Latest sightings
Welcome to wildflower season (and more recent sightings)
At this time of year, you are able to enjoy a reserve which is vibrant with colour: wildflowers are coming into bloom. Meandering along the summer trail, as well as enjoying the dragon and damselflies (recent highlights include the four-spotted chaser
3 June 2023
Dragonflies, damselflies and cygnets - recent sightings
A walk through the wildflower meadow and out along the Lochar would not be complete without seeing dragon and damselflies aplenty, and you can tell by our recent sightings that’s what is exciting us here at Caerlaverock at the moment. These carnivorous
27 May 2023
The Nesting Season at Caerlaverock (and recent sightings)
The nesting season is well underway and our site hosts a wide variety of resident and summer migrants raising chicks which will hopefully fledge in the coming weeks. Species like great tits will use the natural landscape such as old woodpecker’s holes
22 May 2023
A reserve alive with busy insects and birdsong
As the days lengthen, the reserve becomes more and more alive with birdsong and the constant humming of busy insects. Although certainly quieter than it is in winter time without our enormous flocks of barnacle geese, teal and wigeon, there is a kind of p
13 May 2023
More warblers, butterflies and amphibians
Our glorious spring weather continues and with it, our spring migrant birds continue to flock in, among them sedge, garden and grasshopper warblers and an osprey has been seen carrying its lunch! Mallard pairs have been spotted with their ducklings. As
6 May 2023
Grasshopper warbler, Common sandpiper & Osprey
Throughout the week we have had an influx of invertebrate life grace the site with three really interesting species seen: the ruby tiger moth, drinker moth caterpillar and a water scorpion spotted in one of our natterjack pools near the Saltcot hide. I
23 April 2023
Summer migrants and other recent sightings
This week on the reserve, we have seen an influx of summer migrants that have made journeys from across the globe, with the majority returning from Africa. Hirundines (a family of passerine songbirds), such as swallows and sand martins, have been spotte
16 April 2023
Spring sightings
Spring has definitely arrived in full force as we head into April. There has continued to be lots of chiffchaff seen (and heard!) around the reserve as well as our first confirmed sightings of sand martins and swallows from the Peter Scott Observatory. Mo
9 April 2023
Chiffchaff sing their arrival
The Folly pond has had an array of ducks this week, with the usual teal, wigeon, northern shoveler and mallards joined often by up to six pintail and shelduck. There was also the odd group of waders using the banks of the pond, such as curlew, redshank, l
27 March 2023
Brent amongst the Barnies
It is quietening down on the reserve at the moment, it feels like we’re at that awkward point near winter’s end, but not quite the beginning of spring.Having said that there’s still been some really nice sightings this week. On Tuesday the volunteer
12 March 2023
Large Flocks of Knots from the Saltcot
We’ve had another busy fortnight at WWT Caerlaverock Wetlands Centre. You can feel spring in the air and there are snowdrops popping up all over the place. However, our wintering ducks, waders and geese are still around in flocks and will be for some we
15 February 2023
Marsh Harrier and Otters
In the last fortnight, we've continued to have a significant number of raptors around: people have been reporting hen harrier, peregrine falcon and kestrel, as well as a marsh harrier! These are a much less common occurrence here than other birds of prey.
22 January 2023
Goosander and Flocks of Winter Waders
We’ve had a great start to the New Year here at WWT Caerlaverock! Our Big Bird Challenge started on the 1st of January with the placement students being pitted against the wardens to see who can spot the most species of birds before the end of the month
6 January 2023
Water Rails and Frosty Weather
As we approach the end of the year, it’s been pretty quiet at WWT Caerlaverock, especially when the big frost came. Everything was iced over for a week and there was a significant decline in waders and geese numbers (with zero barnies seen on the 12th o
21 December 2022
Cetti's warbler, Hen harrier & named swans
A recent highlight here was that a Cetti's warbler was heard from the Sir Peter Scott trail. This is one of only a handful of sightings for this species in the region.Cetti's warblers are rich chestnut-brown above and grey below, with a pale throat. They
25 November 2022