Scotland - The Last Few Days

My last post about my recent Scotland trip is one covering a few days, and several different places.

The first place is a forest called Allean, near Queen's View in the Tay Forest Park. Jayne and I had a walk around this site for a couple of hours and recorded the usual suspects (tits, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeons), and a "year tick", Crossbill. Unfortunately, the only bird we saw was very distant, and silhouetted against the sky, so I wasn't able to see if it was a Common Crossbill or another, more exciting, species!! Afterwards, we went to Dunkeld for some delicious vegan food at The Atholl Arms Hotel, where we also saw our first Sand Martins of the trip, and a fly-over Jay.

Next stop was St Andrews on 25th April. We had a walk around the town and the old cathedral, and spotted about half a dozen nesting Fulmars, and 100+ Eider Ducks.

Fulmar

Our last trips of the week were to Cairn Gorm and the RSPB Loch Garten reserve. We visited Cairn Gorm yesterday morning. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great (windy, raining on and off, and a low mist!), but we did get great views of at least 4 Ring Ouzels, including this male in the car park, a Mountain Hare and a male Wheatear in the small garden area.

Ring Ouzel

Wheatear

We then visited RSPB Loch Garten. There are no breeding Ospreys there this year, but we did see a pair of Goldeneye, a couple of Red Squirrels, many (!) Siskins, but no Crested Tits!!

The last bird, and the latest "year tick", a Cuckoo,  was heard, by Jayne, at 5am this morning, from our accommodation in Killikrankie. Thankfully, she woke me up so I could hear it too!

Year List update:
157 - Crossbill
158 - Cuckoo

Loch Craignish and Oban

Whilst in Scotland, Jayne and I decided to drive over to the west coast. We first went to Loch Craignish, where we had a 2 hour boat trip with Craignish Cruises, seeing Hooded Crow, Black Guillemot (20+), and White-tailed Eagle. Here's a very heavily cropped photo of said Eagle.

White-tailed Eagle

Whilst out on the water we also visited a small colony of Harbour Seals.

Harbour Seal

Back in the marina we had good views of Hooded Crow, a pair of Red-breasted Merganser, Common, Herring and Black-headed Gulls, and what looked like a pair of Rock Dove. I haven't added them to the year list, as I can't be 100% sure they're pure Rock Dove, but they did look pretty good.

Rock Dove?

Later in the day we drove up to Oban, where we had lunch in The Little Potting Shed, vegetarian/vegan café, and also got great views of a rather scruffy looking Hooded Crow, and a much smarter looking Black Guillemot.

Hooded Crow

Black Guillemot

Year List update:
154 – Hooded Crow
155 – Black Guillemot
156 – White-tailed Eagle

22nd April 2019 - 5 Year Ticks

On Monday Jayne and I had a drive around and manged to get 5 new species for the year. The first two, Stonechat and Black-throated Diver, were seen at a loch near Carrbridge, along with 1 male Wheatear, Meadow Pipits, Oystercatchers, Mallard, Greylag Goose (2) and Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The divers put on a fantastic show, swimming to within 20ft of the car, where we were sitting, allowing some fantastic views of this full breeding plumage!

Black-throated Diver

The next stop of the day was the seaside town of Nairn on the Moray Firth, where we enjoyed the 22 degree heat and fantastic sunshine. We went looking for a King Eider, which we unfortunately, didn't get, but instead we enjoyed watching our first Sandwich Terns, Razorbills and Gannets feeding in the sea from the end of the pier.

Year list update:
149 – Stonechat
150 – Black-throated Diver
151 – Sandwich Tern
152 – Razorbill

153 – Gannet

Scotland 21st April 2019

On 21st, Jayne and I visited 3 new places in Scotland. First stop was The Hermitage near Dunkeld, where we walked through the woodland and recorded just a few species: Wren, Goldcrest, Siskin, Buzzard, Grey Wagtail, Dipper (entering a nest), Chaffinch, Blue, Great and Coal Tit.

In the afternoon, we visited The Explorers' Garden in Pitlochry, where we had very similar species, and a new one, Nuthatch, and a new species of insect, a Norwegian Wasp.

Norwegian Wasp

Our final stop of the day was the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of the Lowes reserve. This reserve has breeding Ospreys, which we were able to see from the hides and via  webcam. The female bird was seen incubating the eggs. Other birds seen were: Chaffinch, Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed Tit, Yellowhammer, Mute Swan, Mallard and Canada Goose.

We were also lucky to see a pair of Red Squirrels running around the trees near the feeding stations.

Red Squirrel

Year List update:
148 – Osprey

Scotland - 19th April 2019

Jayne and I are up in Scotland for a few days, and our first stop, on 19th, was Musselburgh Lagoons, near Edinburgh. We stopped off here to see if we could get a view of a pair of Surf Scoters, that had been recorded from the seawall. We got lucky, and managed good scope views of both the male and female birds - LIFER!!

Whilst there we also got excellent views of Common Scoter (10+), Velvet Scoter (50+), Long-tailed Duck (30+), Red-breasted Merganser (1 pair), Bar-tailed Godwit (c.50 on the lagoons), Oystercatcher (30+ on the lagoons), Ringed Plover (2 on the lagoons), Common Sandpiper (3 on the lagoons), Redshank (c.10 on lagoons) and 2 White Wagtails.

On arrival at our cottage in Killikrankie (20th), we spotted Raven (3), Buzzard (2+), and a Golden Eagle!! The eagle was a very nice surprise, as it's only my 2nd ever record, and my first, self-found bird. No photos unfortunately, but here's one of the Common Buzzards seen at the same time.

Common Buzzard

Year List update:
141 – Velvet Scoter
142 – Common Scoter
143 – SURF SCOTER
144 – Red-breasted Merganser
145 – Long-tailed Duck
146 – Common Sandpiper
147 – Golden Eagle

Half Term Birding- October 2017

Jayne and I have been away for a few days, visiting Pitlochry in Scotland, Musselburgh Lagoons near Edinburgh, Stag Rocks at Bamburgh, East Chevington Nature Reserve and St Mary's Island in Northumberland.

Our first stop this week was Pitlochry in Scotland, where we enjoyed 3 days. Whilst there we managed to catch up with some beautiful Red Squirrels on the Blair Atholl estate. We also visited the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch of Lowes reserve, where we saw many Goldeneye, Mallard, a couple of Mute Swans and many different woodland birds (Great, Blue and Coal Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Chaffinch). European Beavers are now resident here. We didn't see them on this visit, but there was evidence of their activity, with many half-felled trees.

After Pitlochry, we drove down to Northumberland via The Kelpies in Grangemouth and Musselburgh Lagoons near Edinburgh, where we found a Spotted Redshank (year tick).

Our first site in Northumberland was Budle Bay where we saw Shelduck, Redshank, Curlew, Mallard, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Wigeon, Teal, Black-headed, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.

Next stop was Stag Rocks at Bamburgh, where we had great views of Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Redshank, , Oystercatchers, Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers.

Purple Sandpiper

Yesterday's visits started with East Chevington NR. We visited this site to see a Shorelark (year tick) that had been reported on the beach at Chibburn Mouth. We got lucky, and found the bird after just 10 minutes (my first since 2003!!). Also present were c. 100 Twite.

Shorelark

Our last stop was St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay. The tide was out, as were the day trippers, so the birds were far and few between, but we did see 4 Ringed Plover, Lapwing (100+), Golden Plover (c.100), Turnstone, Redshank, Curlew, Black-headed and Herring Gull.

Curlew

Year List update:
192: Spotted Redshank
193: Shorelark

Scotland - Day 2

Yesterday was our second day in Scotland. We started very early, meeting up at RSPB Loch Garten at 5.30am, hoping to see our first Capercaille. Unfortunately, we "dipped", and no birds were seen during the organised event. We did, however, see dozens of Siskins, Chaffinches, the famous Ospreys (see blog here for details of this year's nest) and Coal Tits. Best of all though, was a beautiful Red Squirrel, that was sat outside the hide eating the birds' peanuts.

Red Squirrel

After missing out on the Capercaille (and Crested Tit!) at Loch Garten, we decided to head back up Cairn Gorm to see if there were any Black Grouse at the RSPB's viewpoint there. There weren't!!! Unfortunately, it was VERY windy when we got there, and there was no sign of any birds at all. Undeterred, we set off to the car park and found the flock of approximately 15 Snow Buntings feeding there again. We enjoyed watching them for about 20 minutes before heading back to the hotel for breakfast.

Our first stop after breakfast was a loch where we'd be informed breeding plumaged Black-throated Diver could be found. We found the loch easily and a diver was found straight away. It was too far away to photograph, but we had great views through the 'scope. We also saw an Osprey here, along with 3 Greylag Geese, 2 Mallards, a pair of Wigeon (possible breeders?), a pair of Oystercatchers and several Red Grouse, including this confiding individual that I was able to photograph from the car.

Red Grouse

Our next stop of the day was the RSPB's Loch Ruthven reserve. This reserve is well known as a reliable spot for breeding plumaged Slavonian Grebes, and we managed to see 4 birds from the public hide. Again, they didn't come close enough to photograph, but we watched them well through the 'scope. There were also 2 pairs of Little Grebes on eggs, a male Goosander and several singing Willow Warblers.

Willow Warbler (singing)

Year List update:

142 - Black-throated Diver

143 - Slavonian Grebe

Cairn Gorm

Jayne and I are up in Scotland for a few days, and, as the title suggests, we visited Cairn Gorm today. We went in search of Ptarmigan, but were out of luck. We did, however, manage to hear Red Grouse and see Meadow Pipts (!), a male Pied Wagtail and a super flock of 15 Snow Buntings. Four of the buntings landed close enough to get a few photos.

Snow Buntings in snow

After the visit to Cairn Gorm we drove down to RSPB Loch Garten where we popped into the centre to see the pair of breeding Ospreys. Both birds were on the nest when we arrived. We didn't see the other specialities, but we're heading back there tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

In the evening we had a short visit to the River Spey where we saw 2 Common Sandpipers, 2 pairs of Goldeneye , several singing Willow Warblers and a single Dipper.

Year List update:
136 – Red Grouse
137 – Common Sandpiper
138 – Redstart
139 – Snow Bunting
140 – Osprey
141 - Dipper