Squirrel Nutkin

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The weather forecast was better for today so we headed to Threave gardens near Castle Douglas.
We had a cup of hot chocolate in the cafe first and shared a piece of cake before exploring the grounds.
Our first stop was up the hill to the Squirrel hide. Unfortunately they have stopped putting food out in the last few days as there was a suspected case of Squirrel Pox. A deadly disease for the reds passed on by the greys.There’s a new project at the moment which is giving a contraceptive to the greys in their food which will hopefully stop them breeding.
We sat there for a while just incase on appeared or some birds and were lucky when this fellow showed up. Managed to grab a few shots and he looks healthy so fingers crossed.
We carried on our walk admiring the trees , leaves starting to change colour. Pleased to see a nuthatch tucking into some sunflower heads.
We were sitting in the walled garden when Mike read the news that the beautiful sycamore gap tree had been cut down. Hard to believe that someone would do that . I hope the catch who every it was. Felt really sad about it. We were lucky enough to see it a few years ago.
Back to the hotel for an early dinner.
I think I had the last salmon as we heard them say they had run out to the next people and it was only 6pm !