So the end of January has come and gone and we managed to get away for a few days up to Braemar, although I wasn't feeling great (still not! A stinker of a cold or whatever that seems to be going on forever, at least it's not Covid! Tested for that.)

Anyway despite some high winds and at time torrential rain we did get out to some of our old haunts. We started with the Linn of Dee, where we were treated to some Red Deer grazing not far off the road:

But with the torrential rain not a bird was seen! We drove on down to the car park at the Linn of Quoich and stopped for a coffee, the low and behold the rain suddenly stopped and a juvenile Golden Eagle flew over us and circled over the woods on the opposite side of the Dee, before disappearing. I didn't attempt a photo as it took us by surprise and we concentrated on watching, before we lost it.

After that we drove back up to Braemar and explored the Old Military Road that follows Clunie Water up to Glenshee. This gave us a Dipper sheltering out of the wind:

Not very close, but our first Dipper of the year.

Next day we drove through Ballater and parked at Glen Muick (pronounced Mick, but we call it Muck 😂) The wind was fierce and very cold, we nearly abandoned our walk down to the Loch. 

Again no wildlife was seen on our walk to the boathouse, although we did hear some Grouse.

From the boathouse we carried on on the circular walk, starting the homeward leg, where we spotted some more sheltering Red Deer:

The only other wildlife seen were some Bullfinches and a Buzzard passing through.

Next day we drove over to Loch Garten, specifically for Crested Tits, but for the first time ever in the winter they let us down! Just loads of Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

We popped over to Milton Loch in Boat of Garten, where there's a hide, so we could sit for a bit and have lunch. Not much going on just a Goldeneye, Mute Swan and Mallard. Also the feeders by the hide were empty, so no woodland birds or Red Squirrel that we had seen on previous visits.

We did get a bonus though, there were some ripples in the water to the left of the hide, we thought it must be a Mallard under the overhanging bushes, but then this popped out:

A Dipper very pleased with that!

So finally we headed home on the Saturday, stopping at Glenshee in case there were any Snow Buntings about, sadly not, but we did see lots of distant Mountain Hare:

There is another post to come on the way to Braemar we did drop into RSPB Loch Kinnordy, so I'll do that another day.

First Visit to Loch of the Lowes

 Having joined the Scottish Wildlife Trust we took ourselves off to Loch of the Lowes, just a 45 minute drive from us.

I have to say we were very impressed with the whole set up and the friendliness of the volunteers. Access to the hides (2) is great with great views of the Osprey nest on the opposite shore of the Loch. Each hide have good quality scopes, so there was no need for me to have lugged ours from the car! SO we had a great views of both Osprey coming and going from the nest, bringing back new nesting materials. Both hides also have TVs showing the nest cam, so an all round great experience.

So apart from the Ospreys it was pretty quiet on the Loch itself with Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Black-headed Gull and a couple of Buzzards putting in an appearance.

The feeders viewed from the visitor centre were very entertaining:

The Great Spotted Woodpeckers 

and the Nuthatch being the highlights

With a good supporting cast of Chaffinch

Great Tits,

and Coal Tit.

Of course there were Blue Tits, Robin, Crows, Pigeon and Blackbird. Finally as we walked back to teh car a Jay put in appearance.

A great place with many more visits to come I'm sure!

This is February! Starting at Kinghorn Loch.

 We have threatened for ages to spend more time at Kinghorn Loch and get the code for the bird hide that's there so last week we finally did it. As usual the past few times we've been out it was a bit overcast and with the great Kingfisher views we had I could really have done with a bit more light, but you can't have everything!

So here's a few Kingfisher photos, plus a few other bits and bobs from the hide:

The others; Little Grebe,

Great Tit,

Coal Tit,

Robin,

Dunnock,

Long-tailed Tit

A bit of Birding on the Isle of Arran

 We have recently returned from a week on the Isle of Arran. We managed a few days birding, as we had other things planned and also the weather intervened. Also for the last bit there is a lack of photos as my camera started doing weird things and over exposing everything I took. I have been on to Nikon support but they can't come up with a reason why it's doing what it is, so they want me to send the camera in!

Anyway here are the edited highlights; I'm going to start with a Red Squirrel fest at Brodick Castle, there were at least five seen from the Squirrel hide:

A few birds seen there too:

Robin,

Chaffinch,

Siskin,

Pheasant

and Coal Tit

as well as Blue and Great Tits of course.

We saw Male Hen Harriers on a number of occasions, one even flewpast the back garden of the cottage we were staying in, didn't have the camera handy for that one, but did get some shots up on 'the String'

Elsewhere, there were lots of Ringed Plover about,

nesting Common Gulls,

Herons,

Herring Gulls,

Black Guillemots,

Song Thrush,

a Whimbrel,

Oystercatchers,

Turnstone,

Nesting Oystrercatchers,

Common Gull again,

and Rock Pipit.

We saw loads more but by now my Camera had packed up completely. Our first distant Cuckoos of the year, Wheatear, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipits, Swallows, House Martin, Red-breasted Merganser, Shelduck, Eider, Common Sandpiper and Hooded Crow, plus all the other garden birds of course.