It’s like gatecrashing a Bruegel every morning at Fairy Hill at the moment, and even with sunrise at 7.30am there is autumnal activity in the fields, rooks on the treetops, brown hares by the stone wall, the farmer on his quad and my nearest neighbour chopping wood. Sadly, the fine-looking but hapless young Aberdeen Angus bull is showing no inclination to mate with the females for a second season and is likely to be relegated. Small parties of migrant fieldfares and redwings are feasting on the worms, brought to the surface by the trampling of the 200 Holstein milkers, while the resident green woodpecker or “yaffle” laughs his way “doon the brae”.
But at this time of year it is overhead where the real action is, and just now several hundred noisy barnacle geese flew over on their way from Svalbard in the Arctic Circle to the Solway wetlands. When the stragglers arrive, their number will reach 30,000, the majority overwintering along the coast at WWT Caerlaverock.
On my trip to the vast Caerlaverock there were also a small number of dark-bellied brent geese down from Russia, pink-footed geese, and large flocks of lapwings and curlews. Over the high tide were huge numbers of dunlins and knots, forming a speedy but low-level murmuration.
As if things couldn’t get any better, I heard on the grapevine that there were two snow geese at RSPB Mereshead – also near the coast of the Solway Firth – where the mix of tidal and freshwater brine is a beacon for all manner of wildlife, including otters. The pure white geese stood out like, well, snow geese on a salt marsh. Just beautiful.
Back at the croft, my excitement is immediately tempered by the bleak reality that the resident family of roe deer here, which I’ve been watching closely for a year, have been shot. Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow comes to mind. There is of course a need for controlling deer in some areas because of the damage they can cause, and I have venison in my freezer, but these were my Fairy Hill companions, and all the woods are fenced to keep out the Holsteins. They bothered no one.
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