Pastures New at Loch leven

 Even though we have been here nearly two years, there are parts of Loch Leven that we haven't explored yet. (It's a big loch!!) This time we parked at the far end of the Kirkgate car park, then walked away from the park and Kinross, past Kirkgate point. We were told there's another hide/screen that way. It was a delightful walk and within 10 minutes we had seen a Red Squirrel and two Roe Deer. Then 5 or so minutes further we found the hide. It's a screen with a roof, although the few across the Loch is hampered by a tree on the left hand side. We had great views of Pink-footed geese, 

Pochard,

a solitary Goldeneye,

as well as Great Crested Grebe, Buzzard, Lapwing, Nute Swan of course, there are hundreds all year round on the loch, another Red Squirrel and Tufted Duck.

In all we had four separate Red Squirrel sightings, but they were all a bit skittish and I couldn't get a photo... next time!

Finally on the way back we saw a Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk having a bit of a barny.

A great recce for a new walk, perhaps we might explore a bit further next time, we'll see.

A bit of Sea Watching at Fife Ness

 Last week we went up to Fife Ness and spent some time in the Fife Bird Club hide near Crail. Usually we have the place to ourselves but on this occasion we shared the hide with 4 experienced sea watchers from the Bird Club. I'm not sure sea watching though is our thing, our sea bird identification skills are poor and although there were large numbers of birds on passage, I couldn't identify them moving that fast and that far out.

Not so for our hide partners, they were calling out all manner of birds as we sat and took it all in. Having said that with their direction we did manage to get eyes on a Sabines Gull and a Sooty Shearwater. Both of which were lifers for us. Other birds passing through, there were huge numbers of Kittiwakes;

The Kittiwakes were a bit closer, so I took a record shot! Others that flew by were; Little Gull, Common Scoter, Red-throated Diver and Manx Shearwater. The experts also saw Arctic and Great Skua but we didn't see those.

Apart from the passage birds there of course plenty of Gulls, Cormorant, Shag and Gannets about.

After leaving the hide we explored the nearby rocks;
Redshank & Turnstone,

Dunlin,

Oystercatcher & Curlew,

Shag,

Oystercatchers, Curlew and a Bar-tailed Godwit

and another Curlew:

It was a great afternoon out!

Loch Leven & Seafield

 Just a short post of a couple of, little sojourns out.

Firstly up to Burleigh Sands at Loch Leven, it was very quiet, nothing much on the scrape by the hide. Funnily though as we approached the hide three Nature Scot wardens arrived on a buggy with tool kits and I jokingly said they've come to demolish the hide, don't know why that popped in to my head, and when we got there, we said can we go in, they said OK, but were there to take the hide down! (To be replaced thankfully!) So we sat in there while they started taking the windows off!

Anyway as I said it was very quiet birdwise.

Just this Goosander

Dragonflies

and Gulls of course,

but the pink foots are arriving!

In the woods we were impressed by this fungi,

Then while we were on our favourite coffee bench, this lovely Treecreeper came to see us.

We also had a short walk at Seafield, where Redshank,

Oystercatchers,

and Ringed Plovers were seen

as well as all the usual Gulls.

A Quick Trip to the Isle of Bute

 We took ourselves off to the Isle of Bute for a few days towards the end of September and added it to our Scottish Island list. We loved that it is compact and takes no time to get anywhere and has some great bird watching spots. Of course probably not the best time of year to go but it was a good recce trip.

Having said that we did see a few things:

From a hide at Loch Fad, there were a few Mute Swans,

Dragonflies, I'm always trying to get a shot in flight and I think this is my best attempt so far.

(I think this is a male Emperor Dragonfly, but I'm happy to be corrected!)

A very obliging Buzzard,

plus lots of Goldfinches.

St Ninian's Bay was a great spot, we went there a couple of times, it was just such a beautiful place to be. With lots about;

Stonechat,

Curlew,

Merganser,

another Curlew,

Common Gull,

and Wheatear.

On the Salt Marshes at St Ninian's there were loads of Canada & Greylag Geese as well as Gulls and the odd Grey Heron.

Another great spot was Ettrick Bay (Great Cafe there as well, with some of the biggest cakes we've ever seen, so we had to try a couple!) Again Curlew, Gulls, Merganser plus some Sea Ducks too far out to identify even with the scope, but the hide looks a great place for winter birding.

So for two full days we 'only' managed 39 species, but the potential is huge at the right time. We'll certainly be going back, plus we found a great studio apartment with sea views only 5 minutes from the ferry.