Caerlaverock Diary

Nov 27 2009 Dumfries Standard Friday

We are a wetland nature reserve and as such are used to wet conditions but we have never seen rainfall like we had last week.

Last Thursday we were almost cut off as the Nith and Lochar both burst their banks and flooded the fields and roads.

On a 9.2-metre tide, which is a metre below our highest tides, the entire Caerlaverock merse was covered by the Solway with roe deer and brown hares swimming for their lives.

The ducks and swans are all used to extreme weather but most hid their heads under their wings and rode out the storm.

Seeing the mallard and wigeon sheltering from the worst of the weather, the oft used phrase, “nice weather for ducks” doesn't seem at all appropriate.

The tufted ducks and goldeneyes on the other hand bobbed about on the whooper pond quite happily.

The hardy barnacle geese carried on feeding on the fields that were not under water, a true arctic species they were not going to let a bit of wind and rain prevent them from feeding up after their epic autumn migration.

Thankfully our flood banks held and the sea didn't come over the merse into the fields, if it had been a high spring tide we would not have been so lucky.

We are heading for our highest November rainfall since we began keeping records.

In November, we recorded our highest ever common teal numbers with over 2,000 on the reserve, double our previous highest count.

Most of these amazing little ducks are long-distance migrants flying to the Solway from Arctic Russia.

However, two weeks ago, amongst the huge teal flocks we spotted one teal which has come from quite the opposite direction.

A North American green-winged teal which must have taken a wrong turn flying south and been blown across the Atlantic.

This separate species looks very much like the common teal but has a distinctive vertical white stripe at its shoulder.

Other recent highlights have included a male hen harrier, merlin and daily sightings of up to two peregrine falcons.

Wader numbers have been excellent with over 10,000 dunlin on the tide, 2,800 oystercatchers, 430 golden plover, over 400 lapwing, curlew and knot, 140 redshank, 15 black-tailed godwit and five ruff.

Whooper swan numbers have been over 200 and growing daily and there have been daily counts of over 9,000 barnacle geese on the reserve with one of the white leucistic barnacle geese showing well.

There is still no sign of two of our Super Whooper swans Swanderful and Rocky.

The winter has been late to arrive in Iceland and many of the swans have taken advantage of the mild conditions to get in an extra bit of feeding before heading south for the winter.

We think that the low levels of sunshine up there at this time of year has not been enough for the tiny solar panel to charge the battery on the GPS transmitter.

We haven’t had an upload from either of them for a fortnight but we fully expect to see them both at Caerlaverock in the next few weeks when the winds change to come from a more northerly direction.

Our next special event is our Dawn Flight on Sunday, December 14.

It starts at 7am and provides a rare opportunity to accompany one of the wardens out onto the reserve to watch the wild world awake as dawn breaks over the Solway and the vast flocks of barnacle geese fly in from their night time roost on the mudflats to feed on the fields and merses.

Our coffee shop will also open early to serve hot drinks and bacon rolls.

Bring warm waterproof clothing, wellington boots, binoculars and a torch if you have them.

This event is free of charge to WWT members otherwise normal admission charges apply. Phone 01387 770200 to reserve your place.

If you are looking for that special Christmas gift why not adopt a swan, goose or duck?

Ask for details at the centre or check out the website at www.wwt.org.uk

We also have a wide range of Christmas cards and one of the best selections of natural history books in the area.

We are open every day throughout the festive season 10am to 5pm except Christmas Day and our swan feeds are at 11am and 2pm daily.