I've been neglecting my blog lately, but a free Sunday afternoon has finally given me a chance to update it. June has been a barren month bird watching wise, only one addition to my year list with a common guillemot flying past the ferry as we neared Newhaven last weekend.
Friday 22nd - Thursday 26th May - Scotland (67 species - 152 for year)
However, the undoubted birding highlight recently was a trip to the Cairngorms in Scotland with my walking group. Although the main aim of the weekend was primarily walking, there was lots of opportunities to include some great birding, and I managed to add another twelve species to my year list.
Friday
Thursday was mainly a travelling day, but a stop at the renowned Inshriach Tea Rooms provided the first wildlife highlight. This is primarily a garden centre, but it has a great café and you sit facing out onto an impressive array of bird feeders. Coal tits and a great spotted woodpecker provided the birding highlights, but the star of the show finally made an appearance with this lovely red squirrel:
Saturday
Saturday was to be our main walking day with the plan being to start from the Cairngorm Ski Centre and see how far we got. Little did we realise, that this meant an ascent of Ben Macdhui, Scotland's second highest mountain.
As we set off from the car park, I soon picked up my first year tick with a close red grouse, that quickly flew away. Ad we climbed towards the corries and the plateau, I picked up a distant ptarmigan. However, any disappointment at the distant view was swept away with a succession of close up encounters of a bird that had previously proven difficult for me to see.
As we struck out for the summit, the going became rockier and there were several large snow fields to cross. The views from the summit were spectacular, and an added bonus were the large numbers of snow buntings flitting around the summit cairn.
As we descended, I caught sight of three low flying dotterel , a life tick for me. It got even better as we crossed the plateau and a pair flew in front of us and settled a short distance away. A great day.
Sunday
After the heights of the previous day, it was a more relaxed day today and a chance to explore the Caledonian pine forest around Loch Garten. Down by the loch, a spotted flycatcher was feeding and a redstart briefly alighted in a nearby tree. A flock of siskins noisily passed overhead, and as we pressed deeper into the woods a crested tit could be heard calling. Just before the car park, a goldcrest came down to head height to give great views.
Monday
Monday was spent in possibly one of my favourite places in the UK - the Findhorn Valley. There's always a frisson of excitement as you enter the valley and head up the dead end road. At our first stop, a common tern was fishing along the river, but a small group of visiting birdwatchers drew our attention to a lovely fishing dipper.
Towards the end of the valley we took a stroll up a hillside spotting a mountain hare and startling some feral goats.
Lunch was spent at the car park at the end of the valley where a very kindly guide from Aigas was able to point out a very distant golden eagle to us. We then headed over the spectacular Farr Road to drop into Loch Ruthen. The slavonian grebes were very distant compared to when we holidayed just up the road from here in 2013. A cuckoo could also be heard calling.
Tuesday
Our final day was a travel day, but we dropped into Loch Insh on the way back, where we were lucky to get good views of the pair of nesting osprey. This is a much better view of them, than you get at Loch Garten.
En route back to Edinburgh airport, there was still time for one final year tick with hooded crow in a field near Loch Leven.
