This certainly beats my previous exploits at birdwatching, which have usually involved sitting in a hide, bored and freezing, waiting and waiting and waiting to see something, anything... WWT Caerlaverock is impressive. Set in an estuarian landscape facing the Lakeland fells and just up the coast from Caerlaverock Castle, a moated triangular medieval structure juxtaposed with a 17th-century manor, the wetlands comprises comfortable modern hides and lookout towers, and promises plenty of exciting sightings.
Having enjoyed watching the Barnacle geese from afar - they are shy creatures, and if you look directly at them they will fly off - we move on to the Whooper pond, where a wild swan feed is about to take place. I've never seen anything like it - the pond is a riot of whooper swans from Iceland, Canada geese, teals, tufted ducks, moorhens, mallards and widgeons - and, so I am told, we may even see egrets, otters, the extremely rare American widgeon and an elusive hen harrier. It is delightful watching the behaviour of the birds - the whoopers graceful and reserved, the tufted ducks dancing and diving, and the mallards charging for the fodder.
The guide tells us that although the birds arrive every day for their feed, they are wild, and any wrong move will scare them away. To end our visit, we climb the Farmhouse lookout tower and gaze across the landscape: the chattery chorus of the birds chimes across the perfectly flat wetlands towards the sea. A cluster of Barnacle geese flies overhead - it's a wonder they have the energy, I think, as I imagine them on their long long journey to arrive here.
