Sensational
birds  |
Caerlaverock lies on the Solway Firth in Scotland's
Border country. This small corner of
the UK where Scotland meets England is rich in nature and boasts one of the greatest
goose watching spectacles in the UK.
| | Caerlaverock - a rich winter
wildlife haven. Photo c/o Brian Morrell. |
The Solway
Firth is a great place for bird watching - even the historic name Caerlaverock
means 'castle of the lark'.
In spring and summer Caerlaverock echoes to
the sound of Natterjack toads but in late autumn and winter, it's a great place
to go bird watching. Stunning spectacle  Caerlaverock
is the place to go to see one the UK's great natural spectacles - 12,000 Barnacle
Geese fly in to the reserve in October and November every year.
The Barnacle
Geese make their 2,000 mile journey from Spitzburgen in the high Norwegian Arctic. They
spend the summers breeding in the Arctic but the lack of daylight, plus the fact
that their food source is covered in snow, drives them south. They start
arriving at Caerlaverock in October and by December numbers are reaching their
peak. The number of geese has mushroomed in recent years. Back in
the 1950's there were fewer than 1,000 barnacles on the Solway Firth - now there's
more than 20,000. Close up and personal  During
the winter visitors can witness the daily spectacle of these birds spending the
nights out on the mud flats - and then flying in at first light to feed on nearby
farmland.
One of the best times to see the birds close up is when they're
eating. These geese are true herbivores - they will eat only vegetable
matter during their entire lives. In order to maintain their strength and
put on body mass to breed again means that they have to use daylight hours to
graze. The geese can sometimes be a bit skittish and are easily disturbed,
so if you're coming to have a closer look, take a bit of cover behind a hedge
or a car whilst you watch them. The story behind the Barnacle Geese's name
is as intriguing as the spectacle itself. Hundreds of years ago the geese's
nests wouldn't have been seen, and it was thought that their eggs were the barnacles
found on boats. Changing environment  The
Solway Firth is a place of constant change due to its geographical position
Swirling
currents carry large amounts of sand and mud in and out of the estuary, resulting
in a complex eco-system. The locals call this landscape 'the merse'. The
ever changing mudflats provide rich pickings for birds in the form of worms, snails,
cockles, crabs and shrimps. It's a particularly good habitat for wading
birds who are ideally adapted to hunting in this landscape. Take the Curlew,
for example, with its long legs and splayed toes which means that the bird can
balance on the slippery mud.
The bird's long beak reaches far down into the
mud so he can pull out his meal. Whooper Swans  One
of the other birds to be found at Caerlaerock is the Whooper Swan - and the great
thing is that you can get really close to them.
The swans are winter visitors
and they come in their several hundreds - a daily feeding station enables human
visitors to get really near to them. The swan's yellow bills are a tell-tale
sign that they're not Mute Swans which are seen all year around in UK. Mute
Swans are characterised by their bright orange bills. The birds stay at
Caerlaverock throughout the winter months and then fly back to Iceland in the
spring to breed. Badger watching  The
Solway Firth and Dumfries has very health population of badgers, and at Caerlaverock
you can get very close to these remarkable creatures.
The wildlife centre
runs special badger watching events called Stars and Stripes nights in specially
built hides. Badgers have a really keen sense of smell and human scent scares
them off so this is the best way to see them without disturbance. Their
typical food is earthworms, but Badgers are opportunists and will feed on anything
even honey and peanuts, and in winter this is a good supplement to their diets. Credits
Photographs
of geese, swans and the sunset are courtesy of Brian Morrell, Wildfowl and Wetlands
Trust.
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