A few Days Around Glencoe

Following our exhausting trip around India, we decide to head up to Scotland for a bit of R&R. We found ourselves a great hotel in Ballachulish at the bottom of the Glencoe Valley with lovely views over Loch Leven and the mountains.

Of course we did go out every day, starting with a couple of short walks from our hotel, on what were a couple of gloomyish mornings, that did provide a chance for a bit of birding:
Grey Heron,

 Hooded Crow,

 a magnificent Dipper on the river,

 a few Wigeon

 and another (same?) Dipper,

 and some Long-tailed Tits.

We had driven through this area many a time on the way elsewhere, Mull, Glenuig and Wester Ross  to name a few, but thought it would be  a nice place to explore a little bit. We did a circular drive around Loch Leven, spotting Oystercatcher and Curlew along with Gulls, but no divers, we thought there might be a chance, but alas no!

We also drove up to the Corran Ferry which we have used in the past seeing Black Guillemots but not this time! Driving back Tina remembered a name that she had read in some recommended places to visit from the hotel. Inchree, where at the back of the village was a forestry car park and walks, we decided not to do the walks, but adjacent to the car park was a screen, so we stayed a while and this letter fella turned up:

It's always a joy to see Red Squirrels, we had two visit the feeders, but they couldn't share so ended up having a bit of a scrap and chase around the trees.

We finished the day with some Red Deer up in the mountains on the Loch/River Etive track:

Another day saw us explore the Appin area, again some great scenery, with a view over to Castle Stalker:

 and our first Redwings of the Winter.

Also seen were Goosander, Merganser, Goldeneye, Buzzard, Cormorant, various Gulls (no rarities) and Fieldfare.

Now when looking at Google Maps the night before I came across a nature reserve that I hadn't noticed before, the Highland Titles NR, so on the way back to the hotel we called in as it was right off the main road. It's actually a reserve called Glencoe Wood, but owned and managed by Highland Titles. It transpires that the reserve is funded by selling 1ft square plots to people for £30 (larger plots are available for more cash of course) You get a certificate and the title of Lord/Lady or Laird of your plot. Very popular with Americans and as it happens Australians! Who come and visit their plot. We found this out after a lengthy chat with one of the volunteers. Otherwise access to the reserve is free.

After learning that there were two hides over looking a couple of Lochins, where Otters are seen, we decided to come back the following day and try it out. By the way during our brief time in the car park and chatting we added Great Spotted Woodpecker to our tally, as well as the usual woodland birds.

So we went back the next day, first visiting according to the map the waterfall, just a few minutes from the car park. Whilst pretty it was a tad underwhelming, it was only 6ft high!

From there we proceeded up what was billed as a gentle slope up to the hides. But as Jim Royle would say "Gentle slope my ar*e" Actually it wasn't that steep, but seemed to gone forever. Anyway we persevered and found the hides. A big disappointment!

They were basically two small garden sheds with very small UPVC windows at about 6ft, if I stood on my toes I could see out. There were two stools in each, which if you sat on them you couldn't see out of the windows! There were benches outside so we sat on those and had a coffee. There were few birds about, a Buzzard on the ridge, some Coal Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Woodpigeon, a Raven and Wren.

The views were great though.

We stayed a while but nothing much to report, so we wandered back down, had another coffee by some feeders. Then back to the car park, where we used the facilities and added Goldcrest and Treecreeper to the list. So back to the hotel for another swim and sauna, which we did every day, lovely!

On the way up from Edinburgh to Glencoe after we noticed that the route took us within 2 miloes of the Agarty Red Kite centre, so on the way back to Edinburgh we decided to drop in. (we did phone beforehand and booked into the hide for the 1:30pm feeding.)

The weather was glorious and we got there early, seeing plenty of Red Kite gathering, plus Redwing, Fieldfare, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Wren. We wandered up to the hide after 'checking in' and had a treat with plenty of Tree Sparrows about:

plus Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch and Dunnock. Then it was Red Kite Time:

Then a surprise was a Lesser Redpoll turning up in bush to the left of the hide, hiding it's head from the camera before flying off!

A lovely couple of hours before heading to Leith and a fabulous weekend with our daughter!

Montenegro

Week two saw us in Montenegro staying just outside Budva in Becici, So would the bird sightings improve...... not a lot! We did quickly add Common Buzzard to our list, seen patrolling the mountain ridge visable from our hotel room.

Not a great photo, but it was a fair distance away. There seemed to be many more Hooded Crows here than up in Croatia,

Grey Wagtails were pretty common too:

But otherwise out and about not much else was seen, although going out for a walk we did find a Coal Tit and a female Blackcap, neither of which allowed me to photograph them.

On a visit to the old town of Kotor we again came across Grey Wagtail and 3 Common Kingfishers together which was great, but none of them would perch for a photo, this was the best I could get:

Our final day in Montenegro was an exdcursion to Lake Skadar bordering Albania, this included a couple of hours out on a boat on the lake, always a good thing, we were looking forward to this, with high hopes of adding Dalmatian Pelican to our life list.

Things got off to a great start as we chugged along a river before heading out onto the lake,
A Marsh Harrier (unless anyone tells me differently, not a great shot as it was in the sun and silhouettted)

 Greay Heron,

 Yellow Legged Gull,

 Great Crested Grebe, there were hundreds of these on the lake, never seen so many,

 Black-headed Gull,

 and our first ever Pygmy Cormorant,

 plus some very smart Great Egret.

But no sign of Dalmatian Pelicans! So just have to have a close up of a Pygmy Cormorant instead.

So eventually the boat made its way back, then many miles away I could see what looked like Storks circling over a hillside, on closer inspection they turned out to be Pelicans, miles away but it is our first ever glimpse:

We went for a stroll after the boat trip and found some Common Kingfisher, but they wouldn't stop for a closeup! We did find these which was very nice:

 This water snake scooted by us at speed and quickly disappeared into a crevice in the rocks

So that was Montenegro.... from a wildlife viewpoint!

Isle of Mull - End of May

Well another trip to Scotland, this is what has become our annual trip to Mull (well that's 3 years on the trot anyway) because we just love the place. The wildlife and the scenery are fantastic although we are later this year than previously usually we go early May, but because of one thing and another we couldn't go then. The biggest downside was the midges, we had hope we would still be too early for them, but the mild and wet winter has resulted in an earlier and bumper crop!

This year though we added on a second week near Crinan on the main land (South of Oban), but I will deal with that in another post.

So as previously we stayed on Lochdon, where our rented house overlooked the Loch. After unpacking we went straight out down the track to Grasspoint to a place where we know we can get views of White Tailed Eagles and within minutes Tina spotted one in a tree on the other side of the valley. It was then mobbed by some Hooded Crows and flew away coastwards landing miles away on a ridge, much to far for a photo, but a fantastic start to the week on the island. As it happens that was to be our best WT Eagle sighting, we did see others but never close up, this is the only photo I managed and even with my 500mm lens you will be hard pressed to spot them:

Anyway back to day one, we headed back towards the cottage stopping at another favourite viewpoint and were immediately rewarded with a Stonechat and a Whinchat, followed quickly by a distant Short-eared Owl and a Hen Harrier

No photos of the Owl or Harrier to far away! We carried on back to the house by which time Jo and Jimmy had arrived and we were able to site outside with a beverage and just watch. By the time we went in we had totalled 35 species, not bad!

Day 2 saw us explore some of our old haunts where we know that we might see Otters, Golden Eagle and Divers. Perhaps it was coming later in May than usual but the Otters didn't show and we only had a distant view of Golden Eagle, we did though find some Great Northern Diver:

If all else fails you can always rely on Curlew, Pipits, Hooded Crow and Mergansers:

And Oystercatchers of course:

Day 3 was a kind of stay at home day we planned a walk along the Loch (Lochdon) from Gorten. The weather was showery and we did get caught out a couple of times. We walked to the point and sat down for lunch when this popped up nearby!!

What a shame it was overcast! Whilst photographing this a Cuckoo landed in a tree some 20ft behind us, I didn't know where to look first, actually I did the Otter of course! After the Otter departed we looked for the Cuckoo but it had flown to a post some distance away:

So the plan for Day 4 was to get the passenger ferry to Ulva and go for a walk, we have never explored Ulva so it seemed like a good idea, we took the scenic route to get there, hoping for Otters on Loch Scridain but again no sign. We arrived at the ferry only to see that the ferry wasn't running due to a family funeral. So we decided to head for Tobermory and get lunch (we had planned lunch at the Inn on Ulva so hadn't took anything with us) The best sighting on the way was another Cuckoo photographed through the car window as we didn't want spook it any more than it was already:

Day 5 took us to Iona. Iona deserves a post of its own. So I'll cover that later.
After Iona we dropped into one of our favourite spots, Fidden, which is only a couple of miles from the Iona Ferry. Fidden is a glorious spot for waders, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Redshank, Godwit, Lapwing and Whimbrel. And also Brown Hare. So we were shocked when we approached to see the whole area covered in Tents, Caravans and Camper Vans, as a result we only saw a few Lapwing, a Shelduck and a solitary Redshank! Gutted!

Day 6 and off to try Ulva again, this time we made it across and set off along allegedly marked routes. They were for the first hour or so then the markers disappeared and we got totally lost, we had no choice but to retrace our steps, plus we saw very little wildlife,

but we still enjoyed it (I think!) and we did have a great lunch as a reward for our efforts:

Our last full day was another explore around our favourite spots, this time we did get another Otter:

At the same place were two beautiful Red-throated Divers, I was concentrating on the Otter then when we looked for the Divers again they had gone. C'est la vie!

We called in at Garmony Point a couple of times, this proved interesting:

A drive up to Loch Buie provided our best Deer sightings:

Then finally our drive back to the Mainland provided our best Black Guillemot sightings at the Corran Ferry:

Our full count for Mull and Iona was 66 Species, including both Eagles, both Harriers (I forgot to mention we picked up a Marsh Harrier as well!) So not too shabby!

Iona to follow