SOLWAY: Otter Steals The Day.

Another superb day on the Scottish Solway in Dumfries & Galloway started with a quick stop at Redkirk Point. With little on show as we pulled up we broke open the coffee but the peace and tranquility was soon disturbed by honking Barnacle Geese overhead.

A lone Cackling Goose of the form minima was amongst them but as always at this site it was devilishly tricky to pick up on the saltings as more Barnacles joined the feeding flock. Mrs B and I agreed on 3,000 Barnies as a good "guestimate". Eleven Pink-footed Geese were about the only other birds before we moved along the coast to Browhouses.
As usual Browhouses was alive with birds with the incoming tide but without doubt the highlight was this Otter that disturbed our counting this morning. So good to get great views of Otter in D&G after a couple of near misses (corpse plus distant silhouette) over the last couple of years. And this was a total surprise as it surfaced nearby before swimming along to the exposed mud and running across with a fish in its jaws, pausing briefly for a quick nibble. After watching this magnificent beast for as long as possible (it disappeared behind the lumpy saltings) we settled in for a bit of birding! Highlights at Browhouses
included Kingfisher, 200 Pink-footed Geese, 78 Golden Plover, 7 Goldeneye, 25 Bar-tailed Godwits, 7 Goosander and 9 Red-breasted Mergansers but to be honest after the Otter we didn't care!
Our short drive to Seafield Bay at Annan was interrupted by a stop to count Golden Plovers (all 513 of them).
At Seafield the bay had been covered by the tide so we headed inland counting 496 Golden Plovers, 376 Lapwings, 41 Redshank and 32 Oystercatchers in the fields. The old railway leading to the viaduct was leaping with Blackbirds in the Hawthorns and returning to the bay we counted 108 Redshank on the mudflats.
With the fine rays of the fine afternoon's sun lengthening the day we decided to head out to Castle Loch at Lochmaben - perhaps it would be frozen yielding that elusive D&G Bittern?


As we drove towards Dalton we checked a flock of about 2,000 Pink-feet in nearby fields but couldn't find that much wanted Bean Goose. We spent a very pleasant hour or so at Castle Loch watching male Long-tailed Duck, redhead Smew, Kingfisher and 26 Whooper Swans (right), 3 of which were immatures. A fine day was ended off by a flyover Woodcock as we headed south along the A74.