Caerlaverock Migration

Hi Folks!!

Sorry i haven't put a blog in for a while, i have been on holiday!!!

Anyway, migration here at Caerlaverock has started to slow down quiet a lot over the last few days. The only thing which has arrived recently is Eurasian White-fronted Geese!! One of my favourite birds! Now up here in bonny Scotland we don't actually have many Eurasian birds turning up, most of our are of the Greenland race. The difference between the two are subtle but obvious at the same time. Our usual (i say usual because there still not that common) Greenland White-fronted Geese have amazing orange coloured bills and there plumage is slightly darker whereas, the Eurasian race has pink bills and are a more paler colour bird (see picture). These Eurasian White-fronted Geese have travelled all the way from Russia to be with us which is fantastic and i hope they hang around for a while longer so everyone can enjoy these birds.

The American Green-winged Teal is still present and always on the Folly Pond, so if you fancy a game of spot the odd one out roll on down to our Folly Pond hide.

Barnacle Geese numbers are around 10,000 at the moment on the reserve so you are in for a real treat if your heading over here. Also at the moment we have had good numbers of Pink-footed Geese feeding on the reserve. Now although the pink-footed geese head out to the Solway to roost as do the Barnacle Geese, the pink-feet head quiet far inland to feed so to have such high numbers on the reserve at the moment is quiet nice.

Some of the smaller birds such as Blackbirds, Robin, Feildfares and Redwings have been growing in number recently so these are birds which are coming across from the continent to spend the winter with us.

Also of note are Yellowhammers, now every winter we have at least 100 Yellowhammers feeding along the Avenue and our first three appeared the other day. Now this is just over a month later than when they usually arrive here so its obvious that the mild weather have been keeping these birds elsewhere and the more recently cold snaps have brought some of the birds down to the reserve.

Anyway, that's all for now folk

Mike

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