Country Diary

This autumn and now into winter there has been none using my garden and others in the area have been having the same experience. However, it is not that the birds are missing as there are reports of good numbers in the forestry areas spending time on cones. The cone crop this year has been excellent and the birds have seen no need to move out. There has been the odd bird in my local patch giving away their present by their call. However, I came across 24 last week feeding on alder cones in the trees above the Carrywiel Pool.

At the SOC discussion group last week the results from the first season of monitoring waterfowl on the region’s pond and lochs was presented. The Borders Region has a great number of water bodies, some being there for a long time and others being fairly new. Some of the new ponds are beginning to attract wetland birds and breeding taking place. Some of the ponds have been excavated out of old ones which have become swamped by vegetation leaving no open water whilst others are completely new.

Some of the ponds visited are tiny and not even on the maps and are often unnamed so names are allocated using the nearest named feature. The local bird recorder has been attempting to list sites and thought he had done a good job but observers are still coming up with new sites. One such site in the locality was named after the land owner who bought it. This was an old salmon hatchery at the top of the Whinney Brae and simply named Fairgrieve’s Pond after the purchaser. Fairgrieve’s Pond is quite overgrown but does attract wildfowl and in the summer a range of warblers which are often associated with damp areas. At Newstead a pond has appeared at the corner of a field by a roadside plantation on the east side of the village. This has provided a breeding site for Moorhen and a loafing area for Mallard. Some Grey Wagtails were also noted at this site. So this pond has been named for our purposes as Newstead Village Pond.

Near the pond at Whinney Brae there is what has become known as Holybush Farm Pond. This became established from a marsh and attracts a wide range of water birds. However, the estate put in another two ponds to the east of the farm, one of which has a small area of open water and has brought in Mallard, Moorhen and even a pair of Mute Swan. So, this one is referred to as Holybush East Pond. As it has been a marshy area for as long as I can remember it is possible that it does have a name on the farm map.

As there are a few hundred ponds along with the numerous larger lochs it is going to take another season to get a fuller picture on our breeding birds. Already it is showing that some birds have dropped considerably in numbers of breeding pairs and some disappeared completely. Pochard has become a rare bird in the region and the survey only brought returns from 4/5 sites. Something also appears to be affecting the success of some breeders. Tufted Ducks are showing a distinct trend in that males seem to predominate over females. There are a lot of unanswered questions at this stage but by continuing the project a clearer picture may emerge. Another fact that has become clear is the some of our wading birds that associate with ponds and the lochs have declined in numbers. However, inland breeding Shelduck have increased in numbers at various sites in the region. Some sites have proved difficult to assess as they are so overgrown round the edges that when an approach is made there is a good bit of disturbance and any water birds present will have sought cover until the observer leaves.

On my local patch Gunknowe Loch is a new pond created in the late 1970s and over the years has its own range of waterfowl. Mute Swans colonised it early on and after a while bred and have bred each year since but it is now the fourth pair to do so. The breeding birds are common birds in the region but the appearance of a pair of Pochard early in the breeding season was unusual but they only stayed a couple of days but nevertheless became part of the survey and feature in the results for 2014