Loch of the Lowes

 We had a fabulous day yesterday at Loch of the Lowes, cold but bright. 

We seem to be blessed with Red Squirrel sightings at the moment, not that we are complaining!

All from the cosy warm the SWT visitor centre. 

From the visitor centre as well;

Obliging Nuthatch,

Female Mallard waiting for whatever falls from the bird feeders.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The loch was quiet though with lots of Goldeneye;

Wigeon

Plus plenty of Tufted Duck, a few Great Crested Grebe, Mallard and a very distant Goosander.

Some Greylag and Cormorant flew through and a solitary Canada Goose appeared from the Beaver channel briefly.

Apart from that we had a nice rainbow in the distance!

 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.

Loch of the Lowes (June)

 We also managed a day at Loch of the Lowes to see what progress the two Osprey chicks were making. It's always a joy to visit this Scottish Wildlife Trust site you never know what will turn up, apart from the Ospreys of course 😃

So I will start with a wee video....

We must have watched the Great Spotted Woodpecker family feeding their youngsters for a good half an hour.

So what about the Ospreys:

They are doing well and by the time you read this they will have fledged. (Actually I know they have as we have visited again since this visit and the young female had already fledged and the male was helicoptering and has since branched out)

There were also a couple of Great Crested Grebe nests, both sitting on eggs,

with the males busy finding his partner some food.

On the far shore some Fallow Deer put in an appearance:

Now some more Woodpecker shots:

Then the others:

Another great day out! We recommend it!

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!

A Good Start to the Year

 So we are 12 days into 2023 and this is our first post of the year. I''ll start with a short walk at Loch Leven on New Years Day from the Kirkgate car park to the screen overlooking the Loch. It was actually very quiet with not a lot to report, some Mute Swans of course, a few Goldeneye, a flock of Lapwing racing around the loch edge from the viewpoint. But the highlight was a very confiding Goldcrest near the screen:

Sadly by the car park was a poorly Pink-footed Goose;

The aforementioned Lapwing:

and some trees!!

On the 2nd we took are annual winter pilgrimage up to Braemar. Lots of snow when we arrived, the Glenshee Ski Centre car park was rammed, so we passed on through down to Braemar, we usually stop to look for Mountain Hare and Snow Buntings but too many people!!

The following day the weather wasn't great so we took a drive down the Linn of Dee, again it was very quiet, but we did manage to find a Dipper on the Dee.

We did go looking for Crossbills at Invercauld but to no avail. We had wanted to go for a walk but the weather precluded that.

Next day we headed over the Lecht and visited Loch Garten to look for Crested Tit, these have surprisingly eluded us on our last two visits, but this time they came out to play!

We also saw Great Spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper which was nice,

as well as the usual Tits, Robin and Chaffinch,

After Loch Garten we dropped by the hide in Boat of Garten overlooking a frozen Milton Loch on the edge of the village, the only things on the Loch were Mallard, so I thought I should take a photo!

From there we drove up to the Cairngorm Ski Centre to see if anything was about and were rewarded with Snow Buntings by the car park:

 By now it was starting to get dark so we started the drive back to Braemar.

Next day we went walking locally around Braemar and along the Old Military Road at the back of the village, but little was seen.

Our next day out was to Glen Muick on the Balmoral Estate for a longish walk. Again we saw very little, some Red Deer, Rabbit and a Raven flying through, but no Grouse, we usually see Red and Black but neither this time. We stopped for a for a coffee at the end of the walk at the visitor centre, when we heard load "chip chips" and a flock of birds descended on the tops of the Scots Pines, Crossbills!! Unfortunately the light was terrible, so I won't bother with adding a photo of the Crossbills, but here's some scenery instead!

Finally we had a day out at Loch of Kinnordy and Loch of Lintrathen over in Angus. There was still a lot of ice on the Lochs that the ducks were using:

We also saw our first Pintails for a long time (left of the Swan!)

Kinnordy is always reliable for Red Squirrel,

a Robin posed nicely,

while a Buzzard did a fly past,

Long-tailed Tits are an absolute delight,

and it was great to get our first Tree Sparrows of theyear,

So a nice start to our birding year..... 49 species so far!