On to the Highlands

After spending Christmas and the New Year in Edinburgh we left for four nights in the Highlands/Cairngorms. We usually have a week up here later in the month or early February, but as we have book a week in Norfolk in February, we decided to tag a few days on while we were up in Scotland. Finding somewhere to stay was difficult believe it or not, with a few of our usual place closed for a post new year break and not opening again until the 6th.

So we found ourselves in Tomintoul in the Richmond Arms which we stayed in two years ago, we hoped that the promised refurbishments that were allegedly under way then would have been done, but it was just the same, with the same notices up in the rooms saying bear with us. So this is definitely the last time we will stay there, three strikes and your out! (We stayed back in 2014 as well)

Anyway Tomintoul is not a bad base for getting to various places, however we now had to cram in to 3 days what we would normally do in a week! So day one we went over to Loch Garten for Crested Tits and then down to RSPB Insh Marshes.
So at Garten were weren't disappointed:
A couple of Red Squirrel,

 Coal Tits in abundance,

 Crested Tits came in and out,

 plus a confiding Great Spotted Woodpecker.

 We also saw Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Treecreeper.

It's a fantastic place in the winter, although as it was still school holidays a few more people were about than usual. At least being a gloomy day we didn't get the inconsiderate photographers that cursed trhe place last year when we came, but on the flip side it made photography for me difficult.

We then drove down to and through Aviemore, via the small loch in the Boat of Garten village where only Mallard and a solitary male Goldeneye were seen.

One time driving through Aviemore we stumbled across Waxwing near the Ambulance Station, but not this time, so we carried on to Insh Marshes. The highlight being 13 Whooper Swans.

Apart from some distant Roe Deer and a Buzzard, we didn't add much to the list for the day. Having said that we had a lovely time in the lookout over the reserve, the big windows are great giving a fantastic overall view and it was great to be out the weather. The feeders just outside were always busy, nothing out of the ordinary, with the hoped for Siskins not showing, never mind.

Day two we drove the opposite direction for a bit of a walk at Loch Muick, the drive there took us over The Lecht were we normally see Snow Buntings, but the was driech as the say in Scotland and there was no sign, all we got initially was a solitary Red Grouse, you can see how the weather was from this:

Further in with the weather improving a little we came across a large gaggle of Red-legged Partridge, that were very skittish, but just got a quick photo before this one disappeared through a fence:

There were a ton of Pheasant around here too and a marauding Buzzard keeping them all on their toes.

At Loch Muick the weather wasn't too bad, so we went for a shorter walk than usual. We usually spend the day and do a long walk, but we wanted to fit a drive to Glenshee and a visit to Braemar in as well, so we cut it short. The feeders by the vsitor centre only produced Coal Tit, Chaffinch and a solitary Greenfinch, however the river did get us our first Dippers for 2020. No decent photos though.

The only other thing of note were the Red Deer:

From here as I said we drove up to Glenshee in the hope of Snow Buntings, but again with murky drizzly weather up the top nothing was seen, at least we made use of the facilities at the ski centre.

We stopped on the way back down and scanned the hillsides for Mountain Hare we were much luckier with this, although distant, they were clearly visible against the snowless slopes. We were also rewarded with another Dipper on the river. The day was finished witha drive along the Old Military Road into Braemar where we admired the Christmas lights  and again made use of the facilities.

Day 3 took us upto the Moray Firth starting at Lossiemouth, which we explored as we had never done this before, it was all worthwhile when offshore we saw our favourite ducks, a small group of Long-tailed, even managed a photo!

Tina and I were delighted, never got to see one last year. The estuary was then explored and a short walk was in order, seeing a Goosander flying through,

 lots of Gulls,

 Black-tailed Godwit,

and more Gulls,

also about were Redshank, Dunlin, Curlew, Teal, Oystercatcher, Little Grebe and loads of Wigeon. This is definitely a place that we will be returning to. Next stop Burghead..
This time a much closer view of Long-tailed ducks, a pair were in the harbour entrance:

Very pleased!

We late lunched on the other side of Burghead town, overlooking the sea, where a pair of Goldeneye, some Eider were seen and strangely a Grey Heron that seemed to fly in from out at sea. Some more coastal exploring was done around Burghead Bay and Findhorn, but the tide was way out and without a scope it was impossible to tell what was out there.

So that concludes our sojourn up to Scotland. Giving us a start of 56 species for 2020.

Lets see what Norfolk brings in a few weeks time, we are staying in Wells so hopefully the Rough-legged Buzzard will stay put and the elusive Snow Buntings will remain at Holkham.

Firth of Forth South Coast

We have just returned from a loooong weekend in Edinburgh, we were up for our daughters birthday, where much beer and wine was consumed! In between we managed a couple of short trips along the south coast of the firth calling in at a couple of our favourite spots.

Our first trip out after some errands took us to Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Aberlady. However before we arrived at Musselburgh Lagoons I realised that I had left my camera at our daughters place! Which was a shame as the sun was out and the birds were showing really well on the Lagoons, especially the Curlew Sandpiper, this was a first for us in the UK, but not a lifer, but it did edge our UK list up to 234, not too bad as we don't twitch.

I know there are some great birds about at the moment, but I don't fancy a 5 hour drive down to the tip of Cornwall to see the Brown Booby or Wilson's Petrel!! Anyway there are so many photos being posted on twitter, saying look at what I have seen and you haven't, it gets on my nerves! Sorry rantette over! (could be jealousy!)

Back to to Musselburgh..... in addition to the Sandpiper there were tons of Black-tailed Godwit, Sandwich Terns, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew and a some Greenshank, Lapwing and a couple of Ruff. There were Gulls of course, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring. A few Teal were wandering around too.. plus a couple of early Wigeon dropped in just before we left. The other great thing to see were the Gannet fishing just offshore always a delight.

We moved east to Prestonpans, seeing Eider and Red-breasted Merganser, which was nice, we also found a nice parking spot behind Lidl that gave us great views across to Edinburgh, the water and some shoreline, here we picked up a group of Turnstone to add to our list, as well as more Eider.

We then carried on to Aberlady, sadly we had got the tide wrong, so there wasn't much about other than a large number of Gadwall, Greylags and Canada Geese. Not a bad couple of hours.

On Monday we went out again, this time with the camera, but the weather was really dull and when we got to the hides at the lagoons, all the birds had decided to move as far away as possible! Species wise there was no sign of the Greenshank or Ruff, but the Curlew Sandpipers were still there. We did add some Shelduck and a Ringed Plover to our Tally though.

Then a visit from the RAF... that's what got the birds up!

We didn't have a lot of time, so we just popped up to Prestonpans again, where we added, to our surprise, a Wheatear to the tally.

A few Days on the Somerset Levels

So with being retired and a week free, we booked a last minute cottage down in Somerset near RSPB Ham Wall and all the other fantastic reserves down there. Our main focus was Ham Wall but we also visited RSPB Greylake, SWT Catcott and SWT Shapwick Heath, (SWT = Somerset Wildlife Trust)

We only had 3 full days and visited Ham Wall each day, the first day was just Ham Wall. The weather was kind to us in that we were always in a hide when it rained! We did start with a bit of a hiccup though, I left one of the food bags in the house before we set off, so instead of putting our feet up when we got there on the Monday afternoon, it was a quick shopping run to Lidl near Glastonbury. Mia Culpa!

So day one at Ham Wall...
Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Visitor Centre,

Sparrowhawk,

 Coot,

 Great Crested Grebe,

 Tufted Duck,

 Rain!!,

 Great Crested Grebe and Chicks in the rain!,

 Cormorant & Mallard having a dry out after the downpour!

 Lapwing,

 Crow,

 Glastonbury Tor,

 Great White Egret,

 Pochard and ducklings,

 Reed Warbler,

 Great Crested Grebe again!

 Gadwall,

 Garden Warbler

Of course more were seen with a glimpse of Cuckoo and Bittern to add but no decent pics.

Day 2 we popped to Catcott First before going to Ham Wall and were rewarded with some
Cattle Egrets,

 Whitethroat,

 Reed Warbler,

 Grey Heron and

 Willow Warbler.

 A Bittern and Goldcrest were seen too, but both were too quick and flighty for me to get a picture. Calcott is a lovely reserve, with great walks and good hides, well worth a visit. So after a couple of hours there we spent the rest of the day back at Ham Wall.
Marsh Harrier,

 Pterodactyl, I mean Grey Heron!

 Great Crested Grebelet!

 Cygnets,

 Marsh Harrier,

 angry Coot,

 Reed Warbler,

 a snapshot of a retreating Bittern,

 Canada Geese.

 Great Crested Grebe (again!!)

 Black-tailed Godwit,

So day three took us to RSPB Greylake firsst, it's been as few years since we last visited, and to be honest we were a bit disappointed. The fields in front of the hides were a bit overgrown, I remember watching Lapwings and some waders here, but not a sign this time, although we did see a Cetti's Warbler from the path.

The only other bird of note was a distant Marsh Harrier.

So we headed back to Ham Wall, but parked first at the opposite car park for Shapwick Heath and just had a shortish walk to the first tower hide, what we thought would be overlooking the muddy shores of the pool, but the water level was high and no mud, so no waders which was again disappointing! Having said that we did get a Bittern flying across,

in addition there were plenty of Damsel and Dragonflies about,
Blue Azure Damselfly,

 Black-tailed Skimmer? (not good at Dragonfly id!)

 Great White Egret,

 Marsh Harrier.

 Four Spotted Chaser,

 and ?

We stayed about an hour then went back over to Ham Wall for the rest of the afternoon.
?

 Marsh Harriers passing lunch

 Bittern fly by,

 Grey Heron

 and a Chinook to round off the day!

So that's a round up of three days in somerset, 60 species of bird in all.