Muckle Toon Adventure Festival May 17th, 18th and 19th 2013

The Making the Most of Moorlands Project has been heavily involved in the Muckle Toon Adventure Festival (MTAF) this weekend. We have had a project stand in the kids zone with art activities, owl pellet dissection and a wildilfe quiz activity, stream dipping  in the Esk river and a guided walk on the Sunday. Despite some awful weather it has been a great weekend and we have  A huge thank you to everyone who helped out with our project activities, couldn't have done it without you.

 

Here are some photos from the weekend:

May 2013

We've been holding our breath again this year to see if any Hen Harriers would return to the moor. It has been a very exciting few weeks .. click on any of these images to see them enlarged..

 This was a juvenile female marsh harrier which flew across the hill on passage north, a very unusual sighting at Langholm.

 Two male Harriers have been wowing us with their superb skydancing.. right over our heads.. just breathtaking.

 Some great sightings of female harriers too.. fingers crossed will they stay and breed?

 The local grey herons have been making the most of the wet areas of the moor and surrounding scrub and grassland to hunt amphibians.

 The male harriers showing off their incredible twists and turns.. it is not until you see a photograph that you truly appreciate the incredible ways in which they move... upside down, flying loops.. the hen harrier is an incredible bird.

 Migrants back in the woods and on the moor. Lovely to hear the song of the whinchat, piedflycatcher and redstart again.. signs of nest building in our moorland nest boxes, one redstart on 5 eggs already.

 The Hariers were displaying right over our heads...

many thanks to John Wright for these photographs.

Spring 2013 ?

9th April and it is still feeling decidedly wintery. We have been enjoying a few days of sunshine, but there is still very cold wind blowing. The moorland dawn chorus is building with Lapwing, Curlew, Skylark,  Meadow Pipit and Red Grouse calls fillign the air. There are still good numbers of winoter visitors around - such as Brambling but the first summer migrants have been spotted this week - Swallow and Wheatear.

The wind dropped enough over the weekend to do some bird ringing at the moorland bird feeding station and a good variety of birds were caught. (Many thanks to Tom Hutton for these photos).

 Project volunteer and Langholm Initiative Vice-Chairman demonstrating how to hold a Siskin safely in the 'ringer's grip'.

 Project Manager Cat Barlow explaining the rigning process to a group of volunteers and langholm locals.

 Project volunteers Tom Hutton, Sandy Gill and Gavin Graham enjoyinga sit down at the moorland bird feeding station.

 Brambling, Lesser Redpoll, Siskin and Blue tit were among the species caught.

Once extracted from the mist net, birds are placed into a cloth bag to help keep them calm and quiet until they can be ringed and released. Ringers use specialist kit such as these pliers to safely put the metal ring on the bird's leg. We record data such as the age and sex of the bird and  biometrics including weight/wing length. 

Check out Sandy Gill's blog  http://mrgill17.blogspot.co.uk/   for some more photos of the stunning Tarras river valley which runs through the heart of Langholm moor.

28th March

A few of Tom Hutton's latest shots from the moor.

 The view from the southern end of the moor across the border into England.

An excellent flight shot of a female chaffinch.

 A handsome pair of pheasants.

  It has been snowing regularly here at Langholm but not much of the snow is settling, Tinnis Hill has just a sprinkling.

The secret is out, the pheasants have worked out how to reach the bird table, time to move it I think.

27th March

It is not feeling very spring-like on Langholm moor with freezing temperatures and regular snow showers. The moorland bird feeding station is as busy as ever. The new ground feeder (built by volunteer Daniel Lacey) is proving very popular with Brambling. These photos are a great opportunity to practise your Chaffinch / Brambling ID.  Chaffinch and Brambling often move in mixed flocks and feed together and can sometimes be difficult to distinguish. these photographs show male and female Brambling and Chaffinch feeding side by side, can you identify them?

Many thanks to John Wright for these photos.

14th March 2013

Project volunteers Tom Hutton and Sandy Gill have been making the most of a few bright, sunny days to take some great shots on langholm moor. Many thanks guys!

Check out Tom's blog for more photos ( http://tootlepedal.wordpress.com/)

Check out Sandy's blog for more photos http://mrgill17.blogspot.co.uk/

A fresh covering of snow on the moor is a reminder the winter weather is not finished with us just yet, and the feeding station still has plenty of winter visitors, especially Brambling. Skylark, Lapwing, Curlew, Reed bunting and Common lizard sightings becoming more regular. The Black Grouse are back on their leks and it is nice to hear the Red Grouse chuckling away too.