Wild Autumn Homecoming
Celebrate a spectacular wildlife homecoming at the Dumfries & Galloway Wild Autumn Festival
Wildlife experts in Dumfries & Galloway are looking forward to one of Scotland’s most spectacular wildlife homecomings. Welcoming tens of thousands of geese, swans, ducks and wading birds to their winter home on the Solway Firth this October. Our feathered friends will return and create one of the most impressive wildlife spectacles due to their sheer numbers and swooping patterns in the skies
Many thousands of geese mainly, Barnacle, Pinkfooted, Greylag and White-fronted as well as Wildfowl and Waders, including Wigeon, Pintail, Golden Plover and Dunlin choose to fly to the Solway each autumn and make it their winter home. The Solway is one of the top estuaries in Britain for numbers of wintering birds.
And to celebrate Homecoming Scotland 2014, the region’s Wild Autumn Festival (taking place from 11 October to 2 November) is offering three weeks of events, many free and hosted by countryside experts, for families and wildlife fans with opportunities to see the region’s wildlife and enjoy the stunning landscape.
Peter Norman, Biodiversity Officer at Dumfries & Galloway Council said: ““The great thing about Dumfries and Galloway’s wildlife is that there’s something to see all the year round. Just as our summer residents are departing, thousands of geese, ducks and wading birds arrive at their winter home; their massed flights provide a spectacular sight. But our resident species are also worth seeking out, from weird and wonderful fungi in autumnal woods to roaring red deer stags in the Galloway Hills. ”
The views across the Wigtown Bay to Cairnsmore of Fleet and the Galloway Hills are especially dramatic in the autumnal light and the ancient woodlands create a real spectacle of autumn colour.
Festival events take place across Dumfries & Galloway and the designated Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere, which recognizes the outstanding natural environment and the way in which the local community works to conserve it and is home to the Galloway Forest’s Dark Sky Park.
For further information about the festival visit www.wildseasons.co.uk
