This morning we set out to Threave
Castle which was built for Sir Archibald Douglas, known as 'Archibald the
Grim'. The Castle was just as grim
looking on the outside at least, known for being one with no decoration. This was combined with a Nature Reserve due to
its location. On the first half of the
walk we saw a couple of Red Kites before getting a little boat across the water
to the island on which the Castle was.
After looking around the Castle, we caught the boat back and continued
along the path to a platform on which there was a man with a scope focused on a
pair of breeding Osprey. Mum was in the
nest apparently keeping chicks warm whilst Dad was out fishing. We kept an eye on the nest as we continued
around but we never saw him return to the next whilst we were there. The rest of the walk had a couple of hides
which we went into to see if we could spot anything but we saw nothing except
ducks, geese and the occasional black headed gull.
Onward to
the Galloway Red Kite Trail on which we chose a walk to do. It was a short one on which there was a goose
observing platform and two hides. We
went into the hides but unfortunately didn't see a great deal other than the
black headed gulls which seemed to have colonised the place...! Still, we saw a male and female pheasent,
mallard, and on the feeders we saw nuthatch and a swoop of greater spotted
woodpecker although we didn't see it on a feeder or in a tree. Just in front of where we parked we saw some
Treecreepers which were so cute scuttling up and down the tree branches and
hanging upside down!
It doesn't sound like we did a
great deal today but we spent most our time in these two places, so after the
Red Kite Trail (on which we didn't see any Kites, but we saw quite a few on the
way to and from Threave Castle), we went back to Isle of Whithorn, stopping off
at Wigtown for a few bits to tide us over till Saturday.
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