Back in Scotland! Fife Ness

 We managed a day out last week to Fife Ness, Lobster Rolls were on the menu from the Lobster Hut at Crail, which we took down to the hide at Fife Ness for Lunch. Lovely it was too!

We did also pop into Kilminning NR and had a coffee there, where this Yellowhammer sang distantly:

there were some lovely Orchids about,

and a lovely Whitethroat added to the chorus,

Down at the hide, we had a lovely time eating our Lobster and watching the Gannets wheel by over the waves:

Other than the Gannet, there were plenty of Eider and Cormorant about. With a few Sandwich Terns, Guillemot and very distant Razorbill putting in an appearance.

Our next trip will be a double, Orkney and Shetland. So lets hope all the migrants that are popping up there at the moment stay put!

Crail & Fife Ness

 What can I say! It's been a while since the last post, it's just we are so busy getting out (and of course that's the beauty of living up here!) and about, there doesn't seem much time to sort photos out and then do the blog. So here we go with a bit of a catch up again.

We had a great day out at Crail and Fife Ness.

Crail beach and harbour....

Fife Ness,

Cormorants,

Lesser Black-backed Gulls,

Gannet,

Oystercatchers 

and Goosander.

In addition, Curlew, Shelduck, Guillemot, Razorbill, Fulmar and Kittiwake were seen as well as the common gulls. We popped to Kilminning NR as we left and added Linnet, Yellowhammer, Whitethroat and Meadow Pipit. A good day!

Fife Ness

 We paid a visit to Crail and Fife Ness a couple of weeks ago, distant views were had of a Manx Shearwater and passage Common Scoter. But these at least came close for a few photos:

In addition to the Gannets and Oystercatchers, there were Goosander, Cormorant, Shag, Eider, Fulmar, Curlew, Sandwich Tern, Arctic Tern & Common Tern

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:

The Rest of Our Time in Caithness

To conclude our time in Caithness I'll start with what we saw from our cottage in Huna;

Dunlin,

Turnstone,

Mixed flocks of Turnstone, Dunlin & Ringed Plover,

Oystercatcher,

Grey Seals & Eider,

Herring Gull & Eider,

Pied Wagtail,

Goldfinch,

House Sparrow,

Great Skua (Bonxie)

Grey Seal,

Starling,

Always more Seals,

and Shelduck.

We also went for a great walk in Dunnet Forest, but the weather was shall we say 'wet' and we didn't see a lot.

A favourite pop in spot was Dwarwick Pier on Dunnet Bay. This was great for Divers, Black Guillemot and Gannet. Although with the weather being very dull most of the time and the birds being distant the photography was difficult;

Gannets!

Wheatear,

Diver

Gannet

Great Northern Diver,

Red-throated Diver

That about wraps it up for Caithness although we did manage a foray into Sutherland, where we saw our first Cuckoo of the year:

Another highlight while exploring the back roads was a male Hen Harrier on the B870 heading north towards Thurso. So a total of 79 Species for the trip. Respectable!