Bird Watching in south west Scotland ...
This area has always been a favourite area for birdwatching. The best birdwatching in this part of Wigtownshire is along the rocky coastline and across the mudflats and saltmarches of Wigtown Bay. The moorland areas around Mochrum Loch can also be worth a visit.
Local well-used bird watching sites include;-
- Luce Bay Shore Road – Cock Inn to Monreith Pebble beach, scrub Stonechat, Common and Lesser Whitethroat, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Curlew, Cormorant, Gannets and Terns offshore. Large finch flocks on strand line in winter
- Burrow Head and St Ninian’s Cave coastal cliffs and shingle, maritime heath and low scrub Black Guillemot, Shag, Fulmar, Peregrine, Raven, Twite
- Garlieston and Gruggleton Bays rocky shore and broad-leaved woodland Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Redshank, occasional Greenshank, Black Guillemot and Shag on Gruggleton Cliffs.
- Wigtown Bay LNR Saltmarsh, mudflats and sandflats. Freshwater wetland The largest LNR in Britain with the largest area of saltmarch and mudflats on the Outer Solway. SSSI. Candidate SPA and Ramsar Site. Internationally important for wintering of Pink-footed Geese and nationally important for Pintail, Whooper Swan and Curlew. Breeding waders, ducks and terns.
A visit to Wigtown County Buildings Camera Room will let you view the recently returned Ospreys and their chicks. This is the first pair of Ospreys in Galloway for over 100 years.
Slightly further away but still worth the visit are :-
- Wood of Cree - In spring, the wood is alive with birdsong as the resident birds are joined by Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers and Garden Warblers from Africa.
- Mull of Galloway - The most southerly point in Scotland. The cliffs are home to thousands of breeding seabirds including Guillemots, Razorbills and a few Puffins. Best time for nesting seabirds - April to July.
- Ken–Dee Marshes - Both wetland and woodland attracting winter wildfowl including Greenland white-fronted Geese. During the spring migrant Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers join the resident woodland birds.
- Mersehead – An exciting new reserve of farmland, wet meadows, salt marsh and mudflats. An important wintering wildfowl area including Barnacle Geese, Pink Footed Geese, Widgeon and Pintail.
- Papy Ha Bird Trail - Choice of 3.5 or 5 mile trails in Galloway Forest Park attracting birds from park & garden, woodland, farmland, heath land, mountain & moorland, marsh, loch, river and estuary. You may expect to see over 100 species in the course of a year.