Before I begin, here was my main target species for the Highlands, as follows:
Golden Eagle
White-Tailed Eagle
Ptarmigan
Capercaillie
Red-Throated Diver
Black-Throated Diver
Hooded Crow
Crested Tit
Parrot Crossbill
Scottish Crossbill
When I went up here, my life list was at 197, having got the Red-Necked Grebe at Farmoor Reservoir only 3 days previous. We all decided to guess what our 200th bird would be, which we would hopefully get while we were up here- my Dad guessed Golden Eagle, my Mom guessed Capercaillie and I guessed Ptarmigan. I shall reveal later who won!
Friday 3rd April 2015- The Journey Up
We woke up reasonably early for what would be our longest journey to a holiday destination- with the Highlands situated at least 7 hours north of our house in the Midlands. When we reached Cumbria, we stopped off at a nearby Toby Carvery in Carlisle to have a very welcome full English Breakfast before we climbed north once more. When we entered Scotland, I was surprised at how similar it was to English countryside but nevertheless, began to list my Scottish species, which inevitably, were those that hung about adjacent to the road. It was not long however, before we were greeted by stunning and dramatic mountains that completely dwarfed the road beside them. Then we entered the Cairngorm National Park, and snow-covered hills were now encountered, with ones high summit covered in a thick blanket of mist.
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| Part of the Cairngorm National Park |
We then came across the House of Bruar, what seemed to be the largest shopping centre for miles, so we popped in for a browse. Inside were an antiques shop and a collection of very fine gentleman's clothing such as smoking jackets and deer stalkers! Through the sound of the rain in the outside courtyard and garden section, a small group of House Sparrows and Pied Wagtails called and flew around the shoppers. It was upon leaving that I noticed 3 Grouse, feeding in a field opposite the entrance. So, having parked the car up the road, we walked back and to our delight, saw 3 male Black Grouse standing there, who subsequently flew off into the forest. How they were not scared of the noises of the road I'm not sure!
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| 2 of 3 Male Black Grouse in flight |
After around another hour, we were in the Victorian-looking Grantown-On-Spey, and pulling up beside the Grant Arms Hotel (the "Wildlife Hotel"), home of the Bird Watching & Wildlife Club. We were greeted in our room by prints of both Curlew and a pair of Sandwich Tern! Once we were settled, we decided to go for a walk around the local Anagach Woods, pine woodland on the edge of the river Spey. Whilst walking, we had a flyover Common Crossbill and our first ever Red Squirrel, jumping amongst the top of the trees- I noticed it when I remembered that only Red Squirrels inhabit the Highlands! Back at the hotel that evening, we won a themed quiz and received a bottle of wine for it! Not a bad days work, and with an already substantial list, I was extremely excited for what tomorrow might bring.
Saturday 4th April 2015- Abernethy Forest & Findhorn Valley
We woke up reasonably early and were greeted at breakfast, as everyday, by the extremely helpful and useful "Daily Chirp". About mid morning, we decided to go on one of the guided walks around Abernethy Forest, close to Loch Garten, in order to look for Crested Tit and Crossbills. On the way there, the road runs by sheep fields close to the Speyside Railway and the river Spey. It was here that I had a shock when I saw a large flock of Geese grazing in the field, which happened to be Pink-Footed Goose, a bird I have tried to see many times before but to no avail.
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| Showing the size of the Pink-Footed Goose flock |
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| Pink-Footed Goose grazing with sheep |
After enjoying a good 5 minutes watching and photographing them, conscience of the time we made our way to the designated car park deep in the heart of Abernethy Forest for our walk. Along with our enthusiastic guide John Picton, we made our way into the forest. We stopped by at the sandy shores of Loch Garten, where Goldeneye were sat on the mirrored surface. Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-Tailed Tit, Goldcrest and Treecreeper sang from and fed up in the high pines around us. Once or twice, Crested Tits were heard but not seen due to their shy nature. The final part of the walk was when we reached the shores of Loch Mallachie, where both male and female Goosanders were found. Back at the cars, John thought we could go and have a look at the feeders beside the Loch Garten RSPB visitor centre, where Crested Tits can also be found. Once there, to our delight, 2 Crested Tits were feeding around the feeders with other common Tits, on Peanut Butter spread out for them. An odd food source but one that the birds thoroughly enjoyed so I'll have to invest in some for our own garden!
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| A Crested Tit feeding in close proximity to a nearby parked car! |
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| Crested Tit feeding on Peanut Butter |
After a lunch of Scottish Fish and Chips, we went for another walk around Anagach Woods, having been informed as to where the feeders are. To our surprise, apart from the numerous Coal Tits up here, Red Squirrels were abundant, lifting up nest boxes where food had been placed inside.
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| Red Squirrel feeding in Anagach Woods |
Afterwards, we set off for Findhorn Valley, aptly named Raptor valley. It took a long drive up the valley to reach the car park, on winding roads beside some of the most desolate and barren scenery I've seen. When we reached it, the large river Findhorn next to us produced Common Gull, as well as Grey Wagtail. We had apparently just missed a juvenile White-Tailed Eagle over and unfortunately did not see any Eagles in all the time we were there. We did however see many Raptors, including Peregrine, Buzzard and Kestrel. On the highest peaks, Wild Mountain Goats stood precariously on rocky outcrops and a large herd of Red Deer hinds sat high up on a hillside in snow. We then retraced our steps and made our way over the river and up to a section of heather. Here, we immediately spotted Mountain Hares, another new mammal for me, Red Grouse and a calling Siskin who flew into nearby woodland. So all in all a great start to our holiday, 2 new birds and 1 new mammal species.
In the evening, we had a very informative and enjoyable talk from Dawn Balmer of the BTO named "Unraveling the Mysteries of Movement and Migration".
Sunday 5th April 2015- The Cairngorms & Lochindorb
It was an early start for us to arrive at Loch Garten for 5:30AM in order for Caperwatch, probably the best chance of seeing a Capercaillie in the Highlands. A flyover bird had apparently been seen the day before and today the birds were equally shy, with none seen through the whole of the next 2 hours. What relieved the boredom of waiting however was seeing the first of the returning Opsrey pair to Loch Garten, the female bird, who casually sat on the usual nest tree as the mist cleared, waiting for the male to arrive. On the way back through Abernethy Forest, we stopped off at the same car park as yesterday in order to get a shot of Loch Garten and the forest in the mist.
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| Loch Garten in mist |
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| The banks of Loch Garten |
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| Pines in Abernethy Forest |
After a well deserved breakfast, we travelled up to Cairn Gorm, where we would hopefully see Ptarmigan. When we got just out of Grantown-On-Spey, a Red Squirrel ran across the road with a nut in its mouth, showing how up here, Red Squirrels are as common as Greys are down south. It was a warm day, in fact the Highlands were the warmest part of the country and the UK as surprising as it sounds! But this did not stop skiers wanting to ski the slopes. We had to drive on winding roads going high up the mountain even before you could get to the car park. We went up on the funicular railway, crammed in tight together amongst skiers and some birdwatchers. We had great views on the way up, and saw a pair of Red Grouse, curiously watching our ascent. When we reached the top, we got out and made our way to the Ptarmigan Cafe to go out on the viewing platform. The views from up there were spectacular, with miles and miles of fabulous mountains and lochs.
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| View of the Cairngorms from the Ptarmigan Cafe |
The platform was treacherous to walk upon, with thick ice that had not been melted as it lay in the shade. I immediately lent my scope on the nearby wall and scanned the opposite hillside and boulder field. To my surprise and joy, it took me only a matter of minutes to find what I'd been looking for- a Ptarmigan! It was a male bird, who started feeding on the only shoots visible and then sheltered itself from the wind by sitting close to a boulder. I'm sorry for the quality of the next few photos but the bird was a long way away!
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| Adult Male Ptarmigan |
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| Ptarmigan feeding on shoots |
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| Ptarmigan sitting sheltered beneath a boulder |
It was then that it dawned on me that I had spotted my 200th bird, with what was a pretty good find considering how far it was away from us (if I do say so myself!). Whats more, I had predicted right as to what our 200th lifer would be, so I was fairly elated with the find. The male stayed on show all the time we were there, and also a female came into view for a few minutes. Still feeling extremely happy, we boarded the now less crowded funicular for the descent. The first part of it was a tunnel which opened out onto open mountainside. It was like something out of a James Bond film, with only the nearby mountains being viewable from the ever-growing opening, which then revealed a steep section of track which would grow in speed. On the way down, we managed to see Meadow Pipit and even small flock of Snow Bunting.
We then went back to the hotel and after a quick lunch, made our way at leisure to Lochindorb. Lochindorb is without doubt a beautiful spot, with the water lapping at your feet, surrounded by heather , and Lochindorb Castle- the "Wolfs Lair"- sitting solely in the middle. What added to the shimmering of the water was the fact that is was t-shirt weather! We had come to hopefully see the local Black-Throated Divers who breed here. When we parked up beside the loch, two Divers were seen far out, which happened to be Red-Throated Divers, another new and unexpected bird. We were then told that the Black-Throated Divers were around the other part of the loch, obscured by the Castle. We did however make a detour on the way round, to stop and watch the very tame and numerous local Red Grouse.
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| 1 of 2 Red-Throated Diver far out on the Loch |
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| One of the tame Red Grouse |
We then reached the other side, and after about 5 minutes scanning saw both of the Black-Throated Diver pair, their colours and underbellies showing off well in the afternoon sun. Meadow Pipits flew and sung above us, and Curlew and Redshank sat on the shores calling.
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| 1 of 2 Black-Throated Diver |
On the way back, we noticed 2 close up Oystercatchers in a nearby field (Oystercatchers seem to be in every field in Scotland!) and another great view of the Cairngorms, where we had been earlier that day. Another fabulous days birding, with 3 lifers, taking my personal list up to 202 birds and breathtaking scenery too.
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| Oystercatcher in a field |
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| Views of the Cairngorms from Lochindorb |
Monday 6th April 2015- The Moray Firth
At breakfast this morning, we were shocked to hear that a male Capercaillie had been seen during Caperwatch due to it being flushed by a herd of deer. I had wanted to go to Caperwatch every morning but today we had enjoyed a lie in. Today, we decided to go to the seaside, in particular, the Moray Firth and the towns/coast around it, in order to get some good seabirds. Around mid-morning, we made it to Burghead, where we walked down to the rocky shore to scan the sea. As we arrived, a medium sized flock of Pink-Footed Goose flew in overhead. From the shoreline, we managed to see an unexpected small flock of Common Eider along with many small flocks of Long-Tailed Duck. Furthermore, Red-Breasted Mergansers, Common Guillemot, Gannet, Cormorant, Shag and Great Black-Backed Gull all flew past our viewpoint. I then noticed a large flock of Gulls feeding out in the bay, and when I got my binoculars on them, In noticed an unexpected joy- a few Bottlenose Dolphin feeding amongst the birds! When we got back to the car, we were greeted by a very vocal and friendly Yellowhammer!
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| Male Long-Tailed Duck |
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| Singing Yellowhammer |
We then made our way to Findhorn (the mouth of the river Findhorn) and Nairn, which produced Rock Pipit, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Starling, Linnet, Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Kestrel, Pheasant, Blackbird, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Turnstone and Mute Swan. When we stopped at one of the beaches. the dunes nearby provided us with an abundance of Hooded Crow.
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| Hooded Crow |
We then went to Inverness and had a look around the shops, which were mainly targeted at tourists and sold everything from Scottie Dog pictures and clan names to Kilts! We then enjoyed a pleasant drive back through the picturesque Scottish Countryside.
This evening, we had a talk by Ralph and Brenda Todd, who used to be volunteer wardens at the RSPB reserve of Loch Garten, called "Operation Osprey". During the talk, they recalled how they used to protect the Ospreys and flush Capercaillie on the walk to work!
Summary
So, overall we have had probably some of our best birding outings and some most memorable species, including 7 bird lifers and 3 mammal lifers. My list for Scotland, having never been before, stands at 79 birds and here is a list of them:
Mute Swan, Pink-Footed Goose, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Mallard, Teal, Tufted Duck, Eider, Long-Tailed Duck, Goldeneye, Red-Breasted Merganser, Goosander, Red Grouse, Black Grouse, Ptarmigan, Pheasant, Red-Throated Diver, Black-Throated Diver, Gannet, Cormorant, Shag, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Osprey, Kestrel, Peregrine, Coot, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Curlew, Redshank, Turnstone, Black-Headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Great Black-Backed Gull, Guillemot, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Goldcrest, Long-Tailed Tit, Crested Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Treecreeper, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Hooded Crow, Raven, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Siskin, Linnet, Common Crossbill, Snow Bunting, Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting.
My Mammal list is as follows:
Red Deer, Roe Deer, Mountain Goat, Red Squirrel, Mountain Hare, Brown Hare and Bottlenose Dolphin.
My life list is now on 204 and we have got 3/4 British Grouse, which I'm more than happy with. On Tuesday 7th April 2015, it was time to leave but in the morning we had one last shot at the Capercaillie, sadly to no avail, but I was pleased that the male Osprey had finally returned! However, I suppose thats the thrill of the chase. We've had an excellent time and hope to come back to the Grant Arms some day and if I am lucky enough to come up here again then hopefully I will be able to see even more of Scotland's natural wonders. I think the Shetlands are on the cards!
