Red Squrrels, Osprey and a catch up!

 We have been really busy the last few weeks with decorating, some friends coming to stay and recovering from our trip to New York.

Firstly the trip to New York and Niagara wasn't a birding trip, so no binoculars or long lens on the camera, but we did add 11 new species to our bird list! Which was very nice.

Since then we haven't been got out much, we did manage a couple of hours at Portmoak Moss near Scotlandwell, where we heard loads of birds, but saw very few. The only one to trouble the camera was this Buzzard;

We took our friends Wendy & Tim to Loch of the Lowes while the were here, we had good views of the two Ospreys, fingers crossed they are successful this year and raise a chick to maturity. 🤞

We started though with a nice Red Squirrel sighting on the short woodland walk before going to the visitor centre.

Disappointingly all off the seed feeders had been removed from by the picture window in the visitor centre as they had seen evidence of Trichomonosis, so they had been removed  to hopefully restrict the spread of the disease.

Being a Sunday, which we normally avoid, the reserve was busy and the hides were full with photographers who had set up camp in the hope of getting good shots of the Ospreys. Perhaps on a weekend the SWT should think about time limiting access to the hides. 😏

When we eventually got into a hide later in the day  it was pretty quiet, with Great crested grebe and Goldeneye showing well.

The Osprey weren't very active, so I took a shot of one on the nest, obviously even with the 500mm lens, it's still pretty distant.

On the way home we popped into the RSPB Loch Leven reserve, just to check for more Red Squirrels in the woodland and we were lucky again.

A lovely day, oh and we had some Roe Deer at Loch Leven too....

That'll do!

RSPB Loch Leven

 We took an afternoon out at Loch Leven last week as the sun was shining!

It was a great afternoon, with plenty seen. But all the birds were staying a fair distance away.. The Great Egret was miles away, but a Little Egret was a little closer:

The pool at the far hide was pretty quiet, well I say quiet, the Black-headed Gulls were making a racket as they vied for the best nesting spots and called out for mates.

The Teal must have had ear plugs in!

Away from the wetlands and in the wood, we came across our first Bullfinches of the year;

But the highlight has to be a very obliging Red Squirrel;

Anyways here's our full bird list for the visit:

Teal, Goldeneye, Mallard, Shelduck, Lapwing, Redshank, Curlew, Pink-footed Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Little Egret, Black-headed Gull, Woodpigeon, Moorhen, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Wren, Carrion Crow, Raven, Tufted Duck, Magpie, Dunnock, Great Crested Grebe, Pheasant, Oystercatcher.

On the Hunt for Dolphins

 We took ourselves up to Cromarty for a couple of days last week, stopping just outside Inverness for the night, tp give us a couple of chances to see dolphins at Chanonry Point on the Black Isle. We arrived at about 1.30pm to coincide with a local dolphin watch that we had seen on Facebook. The westher was brilliant calm and sunny, so not too cold.

However our luck was out, we stayed for about 3 hours, so then had a drive up to Cromarty and Udale Bay before checking in to out travelodge.

Next day we packed up and did the previous day in reverse, before driving home. So Udale Bay and the RSPB hide for a bit. Firstly a single Pink-footed goose form the previous day

A curlew posed nicely,

There were plenty of Gulls, Herring, Common and Black-headed

and lots of Teal.

as well as Redshank, Shelduck, Wigeon, Lapwing, Crow and Hooded Crow.

But now back to Chanonry Point....success!!

A few Photos from a trip to the Cairngorms

 We spent a couple of weeks recently up in the highlands, staying at Ballater and then near Loch Garten.

I'll start with a few pictures of Red Deer at Glen Muick. The weather was pretty poor wile we stayed at Ballater so the phot opportunities were few and far between, but these deer were quite accommodating.

After Ballater we moved on over the Lecht and stayed in a  lodge near Loch Garten. We had only been in the lodge an hour when along with the Coal Tits, Blue Tits and Great Tits a Crested Tit put in an appearance, we were over the moon!

The feeders outside our lodge were brilliant, in addition to the tits, we had Goldfinch, 

Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, Rook, 

Woodpigeon, loads of Treecreepers, 

and these Great Spotted Woodpeckers;

We had more Crested Tit sightings down at the RSPB centre at Loch Garten,

Not forgetting the abundant friendly Coal Tits of course,

Elsewhere we popped into Nethy Bridge for a walk along the River Nethy looking for Dippers and were successful!

Back at the lodges Red Squirrel were frequent visitors

Finally we went out with Speyside Wildlife, to their private hide in the hope of seeing Pine Marten.

All in all a great trip, In addition to the photos, we managed Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Red Kite, Kestrel, Buzzard, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Teal, Whooper Swan, Mute Swan, Hooded Crow, Heron, Siskin, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Wren. In fact when crossing 'The Moors' at Findorn Valley, we had the White Tailed Eagle, Red Kite and Buzzard all together, but not enjoying each others company!

Looking forward to our next trip wherever that may be.