Mute swan cygnet photo by Alex Hillier
Chiffchaff by Ray Cottrell
Summer is here at last and the reserve is alive with birdsong, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, willow, sedge, reed and garden warblers are all back from a winter spent in warmer climes. These summer songsters are pretty much all small brown or green birds but all have very different calls. Birding at this time of year can be more with ears than eyes.
Our summer walks are open, meandering round the meadow with all the wildflowers and butterflies. The river walk follows the banks of the Lochar Water where recently an otter was seen with her two cubs.
The ospreys arrived back and decided to build a new nest, it is not very far from the nest from which they have raised 10 chicks to fledge. We think that our regular male bird, yellow 80 (his leg ring) is back but has a new female which didn’t like the old nest. It is a bit frustrating as we have the camera set up looking at the old nest, however the good news is that it looks like they are incubating eggs so chicks could be hatching very soon.
Juha Soininen, Osprey
We have two pairs of mute swans which have both hatched out large clutches of eggs, one pair has 7 cygnets and the other has 6. We have had a few unusual waders on passage such as wood sandpiper, Temminck’s stint and greenshank but it has been fairly quiet so far. A male and female garganey have been the most exciting ducks to arrive.
We are gearing up for our programme of special events for the summer holidays with Nature Explorers on every day and family events like bug hunts and pond dipping happening every week. For more details of all of our special events check out www.wwt.org.uk/caerlaverock