As the weather was still glorious we decided to go for a walk for the Wild Project today and see what we could see - but where to go? We finally decided on Barstobrick Visitor Centre where we have seen lots of wildlife on previous visits.
Barstobrick is set in tranquil and attractive surroundings at Ringford near Castle Douglas. It has been developed with both people and wildlife in mind and several ponds have been excavated.
There are several easy, short walks around the ponds, which are wheelchair friendly and way marked.
One start to the walks is through the willow arch.
There is a more difficult walk to Neilson's Monument, which was erected in 1833 to commemorate the life of James Beaumont Neilson - an inventor whose hot blast process helped improve the practice of smelting iron. We did not do this walk today.
Fishing is offered at the ponds and Barstobrick also has an Equestrian Centre where they offer Riding for the Disabled.There is rich grassland all around the centre, much of which provides pasture for the horses.
The ponds today were so clear we could see the thousands of tadpoles swimming around.
Other highlights - of which we have no photos unfortunately - were buzzards and red kites soaring through the sky. There were also hundreds of smaller birds zipping backwards and forwards from tree to tree, singing as loud as they could. Our list today included willow warbler, wren, blackbird, reed bunting, swallow, whitethroat, chaffinch, chiffchaff, skylark and we even heard a cuckoo!
Butterflies and moths were flitting about but rarely sitting down. We wondered if the late flowering of many plants is causing them problems?
Damselflies and dragonflies were zooming over the ponds - also not really wanting their photograph taken!!
To finish I will add a few photos of the more co-operative specimens.........
A really good end to the walk around the ponds is a cup of tea at the onsight café -
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