We wanted to go to St John's Pool NR next to St John's Loch, this is a private NR, but found that due to Covid it was closed , but planning to open the Monday after we came back. However I contacted them and they kindly agreed to us going for an hour on the Friday before we came home. So many thanks to them for that, here are some of the photos, from what is an outstanding reserve.
On our trip up to Caithness we paid two visits to the Loch of Mey. This has a great hide overlooking the loch. It's an 800m walk from the road to the hide through a couple of gates at the start and some rather aggressive looking (but not!) sheep.
The walk to the hide can be muddy and rough, so wear suitable footwear! On the walk there were plenty of Skylark:
Again a long time since my last post, we have been away to Caithness for a week staying at Huna, just outside John O'Groats. Plus lots to do, had to go down to Birmingham for a few days and much to do at the house preparing for a new lawn, that has now been ordered.
So back to our week in Caithness, as I said, we stayed in Huna. In what was a cottage with a garden going down to the Pentland Firth, where we saw these beauties four days running:
On Wednesday after running a few errands in and around Kircaldy we went for a walk along the coast at Seafield. Bit different to running errands in Blackheath!
Birding wise though it was quite quiet, with a distinct lack of waders. Normally we see tons of Redshank, but not one this time, even the Oystercatcher numbers were low, we only saw four or five.
At our first coffee spot just passed the old sea wall, we scanned the rocks and sea, but the only things to see were the usual Gulls, Cormorant, a few Shag and Eider. Having said that a Wren popped up in exactly the same bush as our last visit:
Behind us there were plenty of House Sparrow, Pigeons, Crow and Starling. A couple of Starlings popped down to the beach for a bath:
The Gannet numbers fishing off shore have increased, it was great to watch, and as we got higher along the path past the tower the views were even better. We could also see Auks out on the water at some distance, but without the scope we couldn't identify for certain, but I'm sure there were a mix of Guillemot, Razorbill and even Puffins.
A few Sandwich Terns flew by, close enough to get good views through the bins. So far we had been very lucky with the weather, the rain was sweeping along the Forth and dumping on the Lothian Coast, but it was missing us out, so not wanting to push our luck we headed back and were lucky enough to spot a Whimbrel just by the tower:
This was our first for the year and takes us to 106 species so far. We are heading to the North Coast of Scotland this weekend for a week, for a three times postponed, due to Covid, holiday, so hopefully we will add to our tally. With Puffin, Skuas, Terns and many more besides.
So that will do for now. I will post something again when we get back.
Now that we live where we do we had a day out up in the East Cairngorms, we drove up to Braemar spending a fair amount of time stopping between Glenshee Ski Centre and Braemar, mainly looking for Hare and Dippers, of which we found neither!
What we did find:
A Stoat carrying 'lunch' I'm guessing it's a Leveret, but difficult to tell, but it was coming doen from the hillside where we normally see Mountain Hares.
 |
| Meadow pipit |
 |
| Common Sandpiper |
 |
| Meadow Pipit |
 |
| Wheatear |
 |
| Red Grouse |
 |
