Birdwatching in South West Scotland
We are ideal for birdwatching holidays all year round.
The estate is sandwiched between 2 reserves:
- the RSPB Reserve at Mersehead and
- the WWT Caerlaverock.
But often we have as many birds on the estate as either!
We take care to farm sympathetically. The diversity of cropping practices provides habitat and food and budding twitchers will see many different farmland birds on our farm walk. In winter large flocks of small birds can be seen feeding on stubbles and patches of unharvested kale and oats. In spring pairs of lapwings can be seen soaring and swooping above their nesting sites in emerging spring crops and throughout the summer our thick hedges resound with birdsong.
An RSPB Survey in 2008 identified a number of rare species on the estate including thrushes, bullfinches, barn owls, skylarks, linnets, grasshopper warblers, spotted flycatchers, ringed plovers, yellowhammers and reed buntings. Currently our bird table hosts goldfinches, greenfinches and nuthatches. Over the winter of 2009/10 there were sightings of rare corn buntings on the estate.
In the winter the estate is often covered with geese, mainly barnacle and pinkfoot. And the Arbigland foreshore is an internationally important area for waders such as curlews, oyster catchers and dunlins. Designated part of the Upper Solway Flats and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), it is monitored by Scottish Natural Heritage who praised existing management practices in their most recent survey and reported the following species in good conditions:
* Dunlin * Golden Plover * Grey Plover * Knot * Oystercatcher * Pintail * Redshank * Ringed Plover * Scaup * Shelduck * Svalbard barnacle goose
In 2008 we had the rare sighting of spoonbill off Carsethorn.
If you are into birding don't forget your binos!
