I've been coming to Elshieshields near Lochmaben in South-West Scotland for the past fifteen years. During this time there have been obvious changes to birdlife in its 20 acres of mixed woodland on the banks of the river Ae. 15 years ago nuthatches were just establishing themselves in Scotland; now they are common here, encouraged by global warming and more bird feeding (left), without which cold weather such as this might have killed them in the past. On the debit side, ten years ago the fields around here resounded with the bubbling of curlews in spring; last year I heard only one, briefly. Their breeding habitat has been drained, and the few corners left are easily found and worked over by predators. Lapwings are going the same way.
How about the more distant past? I look up Lochmaben in the Scottish Statistical Accounts; in 1845 the local minister Thomas Marjoribanks lists birds in his parish. Many are still here, sometimes under different names: white owl (our barn owl), water-ouzel (our dipper-'most destructive to the salmon fry'), golden-crested wren (goldcrest), willow or silver-wren (willow warbler and chiffchaff, lumped together as one species), white and yellow (pied and grey) wagtails. Three species Marjoribanks specifically ascribes to Elshieshields, 'missel-thrush', 'long-tailed titmouse' and jay, are still on site. Like me Marjoribanks enjoyed locating local rarities- I too have found quail, but not butcher-bird (red-backed shrike). Finches are lumped together as 'various species of linnet'; life was hard without binoculars.
How about the more distant past? I look up Lochmaben in the Scottish Statistical Accounts; in 1845 the local minister Thomas Marjoribanks lists birds in his parish. Many are still here, sometimes under different names: white owl (our barn owl), water-ouzel (our dipper-'most destructive to the salmon fry'), golden-crested wren (goldcrest), willow or silver-wren (willow warbler and chiffchaff, lumped together as one species), white and yellow (pied and grey) wagtails. Three species Marjoribanks specifically ascribes to Elshieshields, 'missel-thrush', 'long-tailed titmouse' and jay, are still on site. Like me Marjoribanks enjoyed locating local rarities- I too have found quail, but not butcher-bird (red-backed shrike). Finches are lumped together as 'various species of linnet'; life was hard without binoculars.
The landscape was different then; in 1845 stone-chats were 'in great abundance on the Lochmaben Moors', and both black-cock and red grouse bred within a mile of town; goat-suckers (nightjars) were frequently seen. These moorland birds are long gone along with the moors. The parish church used to be thatched with dried heather; now hardly any heather grows in the parish. Marshland birds have also decreased; snipe are still here in winter but no longer 'particularly common'; water-rail was 'abundant about the outlets from the lakes', now they are rare.
To fill the gap between Marjoribanks's time and mine I visit the Gladstones at Capernoch. Robert's grandfather Hugh was a bird obsessive, who kept lists of everything he saw and wrote a number of books, including the encyclopedic Birds of Dumfriesshire (1910). He also collected what is said to be the largest private collection of British bird books (right), kept intact by his grandson. I browse and learn that bitterns were common round Lochmaben in the 18th century; they are mentioned by Robert Burns, but must have become extinct by Marjoribanks' time, as he doesn’t mention them. Interestingly a few have been seen recently -perhaps they will recolonize. Our local speciality the willow tit was not identified as a British species until 1897, and a Scottish one until the 1910s; Marjoribanks would have called them marsh tits, a bird now thought never to have occurred in Dumfriesshire. I find a reference to curlews around Lochmaben in the 1790s, saying they were nesting in every field until recent agricultural improvements. Gladstone says that the alarm calls of the 'whaups' alerted persecuted 17th century Covenanters to the approach of troops.
The evocative calls of large flocks of whooper swans (right) and pink-footed geese (below) are a characteristic part of Lochmaben's winter landscape. It is tempting to think this is a shared acoustic experience that has been going on for centuries. I am surprised to learn from Gladstone that in 1845 most wild swans here were Bewick's rather than whoopers, and most wild geese were bean geese rather than pinkfeet. Bewick's swans are now rarely seen in South West Scotland, and bean geese are a rare species in the UK, but these must have been the 'wild swans and goose' Marjoribanks knew, with subtly different calls filling the air.
What birds will be here in 2100?
What birds will be here in 2100?
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