Trials and Tribulations in the Cairngorms (Braemar)

 Last Saturday we took one of regular trips up to the Cairngorms and stayed in Braemar for the week. We settled in on the Saturday afternoon after meandering through Glenshee, seeing Red Grouse, Red Deer and distant Mountain Hare. Then about 6pm the power went off! We still had a flask of hot water and had bought some cooked chicken with us, so chicken salad for tea!

During the night the power came back on, Hurrah! It was ****** cold though as all the heating was electric!  But to play safe we didn't go far and stayed local, around the Linn of Dee and Glenshee. With sightings of Dipper on Clunie Water that was good start and some Siskin on the golf course,

but nothing on the River Dee and just Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits on the Mar Lodge Estate. We came back early to make sure we could cook and make some flasks up just in case the power went again. Then storm Corrie hit and the power went off again about 10pm. So early to bed! 

The power was still off in the morning so no shower (Electric!!) Upon checking, the power wasn't due back on until Tuesday, so we took the decision to head home for the night (we were only 1 hour 40mins away) and get warm and make sure we could get hot food and drinks.

We got a message Tuesday morning that the power was back on, so we drove back via RSPB Loch Kinnordy, only to find the reserve was closed due to fallen and dangerous trees. So plan B, Loch Lintrathen which is Scottish Wildlife Trust and has hides only to find fallen trees thwarting us again. We therefore carried on to Backwater Reservoir, seeing very little, just some Crows, Rooks, a Buzzard, but finally two male Goosander by the dam. So back to Braemar, taking the old military road that runs parallel to the A93 as we dropped down into the Glen, again Dipper were seen on Clunie Water. We did get good views of Red Grouse at Glenshee:

and Red Deer:

Finally back on plan on the Wednesday we went to Lock Muick on the Balmoral Estate. Finally some photos!

Not much wildlife, so some scenic shots!

Having said not much wildlife we did see a juvenile Golden Eagle (flew over the car as we got there with prey and disappeared over the ridge before we could stop and get the camera!) and also a couple of Black Grouse that flew over on our walk.

The next morning back in Braemar we had a bit of a Red Squirrel fest outside our flat:

We drove over the Lecht and on to Garten today, hoping for Snow Bunting at the Lecht and Crested Tit at Garten. We saw neither! In past years they have been really reliable at both spots but not this year. Plenty of obliging Coal Tit though:

Our final day and we visited the Muir of Dinnet NNR where we added Bullfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldeneye, and Whooper Swans. But again very quiet. So a few pics from Dinnet:

On to the Highlands

After spending Christmas and the New Year in Edinburgh we left for four nights in the Highlands/Cairngorms. We usually have a week up here later in the month or early February, but as we have book a week in Norfolk in February, we decided to tag a few days on while we were up in Scotland. Finding somewhere to stay was difficult believe it or not, with a few of our usual place closed for a post new year break and not opening again until the 6th.

So we found ourselves in Tomintoul in the Richmond Arms which we stayed in two years ago, we hoped that the promised refurbishments that were allegedly under way then would have been done, but it was just the same, with the same notices up in the rooms saying bear with us. So this is definitely the last time we will stay there, three strikes and your out! (We stayed back in 2014 as well)

Anyway Tomintoul is not a bad base for getting to various places, however we now had to cram in to 3 days what we would normally do in a week! So day one we went over to Loch Garten for Crested Tits and then down to RSPB Insh Marshes.
So at Garten were weren't disappointed:
A couple of Red Squirrel,

 Coal Tits in abundance,

 Crested Tits came in and out,

 plus a confiding Great Spotted Woodpecker.

 We also saw Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Treecreeper.

It's a fantastic place in the winter, although as it was still school holidays a few more people were about than usual. At least being a gloomy day we didn't get the inconsiderate photographers that cursed trhe place last year when we came, but on the flip side it made photography for me difficult.

We then drove down to and through Aviemore, via the small loch in the Boat of Garten village where only Mallard and a solitary male Goldeneye were seen.

One time driving through Aviemore we stumbled across Waxwing near the Ambulance Station, but not this time, so we carried on to Insh Marshes. The highlight being 13 Whooper Swans.

Apart from some distant Roe Deer and a Buzzard, we didn't add much to the list for the day. Having said that we had a lovely time in the lookout over the reserve, the big windows are great giving a fantastic overall view and it was great to be out the weather. The feeders just outside were always busy, nothing out of the ordinary, with the hoped for Siskins not showing, never mind.

Day two we drove the opposite direction for a bit of a walk at Loch Muick, the drive there took us over The Lecht were we normally see Snow Buntings, but the was driech as the say in Scotland and there was no sign, all we got initially was a solitary Red Grouse, you can see how the weather was from this:

Further in with the weather improving a little we came across a large gaggle of Red-legged Partridge, that were very skittish, but just got a quick photo before this one disappeared through a fence:

There were a ton of Pheasant around here too and a marauding Buzzard keeping them all on their toes.

At Loch Muick the weather wasn't too bad, so we went for a shorter walk than usual. We usually spend the day and do a long walk, but we wanted to fit a drive to Glenshee and a visit to Braemar in as well, so we cut it short. The feeders by the vsitor centre only produced Coal Tit, Chaffinch and a solitary Greenfinch, however the river did get us our first Dippers for 2020. No decent photos though.

The only other thing of note were the Red Deer:

From here as I said we drove up to Glenshee in the hope of Snow Buntings, but again with murky drizzly weather up the top nothing was seen, at least we made use of the facilities at the ski centre.

We stopped on the way back down and scanned the hillsides for Mountain Hare we were much luckier with this, although distant, they were clearly visible against the snowless slopes. We were also rewarded with another Dipper on the river. The day was finished witha drive along the Old Military Road into Braemar where we admired the Christmas lights  and again made use of the facilities.

Day 3 took us upto the Moray Firth starting at Lossiemouth, which we explored as we had never done this before, it was all worthwhile when offshore we saw our favourite ducks, a small group of Long-tailed, even managed a photo!

Tina and I were delighted, never got to see one last year. The estuary was then explored and a short walk was in order, seeing a Goosander flying through,

 lots of Gulls,

 Black-tailed Godwit,

and more Gulls,

also about were Redshank, Dunlin, Curlew, Teal, Oystercatcher, Little Grebe and loads of Wigeon. This is definitely a place that we will be returning to. Next stop Burghead..
This time a much closer view of Long-tailed ducks, a pair were in the harbour entrance:

Very pleased!

We late lunched on the other side of Burghead town, overlooking the sea, where a pair of Goldeneye, some Eider were seen and strangely a Grey Heron that seemed to fly in from out at sea. Some more coastal exploring was done around Burghead Bay and Findhorn, but the tide was way out and without a scope it was impossible to tell what was out there.

So that concludes our sojourn up to Scotland. Giving us a start of 56 species for 2020.

Lets see what Norfolk brings in a few weeks time, we are staying in Wells so hopefully the Rough-legged Buzzard will stay put and the elusive Snow Buntings will remain at Holkham.

Cairngorms

After a week on the west coast of Scotland, we had a brilliant weekend in Edinburgh with our daughter, before travelling north and stopping in Tomintoul for 5 nights. The weather was pretty good for the drive up, and we stopped at the Lecht for a few minutes, just in case there were any Snow Buntings. We found one on one of the buildings.

We then carried on to Tomintoul, but once we had checked in, the weather turned and the roads were closed behind us, so for a few days we couldn't visit our usual haunts on the east side of the mountains.

Luckily the west side roads were open, with care....

It was all very pretty though.
Our first destination was Abernethy Forest and the RSPB Loch Garten, for Crested Tits and whatever else we could find..
Crested Tits Galore!

and at least 3 Great Spotted Woodpecker,

There were a couple of Treecreeper about too..

plus plenty of Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Chaffinch;
Coal Tit,

Female Chaffinch and

 Male Chaffinch.

No Red Squirrel this time at Garten.. never mind.

The weather thwarted us on day two, we tried to negotiate Findhorn Valley, but there was a blizzard blowing and some of the drifts on the single track road were looking serious even for our Land Rover, so we turned around half way to the end. We did see quite a few Red-legged Partridge down there, but with the weather, I couldn't open the window to get any photos.

Day three we attempted to get up over the Lecht to the Braemar side, but even though some of the snow gates were open (to let the skiers up to the Lecht) as we went further we heard that a gate ahead of us had been closed due to drifting, so we turned around and went for plan B.

We drove back through Tomintoul and down to RSPB Insh Marshes, by the time we got there the weather was fairly miserable again, but we settled down in the viewpoint 'hide' for a couple of hours.
We didn't see that much as most of the wintering water fowl that should be there had disappeared.

Some Wigeon put in a brief appearance and there were about a dozen Whooper Swans over the far side of the marshes, but the main activity was on the feeders in front of the window,
where we saw our first Siskin of the year

 As you can see the Whoopers were very distant, these are two more flying in to join their mates.

We also saw a couple of Roe Deer through the trees, then just as we were leaving a Brown Hare turned up..

On our last day all the roads were open, so we had to decide where to go and we plumped for Glen Muick as we fancied a bit of a walk in a beautiful place.

We were well rewarded for our efforts, near the visitor centre we happened across a Red Squirrel, we had never seen one here before and we have been many times over the years,

then as we walked on in to a frosty head wind, with lots of ice under foot, we stopped to admire some Red Deer on the ridge.

As we were admiring the Deer a Snow Bunting came and landed next to us, so close that I had problems focusing the camera on it with my 500mm lens on, but I did manage a couple of shots;

The Red Grouse were also behaving well today,

As we completed our circular walk, we also had a Buzzard fly through the Glen,

the to our surprise we came across at least four Stonechat near the bridge on the approach back to the visitor centre.

So we stopped there for a bit to watch and have a coffee, I haven't mentioned coffee yet, but this was our second on the walk! We hoped that from the bridge we might see a Dipper, and with the way things were today, two turned up. Albeit quite distant, one either side of the bridge.

We finally made it back to the visitor centre, where we had a late lunch (and more coffee). We had another surprise there with a number of Rabbits about and a Red-legged partridge running through the yard. This was followed by six Black Grouse flying through, so a very productive walk, in a brilliant place.

After Glen Muick, we drove through Braemar and up to Glenshee, where we saw at least 200-300 Red Grouse flying in the valley, a number of Mountain Hare and more Snow Bunting around the top  car park at the Ski Centre.

It was very murky up the top of Glenshee and with all the skiers, it was bit like wacky races!
So that conclude our first Scottish trip of the year!