Bog Myrtle & Peat

Having criticised the law defending barnacle geese in a post on this blog last week, I decided to head down to WWT Caerlaverock this afternoon to take some accompanying photographs and to have a closer look at some wigeon and teal.

Caerlaverock is literally smothered in wildfowl at the moment. Within seconds of pulling up the car, an assortment of honks, quacks and whistles could be heard blasting through a thick screen of blackthorn designed to stop visitors getting any free looks at the ducks inside. I duly forked out the necessary £6.75 and took a seat in a hide overlooking one of the main ponds. It was alive with birds; tufted ducks, shovelers, canada geese, mallards, whooper swans and a cheerful supply of wigeon all churned up the muddy water with their pedalling toes. The vast majority have just come down from Russia, Scandinavia and the Arctic Circle to boost the handful of lazy birds who stay in Scotland every year.

When shooting wigeon on a morning flight and teal in the evening, it is sometimes quite difficult to get an idea of what the birds you are shooting at are like as individuals. By December, the estuary is so apocalyptically cold that you don’t want to be out on the water any longer than you absolutely have to be, and so it’s nice to have the chance to see the wigeon doing their thing before any shots are fired. The second pond I visited was smothered in teal, and I photographed them as the sun went down and the barnacle geese began to churn up and whirl into the evening from the fields all around. Winter has arrived on the Solway, and I think it’s safe to say that shooting can commence.