By Mark Zygadlo
At ten o’clock on a damp Saturday morning, Antoine and I set off to the foot of the Glenmidge Burn where it issues into the Nith. It has been raining for the last few days and the water levels are high. The milky tan water surges over most of the island and backs up the burn almost as far as the culvert under the main road. We retrieve a camera from a tree at the burn side noticing that the debris left by the flood last winter is a good six feet above where the camera was attached. A shocking perspective. A week before, a camera had been submerged in the rising water of a pond and though the memory was intact (mostly deer), the camera itself was not. We don’t want to lose another.
As soon as we think about the WeBS job in hand, a pair of kingfishers flash past us heading upstream and then another, possibly one of the pair, heads back again. Two minutes later, a goosander paddles out of its overhanging cover and, very cleverly, keeps a large tree in the line of sight between us as we approach. We haven’t even made a hundred yards yet.
A brilliant start but it’s another half mile before Antoine sees a dipper. The rest of the walk, another three miles perhaps, despite lots of birdsong through the woods and a woodpecker near Dardarroch, yields nothing more for WeBS. Never mind, we can’t complain. Although the ground is sodden, the rain stays off and, as always, a walk up the burn has a therapeutic effect, complemented by a nice cup of tea after the trudge up the last hill.
WeBS is a national survey which individuals or organisation can help with. It’s a monthly check on the same area for wetland birds only and the data is shared with the British Trust for Ornithology.
https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/wetland-bird-survey
We plan to cover two stretches of the Glenmidge Burn so, anyone interested to help the project, contact Antoine and we can arrange a rota.
The Glenmidge Burn Project 