Ken Dee Marshes - Dumfries & Galloway 20.9.10

Today as the weather was reasonably fine we decided to try the Ken Dee Marshes RSPB reserve.  Shortly after we had turned off into the single track road which leads to the reserve we saw the outline of a Red Kite: a good sign.  The car park is small and secluded near to a farm.  We set out along the track to the hides.  There were several buzzards soaring intermittently being mobbed by crows.  We walked out to the geese observation platform where we saw another couple of Red Kites gliding – too far away to photograph though.  From here there was a good view of the surrounding area.

Ken Dee Marshes from Goose viewing platform

We continued on to the first hide – a rather new swish looking one with bird feeders placed conveniently to obtain good photographs of the small nut feeding birds.

Nuthatch on feeder

Great Tit

Great Tit

Nuthatch

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Coal Tit

Fungi

Even though this was a weekday the hide proved popular with around 8 to 10 people on average.

We continued to the second hide which is up quite a steep flight of steps.  In here we were informed that bats were roosting (out of sight): you could hear the constant scratching and squeaking as they moved around.  Nothing much to see from here though: there was another feeder placed conveniently for photographing but nothing terribly exciting landed on it!

By this time it was getting to around 2.30pm and we had left lunch in the car, so a brisk hike back before we expired of starvation!

As we had time to spare we drove on to Mersehead RSPB to check out what was there for a return visit one day, however, we didn’t manage to fit it in again.