Scone Palace

Scone Palace was great afternoon out, despite the lack of benches on the estate,  our main reason for going was to see the Snowdrops, but also knew that there was a "Company" of Hawfinches (yes, that's the collective noun for them!) in the grounds and they didn't fail us, we saw four but up to 40 had been reported. They were staying very high in the trees though, this female posed in the sun;

while this male was awkwardly hiding behind branches;

The snowdrops were magnificent;

Going back to birds it was a good day, with a Treecreeper giving me a very shady photo opportunity;

There were loads of other birds, but no photos I'm afraid; Greenfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Song Thrush and a brilliant fly through, at a rate of knots, by a sparrow hawk with some poor creature in its talons, had no chance to see what it was though, probably a bird!

The grounds has resident domestic Peacocks and Peahens, it would be churlish not to photograph any of them so I chose this Leucistic Peacock.

Loch of the Lowes and Seafield (Kirkcaldy)

 We took a drive up to Dunkeld and the SWT Reserve at the Loch of the Lowes, bad planning though, we neglected to check if the visitor centre was open and it wasn't!! One hide was open though, so we spent some time in there, but also popping out to check the feeders from time to time.

It was a good job a hide was open because the weather was a lot worse than we expected, very drizzly! So as you can see the light was poor over the Loch, but the Wigeon didn't care,

neither did this Nuthatch,

or the Goldeneye.

Other highlights were Treecreeper and Great Spotted Woodpecker. Sadly the Red Squirrels we usually see there didn't put in an appearance.

A couple of days later we had some errands to run in Kirkcaldy, so went for a little walk along the sea at Seafield. The tide was way out, so all the birds were pretty distant and there was very little activity in the scrub on the other side of the path either. Having said that we were delighted to see three Long-tailed Ducks off shore always brilliant to see.

There were tons of Redshank about, these were a few of them catching the last bit of sun:

as was this Heron:

Other waders seen were Turnstone, some Purple Sandpiper, Oystercatcher, a couple of Black-tailed Godwit and a final flurry from some passing Curlew:

Finally on the way back to car this wild Rabbit posed nicely:

Lochore Meadows

 We finished January off with a walk down the Meadies. It was a lovely but very cold couple of hours. The highlights were some very busy Bullfinch;

A Great White Egret from the nature reserve hide:

and a couple of squabbling Treecreepers, this one won the bragging rights and stayed put:

Other birds of note were Long-tail

ed Tit,

a couple of Grey Heron

Goldeneye on the Loch,

and a Robin sunning itself:

Other birds seen or heard were, Cormorant, Teal, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Great Tit, Mistle Thrush, Wren, Magpie, Pied Wagtail, Jackdaw, Crow, Woodpigeon and Mute Swan.

Always a great time down the Meadies! (As long as we have coffee!)

A Week in Wester Ross

 We've had a quiet start to the birding year, we've had so much on! However we managed to get away for a week and booked a cottage in Aultbea overlooking the sea.

Most of the birding was pretty distant, with very little coming near the shore apart from a pair of Red breasted Mergansers.

Around Aultbea we did find quite a few birds though, but getting some decent photos proved difficult, although this Common Gull posed nicely

as did a few Lapwing.

We visited Poolewe a few times and made use of the hide at the National Trust Inverewe estate, although the windows don't open fully and they were filthy!

Anyway, we did manage a few sightings, over our visits; Grey Heron,

Cormorant,

Buzzard,

and Curlew.

We were delighted to see an Otter as dusk set in, again not close, but for the record:

We did a lot of mooching about exploring various roads, this wasn't in a Glen but definitely a Monarch:

I'll wrap this up now with a few more photos while we were out and about:

Godwits,

Ringed Plover

and snow on the Mountains after Storm Eowyn.

Loch of the Lowes

 We had a fabulous day yesterday at Loch of the Lowes, cold but bright. 

We seem to be blessed with Red Squirrel sightings at the moment, not that we are complaining!

All from the cosy warm the SWT visitor centre. 

From the visitor centre as well;

Obliging Nuthatch,

Female Mallard waiting for whatever falls from the bird feeders.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The loch was quiet though with lots of Goldeneye;

Wigeon

Plus plenty of Tufted Duck, a few Great Crested Grebe, Mallard and a very distant Goosander.

Some Greylag and Cormorant flew through and a solitary Canada Goose appeared from the Beaver channel briefly.

Apart from that we had a nice rainbow in the distance!