Caerlaverock news

Nighttime escapades

Nighttime escapades

Pitch black. Jacket zipped up. Torch at the ready. It is night and a group of us are standing in a field at Powhillon, one of the northern holdings of WWT Caerlaverock. We get the go ahead and switch our bright torches on. We are looking for eye shine.

19 March 2024

Wetland Word of the Week 3

Wetland Word of the Week 3

Our Wetland Word of the Week for week 3 is...... dabchick which is another name for little grebe. It's name comes from the word 'dap' which means to dip lightly or suddenly under water. Dabchicks are known for their fantastic diving, clumsy walking on lan

18 March 2024

Nature... a force to be reckoned with

Nature... a force to be reckoned with

Lynda attended our writing workshop on the 9th of March and very kindly has shared her writing with us.A morning Thumbnail Nature Writing workshop at WWT Caerlaverock. The theme was to explore “haecceity”, a term new to me. A quick Google search state

17 March 2024

Making a mess at Powhillon

Making a mess at Powhillon

The Wilder Wetter Caerlaverock Diaries no.1My first week as Project Officer has been as busy as you’d expect for Caerlaverock. We had a digger out at Powhillon (one of our northern holdings) with the aim of making some scrapes, channels and blocking dra

14 March 2024

What is WeBS?

What is WeBS?

Ever heard someone referring to webs and then when they started talking about birds instead of spiders were a bit thrown? Well that's because they were talking about WeBS, the British Trust for Ornithology's monthly Wetland Bird Survey. It is a UK-wide su

13 March 2024

Is it a skylark?

Is it a skylark?

I’m out on the merse one morning conducting a survey. The sun is shining. The wind is calm. All very picturesque. Suddenly a bird starts singing, effortlessly rising higher and higher in the air, its song seems to last forever. I’m mesmerised. But the

11 March 2024

Wetland Word of the Week 2

Wetland Word of the Week 2

Our second wetland word of the week is...... flobby, a Scots word used of clouds meaning they are large and indicating rain. We get a lot of that down here at Caerlaverock, being in South West Scotland but it definitely keeps our wetland wet! Scots is

11 March 2024

Green winged teal and more sightings highlights

Green winged teal and more sightings highlights

We have had a special visitor causing a bit of a flutter this week: a drake (male) green winged teal. It was first spotted on the Folly Pond this Wednesday (6th March) and was moving around the site the rest of the week. Very similar to our Eurasian teal

9 March 2024

Wetland Word of the Week 1

Wetland Word of the Week 1

For our Words for Wetlands programme we are creating a dictionary of wetland words. Our first is merse......meaning the marshy land where the river meets the sea, specifically applied to the Solway Firth. Merse is the word we use when talking about the sa

7 March 2024

We all know what March means...

We all know what March means...

It’s getting to that time of year: we are nearing the end of daily swan feeds.The swans are getting ready to head back to Iceland for their summer holidays. We are seeing fewer and fewer of them on the Whooper Pond during the feeds and will soon be able

4 March 2024

From yelling  'stick together' to 'it's all about me!'

From yelling 'stick together' to 'it's all about me!'

It’s a day where the distance is hidden, the close is blurry and grey and so as I head down the Saltcot Loaning, I lean more to using ears than eyes. We love to label and compartmentalise times of year but today fits no man-made season: my ears tell me

27 February 2024

Introducing our new feeding station

Introducing our new feeding station

After several months of planning and postponing and dreaming and rearranging, we have finally completed our first project – redesigning the bird feeder station. The station is along the Peter Scott Trail in an area of wet woodland. This habitat provides

20 February 2024

Willow Weaving

Willow Weaving

Before Christmas, a fence along the Saltcot Loaning blew over, an unfortunate event... Or was it?It gave us the exciting challenge of creating our very first willow screen. Willow is amazingly flexible due to its fast-growing nature causing a lack in cell

18 February 2024

Observations from the Big Hideout

Observations from the Big Hideout

Excitedly I grab some old binoculars after hearing that we have a certain visitor to our Whooper pond.Although they delight our team and visitors from time to time, I am yet to see one.It is with glee that upon hurriedly reaching the observatory, I am gre

16 February 2024

Put a ring on it

Put a ring on it

It is uncommon for us to be finding new swan rings at this time of year. Normally by this time, we stop seeing birds with rings that haven’t visited the reserve yet this season. But at the end of January, ZJA was spotted. The ring was old and weathered-

14 February 2024