Bog Myrtle & Peat

Home, Parish of Kirkgunzeon – 7/4/20

We’ve had swallows in Galloway, and the spring is opening fast. At dawn this morning, I heard willow warblers in the woodland, and a grasshopper warbler reeled trickily in his freshly recovered den. Small signs, but each one valued and marked beneath the trailing wracks of outbound geese.

But I am yet to see a wheatear, and that puts the spring in hiatus. Part of this absence is because the best place to find these birds is on the Chayne, and I am trying to keep away from there under government lockdown. But I often have two pairs at home, and it is a matter of time until I can watch them bobbing around in the yard and along the dykes below the farm.

Under normal circumstances, I would mark the discovery of the first wheatear of the year by shaving off my beard. Wheatears provide such a fantastic promise of change and coming warmth that this action is a vote of my confidence in them. But as it is, I remain bearded and I watch for the birds with a growing sense of impatience.