Sunday 1st April
Ian and his son Robert picked me up at 4.00am and we started
the gruelling journey up to the centre of Scotland, picking up Liam Langley
from Manchester on the way. We arrived at our B&B at Skye of Curr mid
afternoon and decided to have a walk around the local woods to see what we
could find. We had limited success here (a pair of Goldeneyes on the river being the highlight) so drove over to
Anagach Woods near Grantown-on-Spey, almost immediately picked up a Crested Tit as
it called in the top of the pines near the car park! This was a lifer for all
of us and they were lovely… it would have just been nice if it was a little
lower and/or obliged us for just a minute longer! We heard a couple of crossbills going over but couldn’t do
anything with them. Dusk encroached and that was a wrap for the first day… not
a bad start considering the time we reached our lodgings. Nice dinner in the
local bistro.
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| Crested Tit |
Monday 2nd April
A bit of a lie in after the long day before, and breakfast
served with Siskins feeding inches away from the window (with little care for
our presence). Loch of Strathbeg was at the forefront of our minds, all of us
having a score to settle with Greater Yellowlegs, and we shot over there. A
singing Corn Bunting afforded great
views by the roadside on the way but, more importantly for me, a Hooded Crow wandered
around in a field en-route, at bloody last!!! A nice site with a good range of
habitats, and a reminder of wetland wilderness. Here we saw Tree Sparrows and Yellowhammers not far from the visitor centre. In fact, it was a
bit daunting when we entered the Tower Pool Hide and were presented with an
eye-full of water and wader-y edges. Our search produced four Ruff and a few Redshanks and there was no sign of our quarry for a little while
until I picked up the GREATER YELLOWLEGS on
a small muddy island, it flew, revealing its rump pattern and landed a little
further away but it at least gave us prolonged views there.
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| Hooded Crow |
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| Corn Bunting |
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| Greater Yellowlegs |
Having had our fill, we drove south to the Ythan Estuary. We
pulled up by a river at Peterhead on the way there to scan through a
promising-looking flock of gulls and I picked out a nice first-winter Iceland Gull. The estuary was quite an
experience, with the drake KING EIDER showing,
at one point, roughly 60 yards away while we where surrounded by the cooing of Eiders, the keericking of Sandwich Terns and the wailing of
hundreds of Common and Grey Seals. A true taste of early spring in coastal
Scotland. A couple of Red-breasted
Mergansers were also cool to see.
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| drake King Eider |
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| drake Eider |
The drive back home had us all worrying… perhaps Liam more
than anyone else. There were squeals of fright coming from my side as we
climbed steep roads with snow culminating all around us. We made it though! We
were wondering whether the conditions would frankly bugger the trip up though,
and I was already thinking about coming up again in May.
Tuesday 3rd April
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| male Siskin a few inches away from the dining room window |
A mix of denial and desperation woke us all up at silly
o’clock in the morning to look for lekking Black Grouse but one glance out of
the window decided for us that it was simply not going to happen. We hung about
for a while, not really knowing what to do, then went for a walk down to
Dulnain Bridge which was an instant success with a Dipper performing in the snow. It was so bad, though, that my
camera was actually focussing on the falling snowflakes rather than the bird!
We walked back for breakfast (seeing a couple of confused looking rabbits
sitting in the snow) after which the road had been driven on by a few
four-by-fours and it meant we had access to go elsewhere. Cairngorm seemed the
only place to go but the conditions were too poor to ascend for Ptarmigan.
Nevertheless, we a few Red Grouse showed well and this filled an
embarrassing gap in my list. They were great to watch and were really rather
neat – the female looked really nice.
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| male Red Grouse |
We weren’t sure whether the road to the Findhorn Valley
would be open but we gave it a shot and parked up near the private estate. At
first, things were quiet, with just a pair of Peregrines to keep us company but Liam soon picked up our first Golden Eagle
as it soared at one end of the valley. It was so striking that Ian even
dismissed it as a small plane and I agreed, it was only when it gave a couple
of shallow flaps that we realised it was a raptor. We were given quite a show
in the end by what was probably at least three birds, including two tasseling
with each other and skimming over the scree slopes at. It was a bit surreal
somehow, watching these huge, stiff and powerful shapes silently and
confidently soar over the silent and frosty valley, with herds of Red Deer on
the summits and a pair of Wheatears
almost as silently flicking about nearby. A long way back so that was it for
the day… not bad though! The drive back enlightened me to the true heights of
bad misidentifications when Liam exclaimed ‘Oh look a large raptor!!! Sorry no
it’s a house’.
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| first-winter Golden Eagle |
Also we popped in a quick visit to Loch Garten, where we
enjoyed displaying Red-breasted
Mergansers, a single redhead Goosander
and a few Goldeneyes.
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| Loch Garten |
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| displaying drake Red-breasted Mergansers |
Wednesday 4th April
With rather limited time left we felt we had to try for the
early morning grouse even in the bad conditions so we got up early again and
drove around the bend to Loch Garten RSPB. Looking out of windows into the
gloom at the Osprey centre, I wasn’t hopeful. It was pretty damn snowy and
cold. With dozens of eyes peering out of the windows (numbers considerably
boosted by a coach trip from the USA) and minutes passing I wasn’t getting any
more optimistic. Then, the guide announced that there was a male Caper on the
live camera screen and it was out in the area we were scanning! All eyes were
glued to the windows in anticipation and then the call went out… PANIC then
everyone including me had managed to see the beast of a male Capercaillie
strutting its stuff out on the bog. It was a couple of hundred metres off
but it was still impressive. I just wish one of the guides hadn’t announced to
the world that my scope was on the bird before I managed to get a record shot!!!
I couldn’t complain really, I was stunned we’d seen one when it looked like a
hopeless situation and none had actually been seen on any of the previous three
Caper watches so far this year.
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| the live screen at the Osprey Centre showing the male Capercaillie that I saw, just a few moments after connection (my scope being on the bird was announced to the world before I had a chance to take a record shot) |
We didn’t for a second think we had a chance as it was well
past dawn but we went to Tulloch Moor to fill the time before breakfast. To our
utter astonishment there was a male Black Grouse presenting
itself in a birch right in front of the viewing screen. Literally stunning!
This bird flew off but could be heard gurgling and was replaced by another,
even showier, male before we left. It was also here that I met ‘the other’
David Campbell… apparently the pagers get us mixed up.
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| male Black Grouse |
Breakfast, then time spent looking at crossbills in nearby Curr Woods, a five
minute walk from the digs and the best site we found by far. A couple of
promising birds were seen, photographed and recorded. Finally, a walk back to Loch Garten, where an Osprey showed well briefly.
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| Osprey |
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| Red Squirrel |
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| Siskin |
Thursday 5th April
Early morning and more crossbill searching around the
corner, again with a couple of good Scottish candidates recorded. Back for
breakfast as yet more bloody ruddy snow fell outside… grrr! Thankfully it
didn’t last too long and we were on the road to Bealach Na Ba where the ‘hairy
drive’ described hysterically in a Scottish Highlands guidebook was disappointingly
mundane. It was foggy when we got up there but we pressed on and after a couple
of hundred yards disturbed a beautiful pair of
Ptarmigans from by the path. They
ran a little distance and perched up on a rock before flying around the corner.
Amazing! Our luck seemed to be well in! The weather was tantalisingly
changeable and a run of clear bursts allowed us to pin down two males which
showed very well for a long time. Very satisfying – and we got away with not
climbing Cairgorm which looked dead long. A
Golden Plover was nice to hear there.
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| female Ptarmigan |
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| pair of Ptarmigans |
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| male Ptarmigan |
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| Bealach Na Ba |
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| left to right: me, Liam, Ian and Robert |
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| Common Buzzard |
Next, Kyle of Lochalsh. The road was closed. Ok, maybe our
luck was out at last. Actually, it didn’t turn out too badly, as the road was
due to open again at 4.10pm and we filled the spare hour with a light lunch at
a nearby tea room that was clearly enjoying the nearby activity. Fuelled with
scones, pancakes and other pleasantries we continued and parked up near the
tourist information centre. A bit of scanning about and a handful of
Black Guillemots gave themselves up on the water – yay, another of my
top targets found! They were very smart but sadly a little distant. We enjoyed
watching a pair of
Ravens commuting
between a nest site/larder and a discarded packet of chips and it was great to
get further views of
Hooded Crows
plus seeing a few
Guillemots and a
couple of
Rock Pipits. Back to the
B&B.
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| Black Guillemots |
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| Hooded Crow |
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| opportunistic Ravens |
Friday 6th
An early morning walk around Curr Woods found us perhaps the most conclusive male Scottish Crossbill of the trip. After breakfast we
embarked on a spur-of-the-moment expedition to see the White-billed Diver at
Portsoy. We found a small number of Great
Northern Divers distantly, and one looked like it could have been the bird
but we’d never have got a conclusive ID from the range that we were at.
Notwithstanding the fact that we’d just experienced our first dip of the
holiday, it was enjoyable with a good selection of seabirds including large
numbers of Long-tailed Ducks and a single Black Guillemot as well as a
handful of Fulmars, Gannets, Eiders and Common Scoters
etc plus a Rock Pipit around the
harbour.
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| male Scottish Crossbill |
Finally we got in the car and Ian pointed it firmly south. A
tiresomely long journey home was broken by a brief stop off at Glengavel Water,
Clyde, where the drake
BLUE-WINGED TEAL was
successfully connected with, even though it was asleep and/or obscured most of
the time! Still pretty smart and great to finally see one. Then home after a
top class tip with eleven lifers!!! That’s the highest rate of ticks I’ve had
in a week in probably a matter of years now, absolutely brilliant…! And we
thought the weather would ruin everything, I still can’t believe how well we
did.
Many thanks to Ian for all the driving, he has
some resilience! Liam and Robert were lovely company and it was a great
experience – thanks guys!
