. NEWSLETTER 49 AUTUMN 2011 Editor: Stephanie Dewhurst

The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. Nature is amazing - help us keep it that way

The Royal Society for the Protection of a million Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: voices for England and Wales No 207076; nature SAND MARTIN Charity No SC037654 GALLOWAY LOCAL GROUP

GROUP LEADER’S REPORT Over the two days we raised £170 from the teas, Dear Members and a similar amount from another event in late July. What a relief it was when spring arrived after another long hard winter. And what a spectacular While on the topic of money you might like to know spring it was too with fantastic wild blossom and that from 1st April 2010 to 31st March 2011 RSPB marvellous spring flowers. I had the best show nationally raised £15,000 from used stamps and of cowslips ever all across one side of my knoll. £65,300 from old ink cartridges and mobile phones. The swallows returned on 10th April which was The total income since the appeal began for these earlier than usual but the awful weather in May and last two items stands at £325,000. This is such June resulted in their first brood failing. However, an easy way of raising much needed money for all they have raised two more broods since then the work RSPB does, all from items which would successfully. Now in high summer the air is filled otherwise just be thrown away so please continue with swallows hunting all those insects which plague to send these direct or bring them along to the group us and the barn owl which I had not seen for some meetings. Within 12 weeks of it being received, time is also out and about hunting. 91p in every £1 is spent on conservation work.

In the last newsletter I mentioned the eight question- After Bobby Smith's enjoyable talk at the group naires, given out in January-February, which we had meeting on 15th February, he invited us to visit received back. The number increased to eleven and his artificial sand martin bank at a small reserve were discussed at the committee meeting in early near which took place in early June April. As a result we decided to change to the (report on p.4). As this was arranged after the last smaller venue at the Parish Church Hall, Queen newsletter had been distributed I regret that there Street commencing with our first meeting on 20th was no way of letting every group member know September. This change will, of course, be shown about the trip unless they heard the announcement on the programme so please be sure to go to the at the April meeting or saw it in the diary column of new place. Some of the other suggestions will also the Galloway News. be taken on board but we cannot please everyone! This year the group took part in the RSPB's “Love Once again some of us went along to Environment Nature Week” can collection in early June at Tesco's Day in DGOne on 5th March, manning in Castle Douglas (the only supermarket to give their our sales table and, as usual, the event was very permission for the dates required). Five of us took well attended by families creating a really good part on a rota basis, two at a time, and I can tell you atmosphere with plenty of interest shown in all the Brian Nolan looked very fetching in his (rather hot) stalls. blue tit costume! Our total collection for the two days amounted to £755.10, so you can see shoppers A week later a few of us travelled up to Pitlochry in were very generous and interested in the RSPB. wintry conditions to attend the RSPB's Volunteers I understand one couple in Dumfries, where there is Day held in the comfortable Festival Theatre. This no formal RSPB group, did very well at Morrison's was a very good day with plenty of interesting collecting over £300. This makes a very creditable speakers and a nice buffet lunch but the drive home total exceeding £1000 for the whole region, about was through the remains of snow, then rain and one-sixth of the total raised in Scotland. finally fog on Fenwick Moor. I was glad I was merely a passenger! Galloway seemed quite balmy after all I hope you like the new programme for 2011/2012 that. and look forward to seeing you all again at our new venue on 20th September and at the Art Exhibition Later in March RSPB had organised a weekend we are planning at the Sulwath Centre from 15th to Craft Fair at the Sulwath Centre, Mersehead where 30th October inclusive. the group had the sales table and also served teas. Cynthia Douglas

GALLOWAY RESERVES UPDATE JULY 2011 Mull of Galloway Life on the cliff edge this year has been at times Wood of Cree extremely blustery. The high winds in May created Following another hard winter which saw us carry misfortune for some guillemot and razorbill out a great deal of tree safety work on the reserve, birds with their eggs being blown off the cliff. More spring burst into life once again with a magnificent positively, the kittiwakes delayed laying until after show of bluebells, campion, stitchwort and wood the high winds and there are now chicks enjoying anemone. It has also been a good year for returning the long awaited sunny spells. Fulmars are also summer migrants into the wood with the first pied around albeit in low numbers, feeding young busily. flycatcher being seen on 28th March. The dry Puffins have been spotted flying around the cliff weather we had throughout April also enabled our edges and out at sea. However, there is no other key species: redstart, wood warbler, tree pipit confirmed breeding on the reserve as yet. and cuckoo (as well as many more) to advance on a large front and establish territories fairly quickly. The The Visitor Centre has successfully undergone dawn chorus was unbelievably busy and very noisy. refurbishment with new displays, information boards It has been a decent breeding season for most of and interactive materials available for all to enjoy. the bird species despite some predation and the Our CCTV system still continues to deliver live blustery weather we had in May. footage from cliff nests where visitors can really get a feel for life in the seabird colonies. Some damage had been inflicted on the reserve due to the high winds we experienced, with some fairly Work has been done on site to limit footpath erosion large branches coming down and trees being blown and help regenerate vegetation in areas worst over within the wood, well away from the trails. affected. There are also plans towards the end of the summer to create a wildlife garden in the unused Visitors have been using the new trails on our lighthouse garden. We hope to plant native shrubs Barclye extension and enjoyed fantastic views up giving benefits to passing migrants, plant wild and down the Cree Valley. Work is still ongoing on flowers and have picnic benches where visitors can our Woodland Pasture Trail and will be completed relax. towards the end of the autumn creating a three mile circular around the reserve with plenty to see. The Ailsa Craig trees in both our Phase One and Two continue to go Poor weather throughout spring and early summer from strength to strength; some saplings now stand has limited the time we have been able to spend on nearly two metres tall having only been planted last Ailsa Craig this year. Having only surveyed the year. colonies by boat this year, both the gannet and puffin colonies show encouraging signs of We are currently designing a new trail guide/leaflet expansion, with higher counts of puffin again this for the reserve, incorporating Barclye, which should year. There also seems to be healthy guillemot and be out by the end of the year. razorbill numbers with these birds crowding parts of the cliff edges in their thousands. Kittiwakes and Ken - Dee Marshes fulmars remain on the reserve in lower numbers Similar to Wood of Cree, many of the summer than previous years; however we hope for a good migrants returned at the start of April with the breeding year to raise their numbers. We also have woodland part of the reserve coming alive. Numbers resident ravens, peregrines, twite, whitethroat, and appear to be stable with more redstarts this year two great tits were spotted on the east side of the than in 2010. In the lagoon area, visitors have island. enjoyed watching the black-headed gull colony grow Will Cranstoun and develop. The highest count of individual birds Warden, Galloway Reserves reached over 300! We also had a pair of shoveler successfully rear two ducklings with redshank and lapwing also breeding in the lagoon margins. SCARE ROCKS Nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker and red squirrel The Scare Rocks are undoubtedly the least visited continue to visit the feeders outside both hides with of our reserves in , not ospreys and red kites regularly seen overhead. surprisingly as they lie about eight miles off the Mull of Galloway at the mouth of Luce Bay. Comprising Much of our ongoing conservation work on Ken-Dee Big Scare and the Little Scares they are officially still heavily revolves around the removal of non- part of the Mull of Galloway Reserve, but most of native plants and we also plan to review our visitors only get distant views from the Mull itself. unfavourable willow encroachment within the Big Scare is home to about 2,500 pairs of gannet, lagoon area that may be potentially blocking as well as much smaller numbers of shag and sightlines from both hides. guillemot. Indeed, shag and guillemot numbers have declined as the numbers of gannets have increased,

2 possibly due to competition for nesting spaces. The We saw all stages of gannet production, from eggs Little Scares are used as roosting areas by smaller right though to almost fledged birds. The colony numbers of seabirds and as haul-outs for small appears to be in very good health and, judging by numbers of grey seals. the numbers of fish remains, there is plenty of food being brought in by the parent birds. However, there I last visited the Scares in 1998 with the North is some mortality, and much of this is due to Solway Ringing Group (NSRG), so it was with great the marine debris being brought onto the Rock. anticipation that I had been planning a trip across A previous trip to the Scares reported large amounts this summer with members of the NSRG and of discarded fishing net and line which the adult two seabird ecologists from Leeds University who gannets had incorporated into their nests. This has are comparing foraging behaviour of gannets from not diminished and line was everywhere. Sadly various colonies around the UK. there was considerable evidence of the impact this is having on chicks, especially guillemots, as they As luck would have it, the day chosen was sunny, become more active and become entangled. We cut with light winds, so our flotilla of two boats made several free, but some birds had very badly good progress in getting over to the Rocks. Getting damaged legs where line had cut into them. There is folk off the boats onto the Rock was achieved little we can do to remove this material from the without too many alarms and we set to sorting out a Rock and, even if we were to do so, it would simply plan of action for the time we had at our disposal. be replaced in time as the adult birds continue to bring in nesting material. My impression of the gannet colony was that it has increased since I was last on the Rock and there appeared to be very little spare space, with nesting birds sitting literally cheek by jowl (or rather beak) with their neighbours. The biggest impression, though, comes from the unmistakeable smell and sound of a seabird colony. The adult gannets are themselves very noisy, but the chicks make a yapping sound, like so many Jack Russells rather than birds.

Difficult to see, but the rocks are strewn with fishing line and debris

We ringed 190 gannet chicks and 60 guillemot chicks. The Leeds guys caught and tagged ten adult gannets, including one which was already ringed – it will be interesting to see if this is a Scare Rocks bird or one born on another colony.

Getting off the Rock was slightly more hairy than getting on, but everyone arrived safely back on dry land. I, for one, can‟t wait to go back next year.

Andrew Bielinski

Gannets nesting, Scare Rocks

3 A DAY OUT WITH BOBBY SMITH of cold weather in May. One could not say it was On a cloudy morning at the beginning of June, a peaceful lunch place as the most conspicuous seven local group members met in Market Hill car residents of the sanctuary lochan were black- park, Castle Douglas. We thought that we were just headed gulls, and their raucous cries were going to see Bobby Smith‟s sand martin bank at the incessant. Applegarthtown Wildlife Sanctuary near . In fact Bobby had very kindly planned a whole day After lunch, Bobby took us to see the sand martin out for us with visits to several locations of wildlife bank on the far side of the lochan. The bank interest, including Applegarthtown. comprises a concrete wall with numerous holes drilled into it, which sand martins use for nesting. We met up with Bobby at Castle Loch at Lochmaben. He was accompanied by his friend Pat, another very experienced ornithologist who lives in Cheshire but frequently visits . We stopped at two points on the western shore of Castle Loch. At the first, a reed warbler was singing his heart out in a clump of reeds. We must have been within feet of him but could we see him? No! Tony Goadby had recently acquired a pair of high tech hearing aids and was thrilled to bits to be able to hear a reed warbler‟s song clearly for the first time for years. At the second stop we walked out onto a fisherman‟s jetty and surveyed numerous swans cruising on the loch. The more observant amongst us reported a great crested grebe but I will have to take their word for that! Bobby drew our attention to the song of a garden warbler and promised that Any human movement leads to the martins lying low when we heard a blackcap we would notice the but Bobby got us to stay still and very soon the difference. Sadly we did not get to hear a blackcap martins were flying in and out of the holes with in full voice. My perplexity remains! bewildering rapidity. A narrow covered passageway gives access to the rear of the nesting holes. While Bobby showed us nests with eggs in, Pat took out nestlings and showed us how they were ringed – tiny birds, tiny rings.

From Castle Loch we had a short drive to the west, to a small stream which I think may have been the Marlake Burn. However, whatever the name, Bobby knew where a kingfisher was nesting. We stood back at a discreet distance from the nest site to see if the kingfisher would reveal itself. Sadly it didn‟t. On leaving the sanctuary, we headed north on the old A74 which runs parallel to the A74(M). Three We now drove to Applegarthtown following Bobby, miles north of we turned left onto a who took us on a magical mystery tour of the minor lane which took us to Lochwood Wood and parked roads between Lochmaben and Lockerbie. To be up. We now had a pleasant stroll beneath the fair to Bobby, he took us on this circuitous route to magnificent ancient trees, some of which were avoid a very rough section of road. Safely arrived at amazingly contorted. Late afternoon was perhaps Applegarthtown Wildlife Sanctuary, it was time to not the best time to hear the birds singing but Pat tuck into our packed lunches and, as we did so, the had a plan! He had with him a portable CD player sun broke through the clouds and it was a real and a disc of birdsong. He played the distinctive call pleasure to feel warmth after such a long period of a green woodpecker and very soon we were

4 hearing the real „yaffle‟ from a male bird, very cross Eleanor Burns will be analysing our wing-tag records that another „male‟ was on his territory! We had a for the last year, to determine the demographics of few brief glimpses of the bird flying above the leaf kites attending feeds. The project is funded by canopy but then, for a brief spell, it settled on a dead the Nuffield Bursary Foundation and will determine tree and we had a good view, though it has to be distances travelled by breeding red kites to the said that, because of the bright light, we did not see feeding station, as well as the proportions of young his glorious colours to good effect. Pat tried a similar or adult birds and their sexes. trick with redstart song but this time it did not work. Ten years on, the population is doing well with about It was now time to bid our farewells and thank 340 kites now flying in Dumfries and Galloway. Their Bobby and Pat for a most interesting and enjoyable breeding range is expanding with kites now breeding day. in Nithsdale, the Fleet Valley and near both John Dewhurst and . We are keen to hear about any kite sightings away from the Loch Ken area.

Calum Murray, Galloway Kite Trail Community Liaison Officer

THE CROOK OF BALDOON has seen its first breeding season as an RSPB nature reserve; it was great to watch the season unfold with its high and lows points. Our lowest was the demise of the third osprey chick which struggled from its egg with the egg membrane and shell still stuck to its back. The ospreys‟ nest, which is within the Bay area, can be viewed from the Osprey Room in Wigtown, which is now manned by our new Community and Wildlife Officer Ian Brown, a part time Officer Kelly Hunter and a couple of volunteers. The RSPB, in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Council, Above: L-R: Pat Whalley, Joyce Simpson, Bobby interoperate what happens at the nest via a live Smith, David Kay, Cynthia Douglas, Susan McKellar, Brian Nolan and Tony Goadby. Photo: John Dewhurst video link. Sadly the chick was left very weak after its struggles and was not strong enough to feed and, with two strong older chicks in the nest, it unfortunately passed away. GALLOWAY’S RED KITES This year saw a bitterly cold start and probably the reason for poorer breeding within the local kite population. George Christie (Red Kite Officer) and his team of volunteers managed to locate 65 pairs on territory and 58 active nests, seven more than last year. Of these, 53 were successful and 104 chicks were processed, 90 of which were ringed and 87 tagged.

One young kite fledged as early as 10th July. This discovery came about as a result of a road incident. Fledging near Dalry, it was collected off the main road by a passer-by and taken to a veterinary Kelly Hunter and Ian Brown with H/D surgery in Castle Douglas. After examination the bird was then taken to Barony College Wildlife Hospital and kept for a short time before being Our biggest high was the success of the lapwings on released by George at Bellymack Hill Farm a few the Crook of Baldoon, with most getting four chicks days later. It has since been recorded flying around hatched and in early July we had a flock count of the Laurieston and Dornell area as well as the 24 birds with at least 12 of them being juvenile. feeding station. The linnets and goldfinches have bred well, as have the skylarks, spotted flycatchers, willow and sedge This summer, a student from Wallace Hall Academy warblers. Over all it seems that despite the weather is undertaking a short project at the feeding station. most of the birds have had a good season.

5 The breeding season drawing to a close has allowed WILDLIFE GARDENING TALK the development of the Crook to take another step My audience gave an audible gasp of horror! I was forward in late July with a topographic survey of 29 at almost the final slide of the Gardening for Wildlife hectares of grassland, with the view to re-wet this talk, I think at a picture of some plastic compost area before the winter. The work was done by Pilar bags, when I ask the audience to use sustainable Perez of JAF Limited using a RTK-GPS system garden compost – and abandon the hated peat. which is accurate to 20mm. It is now planned to start There was just time to think, „Gosh, this garden club in the late autumn with the blocking of several land is going to be really hard to shift!‟ when it hit me.... drains and the creation of two control points to like a policeman‟s cosh right on top of the head. For adjust the water levels. all of a nano-second it seemed an incensed peat Paul Tarling, bag enthusiast had sneaked up behind to get Warden, Crook of Baldoon revenge, then the comforting sound of crashing metal revealed nothing more sinister than the RSPB Members‟ Group screen deciding to collapse on top MERSEHEAD RSPB RESERVE of the speaker. BREEDING BIRDS 2011 UPDATE Water levels on the reserve were held higher than Just a regular afternoon in the life of an RSPB usual in spring to combat the trend of dry springs on volunteer speaker? Not quite, but as you will see the Solway in recent years, which turned out to be from what follows, it does have its moments. Several the right decision to benefit our breeding wildfowl years ago, when our past group leader Robert and waders, as April in particular was hot and dry. Greenshields and I volunteered to take part in a programme of community talks then funded in After a gap of a year, a pair of pintail returned Scotland by the lottery I don‟t think either of us to breed and other scarce breeding duck included realised what was in front of us. a couple of pairs of both wigeon and gadwall, but we are unsure if the pair of garganey seen on the Our training involved numerous very jolly soup and wetland until late May actually had a breeding cheese lunches chez Robert together with our attempt. Mersehead continues to be a haven for RSPB Scotland mentor, who varied over the years breeding shelduck (9 pairs), mallard (57 pairs), teal but was always enthusiastic and helpful. Coaching (11 pairs) and shoveler (5 pairs) and we also had a involved not just how to use the equipment but also pair of mute swan, 2 pairs of Canada geese and a how to recruit members and, more alarmingly, what pair of tufted duck. you did with them when you signed them up, the various forms and appropriate packages of freebies It was good to see a slight increase in lapwing for their membership category. numbers with 32 pairs present, and the redshank saltmarsh survey produced 9 pairs. Other breeding Several years down the line I have to confess that if waders included 4 pairs of ringed plover, 19 pairs of I were to judge myself on my signing up rate I would snipe and 5 pairs of curlew. simply have to fall on my electronic pointer and commit hari-kiri. Total RSPB members signed up – Stars of the show this year were undoubtedly our nil. Quite a few ££s raised though and I hope more first successful tree sparrow pair breeding attempt, than a few people who will do something in their with at least five juveniles seen mainly around gardens for wildlife. the Visitor Centre bird feeding station in June. It was an excellent season for breeding warblers on site Gremlins with record pairs of grasshopper warbler (3), sedge What sadistic geek thought up the Powerpoint, warbler (72), lesser whitethroat (3), whitethroat (41), laptop, data projector ensemble as a substitute for blackcap (3), garden warbler (3) and chiffchaff (9). the trusty slide show? I refuse to believe that this is Reed warbler territories remained the same as last the best solution global technology can produce. year with 8 in total. Just think how many Powerpoint shows you have been to which suffered technical hitches or even Other highlights included two pairs of little grebe, complete failure? Compare that with the good old three pairs of water rail, single pairs of both barn Kodak slide show, the worst you could do was drop and tawny owl, five pairs of sand martin, a pair of the carousel and put everything in back to front – rock pipit, 14 pairs of yellowhammer and 52 pairs of and only you would notice the difference! reed bunting. Right from the beginning it was clear that the group Dave Fairlamb, data projector and laptop have at best an uneasy Manager, Mersehead relationship with each other. Clearly, you have to switch them on in the right sequence, but even then After 22 years at Mersehead, on 1st September gremlins can suddenly pounce and communication Dave will be taking up his new post as Centre between the machines, perfect half an hour earlier Manager at WWT - we wish him all when you practised at home, can have been the very best! 6 suddenly severed by travelling to the talk venue. A to sorts of hanging dishes with see-through complex crib-notes-in-hand procedure is required adjustable height upturned saucer-shaped covers. before they will speak again. The remote control This is so that the robins, blackbirds etc which you pointer is ever more grouchy...... want to feed can see what‟s in there for them and the poor crows which can‟t fit underneath can get ...... and then there is the „keystone effect‟. I won‟t really stressed out. We have a rectangular trouble you with the science behind this because, a adjustable lid over our bird table which the crows bit like the workings of the internal combustion seem to manage to push round and still get into the engine, someone explained it to me once, I grasped food – you have to admire them! Actually one friend it then, and have permanently forgotten it since. It‟s has had considerable success with a homemade enough for you to know that the keystone effect chicken wire screen. makes the picture look all slanty instead of a nice rectangle. The simple answer of course, is to make More unusual was the listener who was seriously the picture just slightly larger than the screen so that concerned about the cob swan from a nearby pond. the little pointy bits you don‟t want stick out over the It hung around her door and she believed it thought side and no-one notices them. Once in a while she was its mate. She was concerned for other disaster strikes, usually in the form of a person from people‟s safety as the swan behaved very the host committee, who spots the problem before possessively and was quite aggressive towards you have had time to disguise it: “Ah! I see the key- anyone who approached her. Robert Greenshields – stone effect needs adjustment,” or some such thing ever the retired schoolmaster – wondered if the he bellows and leaps on the projector controls in swan might possibly be Zeus. I took a more prosaic spite of my feeble protests. That‟s the end of any line and suggested she stopped feeding it, but was hope of starting remotely on time; you can fiddle met with probably a stronger reaction than if I had with the adjuster for hours without making any suggested she stopped feeding her real husband. noticeable difference. Our own Brian Nolan has a A horrified: “Oh! I couldn‟t possibly do that”. Funny magic touch and the keystone adjuster positively how attached people get to their garden birds. purrs with co-operation when he approaches it! The most delinquent avians so far were windscreen Speaker beware wiper shredding crows. Beware of leaving your car Next there is the honour of judging the host club‟s unattended in the Southwick area – I think that‟s weekly competition which is traditionally bestowed where it was. The vandal crows apparently used the on the speaker. Frankly this scares the hell out of victim‟s car as a sort of corvid amusement park, me. “What‟s the competition?” I find myself sliding down the windscreen, reducing wiper blades nervously asking the Anyvillage SWRI secretary, to shreds and pecking at the rubber seal. The sort of hoping to hear it is perhaps the best woolly cactus or thing you hear of parrots doing in New Zealand. possibly tropical fish. Anything which will guarantee I tried not to sound too sceptical and, once again a poor entry resulting in say, one resplendent spiny taking the practical approach, I suggested garaging plant which could be straight from the Mojave Desert the car. opposed only by a shrivelled greenish blob in a pot. No competitor for the judge to offend here. Come to One very early summer morning a few months later think of it the potential to offend is presumably why our local crows made far more noise than usual the guest speaker is asked to judge in the first place. outside our bedroom window where the car is When people have sweated for hours to produce the usually parked. Much cawing and thumping. „best savoury sauce‟, it‟s just not fair that they I thought nothing of it till a day or two later when should fall victim to the fact that I don‟t like curry I turned on the wipers to drive through a shower. very much. Poor participants but, unlike the screen, I know crows are intelligent, but vindictive? none have tried to hit me over the head yet. Good gremlins Problem birds It became rapidly obvious that audiences are so The pitfalls awaiting the gardening for wildlife varied that my Gardening for Wildlife was not so speaker may be great and certainly none of our much one talk as an almost limitless variety of training prepared us for the variety of questions we different presentations. You can‟t give a 40 minute would encounter. There seems to be no limit to the lecture to five people in a small room, so it becomes avian problems people experience; you are thrust more of a cosy two-way chat with pictures. into the role of a sort of wildlife agony aunt. Recently, at one venue, club proceedings were By far the most frequently asked question is how to so drawn out that my slot finally became cut to keep crows and gulls off feeders. In the interests of 15 minutes with no opportunity to tinker around and forestalling the question at future gigs I can now remove some slides. I was pondering how to show advise there are currently dozens of different bird 40 pictures in quarter of an hour without sounding catalogue products with a „chose who dines‟ or breathless, when the hated projector gremlins similar strap line. These range from squirrel baffles surprisingly came to the rescue by sending the

7 laptop into some sort of deep standby mode, not to be roused by any of the usual commands. It is quite WILDLIFE ART EXHIBITION simple to get through the script without pictures in The Sulwath Centre 15 minutes. Gremlins, all is forgiven. Mersehead RSPB Reserve 15th- 30th October 2011 The real stars of the show have been the audiences, 10am – 5pm unfailingly kind, helpful, welcoming and attentive and proffering enough cakes to make you put on Private View for many pounds, they have made travelling about with RSPB Galloway Local Group Members „Gardening for Wildlife‟ a delight. Friday 14th October 7.30pm

Come to think of it, without Robert we really could do with another speaker.... any takers? This newsletter is your invitation to the Private View

Pam Pumphrey of the Wildlife Art Exhibition, organised by the RSPB

Galloway Local Group and to be staged in the

NTS THREAVE OSPREYS: As many of you know, Sulwath Centre, Mersehead Nature Reserve on the th the Threave ospreys evening of the 14 October.

returned to the same

nest this year and This is a great opportunity to enjoy the work of

successfully reared Dumfries and Galloway‟s wildlife artists coming

two chicks, ringed together to raise funds for and support the

on 6 July: BTO ring conservation work of the RSPB. The participating

1408267 Darvic ring artists include Brian Arneill, Keith Brown, Paul

JE, and BTO ring Collin, Frances Godfrey, Ray Hawley, Lisa Hooper,

1408268 Darvic ring Brian Hurst, Dennis McCallum and John Threlfall.

JF.

Due to enhanced This is the major fund raising event of the year for

publicity, many more the Group. To this end we ask you to support the

people were aware exhibition in every possible way, by offering to

of the ospreys and display posters, offering to „staff‟ the event, visiting

came to view them the exhibition and taking friends along with you, and

from the platform letting as many people know about it as you can.

beside the River Dee

- on the nest via a In addition to the main exhibits there will be books,

telescope, or flying prints and cards to purchase and the chance to win

nearby. There was an original painting. We hope this exhibition will be

usually a volunteer one we can be proud of and one to interest anyone

on hand to offer with an interest in the wonders of the natural world. Photos: Karl Munday information and to answer any questions. The response from the hundreds of visitors, young and old, from UK or abroad, appears to have been very positive. Let‟s RSPB GALLOWAY LOCAL GROUP WEBSITE hope the adult birds return to breed next year! AND NEWSLETTER

Stephanie Dewhurst You can find the website direct at: http://www.rspb.org.uk/groups/galloway/

If you would like to write up a walk which is good for birdwatching to put on the website, or contribute any other material to the website or to the next issue of the newsletter, please send it to:

Stephanie Dewhurst Meikle Knox Cottage Castle Douglas, DG7 1NS. Tel: 01556 502736

Email: [email protected]

Deadline for contributions to the next Newsletter - Susan McKellar and Brian Nolan (camouflaged as a 1st February 2012 blue tit) collecting for ‘Love Nature Week’ at Tesco, Castle Douglas in March 2011

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