Spent this afternoon in the Changue Forest, South Ayrshire. In spite of the mild weather, we had the place virtually to ourselves, meeting only 3 other people in over 3 hours. The main event of the day was a visit to the pond at Kirsties Stone, reputed to be home to a colony of Palmate Newts. Our visit co-incided with the spawning of dozens of Common Toads - the whole site was alive with pairs or individuals either preparing to spawn, in the act of doing so, or heading back into the forest having finished for another year. Many however were not so lucky with partially-eaten corpses strewn all over the area.
Managed close views of two newts. Also noticed some patches of frogspawn in addition to the masses of toadspawn there.
Other highlights were whole swathes of Butterbur along the banks of the Stinchar, a male Grey Wagtail singing its simple, 4-note song from the top of a young conifer, a Common Buzzard soaring over the head of the glen and a Goldcrest feeding in the bare branches of a roadside sapling. The drive back to Girvan was enriched by the sight of well-grown lambs running about under glorious blue skies. Later, there were Cowslips on the grass verge south of the Bankfield Roundabout.