A Week in Wester Ross

 We've had a quiet start to the birding year, we've had so much on! However we managed to get away for a week and booked a cottage in Aultbea overlooking the sea.

Most of the birding was pretty distant, with very little coming near the shore apart from a pair of Red breasted Mergansers.

Around Aultbea we did find quite a few birds though, but getting some decent photos proved difficult, although this Common Gull posed nicely

as did a few Lapwing.

We visited Poolewe a few times and made use of the hide at the National Trust Inverewe estate, although the windows don't open fully and they were filthy!

Anyway, we did manage a few sightings, over our visits; Grey Heron,

Cormorant,

Buzzard,

and Curlew.

We were delighted to see an Otter as dusk set in, again not close, but for the record:

We did a lot of mooching about exploring various roads, this wasn't in a Glen but definitely a Monarch:

I'll wrap this up now with a few more photos while we were out and about:

Godwits,

Ringed Plover

and snow on the Mountains after Storm Eowyn.

It's been a while!

 Well it's been a very busy summer with one thing and another, so there's been very little time for birding as such. We have been away a few times but not on birding trips. 

We had a spectacular 10 days in Switzerland and we did see some birds on our travels, notably a Nutcracker and Alpine Swift from a cable car near Zermatt and Alpine Chough at Jungfraujoch:

Otherwise plenty of Red Kites seen from the car plus plenty of common UK species.

Back on our home patch we have managed a couple of walks recently, firstly Seafield (Kirkcaldy), this is a favourite walk and one which we have neglected, so it was great to get back there.

Nothing out of the ordinary on a very dull day, but here are a few photos:

There were 3 Wheatear on the sea wall,

Some Redshank,

Ringed Plover,

Cormorants,

plenty of Seals on the rocks just past the tower.

and a Kestrel on the hunt.

Also  seen were Twite, a solitary Curlew, Eider, Sandwich Tern, Purple Sandpiper, distant Gannets, a Fulmar, a Merganser and plenty of Gulls

 

We followed that up with a walk at Portmoak Moss a couple of days later, the highlight was a Spotted Flycatcher who was to quick for a photo and a Red Squirrel way up in one of the conifers munching on cones:

Otherwise plenty of birds about, but all too shy for any photos; Bullfinch, Great Tit, Siskin, Chaffinch, Wren, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, a mass of Swallows by the small car park and a distant Kestrel perched on a tree in the peat bog.

We are off to the Isle of Bute soon so hopefully I might have something to post after that.

TTFN

Fife Ness Again!

 We took another drive up to Fife Ness last week in the hope of seeing some of the rarer birds that had blown in (Red-flanked Blue tail, Black redstart, Richard's Pipit etc.) We actually found none of them!!

Never mind, we still had a lovely time, doing a bit of sea watching, although that was quiet too!

Se here's a few photo's from some things we did see;

A Rock Pipit (one of four) on a rock!

Surfing Seals,

Plenty of Eider passing through,

Some Brent Geese (our first of the year!) 

Oystercatchers of course,

and quite a few Curlew about

Plus Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Cormorant.

Also seen were Red-throated Diver, Goosander, Shag and Gannet.

Usual small birds around the old airfield plus some Grey Partridge in one of the fields. Lovely Day!

Fife Ness

 Catching up again! This is a brief post with some pics from our visit to Fife Ness and The Fife Bird Club hide there (we are members!)

As you can see this is predominantly a sea watching hide, the "Bird Traffic" is fabulous and on occasions pretty close in, so most are easily identifiable. Plus some good photo opportunities!

And a few more Gannet shots:

Where Did January Go!

 I know January isn't quite finished yet, but I won't get chance to do another post this month, as we are off to the Highlands for a week, so what have we been up to?

We have kept it fairly local. We have made two attempts to find a Smew, the female at Bathgate and the male at Cameron Reservoir, we failed both times, no sign of them when we went, although both have been reported since! Never mind.

Elsewhere we have gone down to the Forth (Kinghorn) a few times after sightings of  Whales have been reported and of course, nothing about when we were there!

On the plus side it was our first visit to Cameron Reservoir since we moved up and it certainly looks a good place to return to. We have made our first visit to out local loch, Lochore, which is always great. I have started a thread for Lochore Meadows on the birds forum with the intent of updating it regularly, that's the plan anyway.

So here are a few pics for January......

Whooper Swans by Cameron Reservoir,

Pink-footed Geese over Cameron Reservoir,

Dunlin, Turnstone, Redshank and Oystercatcher at Musselburgh (Fisherrow Harbour),

Redshank at Fisherrow,

Turnstones at Fisherrow,

Turnstone at Fisherrow,

Curlew and Lapwing at Musselburgh Lagoons,

Lapwing and a Shoveler in the background at the Lagoons,

Curlew at the Lagoons,

A Parcel load of Oystercatchers!

A few Black-headed Gulls and a couple of Shelduck at the back.

Oystercatchers at Pittenweem

and some Cormorant too.

Goosander at Bathgate, but where's the Smew!

TTFN.