Castle Field Wetland

Today's the day …………………….. for a Local Nature Reserve

 We decided to celebrate our newly vaccinated status by taking a drive and going slightly further afield than we've been used to for the past few months. This is the view from Wigtown Harbour, to the south of the little town of Wigtown looking north eastwards over the vast expanse of Wigtown Bay Nature Reserve. That snow-covered hill in the far distance to the right is Cairnsmore of Fleet. 

Wigtown Bay LNR is the largest Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in Britain at just under 3000ha. It has two important rivers which bring fresh water into the Estuary - the River Cree and the River Bladnoch - and it is bounded by the Solway Firth to the south. There is an extensive area of mud and sand flats with saltmarsh to the east and west. This is an area of fresh water wetland that has been created to form an important habitat for freshwater invertebrates and amphibians.

 On this occasion we didn't stray far from the car - but there's a wealth of wildfowl to be seen - Pinkfoot, Greylag and Barnacle geese, ducks such as Pintail, Shoveler and Wigeon and waders including Curlew and Oystercatchers. 

We look forward to returning sometime soon ………………...