Birdwatching

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The area with its diverse natural environment of coastal cliffs, sandy beaches, tidal estuaries, mud flats, lochs, forests, moors and hills, is home to very rich bird life. The bays of Balcary, Auchencairn and Orchardton, in the immediate proximity of Long Cottage, play host to ducks and waders – oyster catchers may be seen together with knot, ringed-plover, dunlin, red-shank and bar-tailed godwit. The spectacular cliff walk from Long Cottage is home to nesting birds, an area free from predators other than peregrines. The nearby hills of Bengairn and Screel are home to curlew, red grouse, buzzard and raven. Inland, the area is also rich in harrier, barn owl, kestrel and merlin.

 

Each season is special in its own way. By mid-winter, the area with its abundance of wetlands is alive with waders and wildfowl.  The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Caerlaverock and nearby R.S.P.B’s Mersehead is visited by thousands of barnacle geese from Spitzbergen – you might also spot pintail, teal, wigeon, pochard, shoveler, mallard and the occasional American teal. By  spring, the woods, forest and uplands are home to an abundance of visitors – the warblers, swallows, chats and cuckoos. You can also find colonies of seabirds along the immediate cliff walks: guillemots, razorbills, cormorants, fulmars, gulls – and occasionally the black guillemot, tystie or tern. By mid-summer you can find recently fledged finches, tits, thrushes and amongst others.

 

A hide has been built at nearby Torr Point where birds of Orchardton Bay can be viewed in comfort: www.auchencairn.org.uk

 

A red kite breeding programme has led to the Red Kite Trail:

Galloway red kite trail