Dippers flying up and down the gorge, though the pictures are poor, in my defence they were a long way away!!

Distant Dipper

At this point Margie issued the spine chilling words "I wanna go to the top!!!😱😰😱" Now regular readers will remember my triumphant solo climb up Wolstonbury Hill (without oxygen or Sherpas) but there are also the many failed attempts at Cader Idris and our well documented and embarrassing Snowdon debacle so I was understandably sceptical!!! "you sure?" I queried "yep" came the reply. The Warden's words echo through my ears "it's quiet steep at the bottom, but levels up somewhat nearer the top" looking up from the bottom the quite steep bit made the north face of the Eiger look like a gentle stroll, girding my loins we headed up, several Wheatears were zipping about but didn't come close, scanning up the scope amongst the scree a brown bird flitted into view,a female Ring Ouzel whoop! However in changing from Bins to Camera I lost the bugger, could I refind it? No!! 😢 By now we were about 200 feet into the climb and already gasping for breath, basically the climb went as follows

Climb 30 feet,

Stop,

Gasp for breath,

Marvel at the view

Scan for birds

Repeat!

We were passed by several walkers including, embarrassingly, a bloke in trainers carrying an Aldi carrier bag. We also had close views with some presumably feral goats that were on the hillside!

However we persevered and the views were well worth the agony, the wardens 45minutes turned into a good hour and a half but with a massive sense of achievement we eventually reached the top and Loch Skeen was before us in all it's glory at which point it snowed!!!! Luckily it was just a couple of flurries but amazing how quick it went from sunny skies to snow and back again!! It was lovely at the top we had the whole place to ourselves and was very relaxing listening to the waves lapping on the shore!

Short video by Margie of the scene at the top!

The view halfway up

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat

Snow at the top

Stonechat in the Snow

Goat

Kid

Loch Skeen

Panorama of Loch Skeen

Margie's interpretation of the view

As we descended, which was easier and quicker than the ascent though buggered me knees good and proper, another Dipper flew up the gorge and gave slightly closer views!

Dipper

Beetle found by Margie, seems to have blue legs?

A short video of a part of the falls taken on my phone.

So near the bottom was a nice male Wheatear that posed well and a Pied Wagtail worked the Stream, saw a couple of Grey wagtails as well but didn't hang around for pics! Also had even better views of a Dipper near the car park which to be honest is blooming typical.