Well, the clocks have changed, but nobody told the weather! British summertime arrived with the same covering of snow on the hills we’ve had for weeks and the wind remains doggedly in the east.
After dressing in several layers and packing a warming flask of coffee in my rucksack, I took off on Sunday for a lengthy wander round the Haining estate in Selkirk and the surrounding woodlands, to reconnoitre a route for a future guided walk.
Sadly, I had to leave behind my faithful companion, “Tibbie”, our Border collie, as she is getting a bit arthritic and her days of long treks are unfortunately over.
So far, no summer migrants have arrived, so I had to rely on our resident bird species to provide me with a list and it wasn’t long before I was into double figures.
After leaving the woodland on the top of Howden Hill, which was still under several inches of snow, I began to descend to lower ground to escape the biting wind, when I became aware of a tremendous din from the woodland bordering the pasture I was crossing.
The trees were full of literally hundreds of chattering birds.
They were mainly fieldfares, starlings and crows, which were still in their wintering flocks.
The latter two will soon break up into their breeding pairs, while the former will shortly be leaving us to return to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia.
It was near here that I came upon my first lambs of the season and what a sorry sight they were, hunched against the Siberian blasts, and surrounded by patches of snow.
In the middle of the field, a group of various crows were feeding, along with a pair of oystercatchers and a solitary lapwing.
Years ago, there would have been a whole flock of lapwings, but sadly we are now down to the odd one or two.
Passing a partly-frozen marshy area, I would have expected at this time of year to hear the croaking of hundreds of breeding frogs, but there was complete silence. It will have to be a lot warmer before they emerge.
Once at the Haining Loch it was good to see at least one spring harbinger in the form of the great crested grebes, which have once again returned to breed. They were in the company of a trio of cormorants, several tufted ducks, goldeneye, mallard and moorhen, all of which combined to bring my list for the outing to almost 30 species.
It was an enjoyable foray, but with a little warmth it could have been so much better.
Email: corbie@homecall.co.uk