Red Squirrel Outing by Nicola Macintyre 19/03/09

                                                               (Photo by N. Tait)

On the bright and sunny morning of Sunday 19th April 8 members of the Society made their way down to Drumlanrig Country Park to look for the beautiful but now unfortunately endangered red squirrel.

Drumlanrig Castle is home to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry and is surrounded by 120,000 acres of formal gardens, estate land and country park.  Situated in Dumfries and Galloway it lies in one of the last strongholds for red squirrels in Britain and it is estimated that Scotland as a whole supports three quarters of the entire 160,000 UK red squirrel population, a frighteningly small number when compared to the estimated 3 million grey squirrels thought to be living in Britain today. It is now 133 years since the American grey squirrel was introduced to Britain, but this non-native species has certainly had an impact on the reds.  Competition for food resources and the introduction of the squirrel pox virus, which greys carry and are rarely harmed by but which is fatal to reds with them usually dying within 15 days of contracting the virus, has resulted in population extinctions throughout most of England and Wales and the central belt of Scotland.

Drumlanrig boasts a good population of reds and encourages these cheeky characters to a specially constructed feeding station where their antics can be watched via a wildlife camera recording images into the visitor centre. However, the first record of the day on the estate was provided by the ever-singing Nuthatch. The first one was heard at the carpark, however it soon became apparent that this species could be heard throughout the park.

The group was lucky enough to get two sightings of red squirrel. One at the bird hide where feeders had been put up to attract a number of woodland bird species and the other at the specially constructed squirrel feeder which the group was able to find after having seen it on the ‘Squirrel-cam’ in the visitor centre, although it took a while to see a squirrel at the feeder as while we were intently watching the feeder a squirrel was sitting up a tree behind us watching us.

Of course the other highlight of the day was the Nuthatch which we were able to see quite closely although briefly when one society member played an electronic version of its call at the bird hide which attracted a rather disgruntled individual down to check us out.

(Photo by N. Tait)

All in all it was a good day with fantastic weather and a number of wildlife sightings:
Red Squirrel
Orange tip butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Grey Heron
Buzzard
Pheasant
Oystercatcher
Lapwing
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Tawny Owl (heard)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (heard)
Swallow
Meadow Pipit
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Mistle Thrush
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Willow Warbler
Goldcrest
Pied Flycatcher
Long-tailed Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Nuthatch
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion Crow
Raven (heard)
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Siskin