In Conclusion

So I had a good holiday, and would highly recommend it. I ended up seeing 111 species of bird, good for a week in early July. I saw three lifers, and 34 year ticks, however these year ticks included a number of birds I had seen only a few times before or many years ago. This holiday took me to areas I had never been before and opened up my birding horizons.
The Stand out species were a whooping ten species of bird of prey, including eagles and harriers.

The holiday group

 

Next year the plan is to take a birdwatching excursion to the Outer Hebrides, to look for corncrakes and other birds.

So that's it for the blog for a while, as I'm going to be too busy to do any birding for a while. I do hope you enjoy reading it, and as always please write to me to tell me what you think.

The aftermath

After the holiday finished I stayed around in Scotland, further up the Spey at Aberlour. My Gran used to live there but sadly passed away a couple of months ago, and the house was unoccupied, so I stayed there. I had spent a while there when I was younger, and wanted to see it one final time before it was sold. I didn't do any birdwatching, but played some golf, and visited the picturesque towns that line the coast. These are some of the photos I took around there.

 

Sueno's Stone - a large Pictish Stone encased in glass.

 



 

These three pictures were taken of Burghead harbour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glenfrachas Distillery

14/7/2017 - Final Day - Troup Head and Spey Bay

The day started with a trip to two Caledonian forests, Tomvaich and Poor House Wood, to finally catch up with CROSSBILLS. Alas we didn't find any, but saw loads and loads of birds moving in flocks, including the occasional CRESTED TIT.
Onwards to the coast, and a very long trip to Troup Head, RSPB. Heard of it? No I hadn't either. It has Scotland's only mainland GANNET colony. As we headed north to the coast, the landscape changed to become more agricultural. The landscape in the Cairngorms was moorland with pine plantations and rough grassland. On the coast there were a lot more farms, and the birds we saw reflected that. The small birds included CORN BUNTINGS, YELLOWHAMMERS, LINNETS and SKYLARKS.
As we got to Troup Head it was obviously a working farm, with only a small area for the RSPB reserve. From the car park we had good views into a bay where we saw a massive GREAT SKUA, and smaller ARCTIC SKUAS, their flight resembling that of a falcon.
As we got to the cliffs, the smell of guano, and the cacophony of noise hinted about what we were going to encounter. Thousands and thousands of GANNETS, GUILLEMOTS, RAZORBILLS, and KITTIWAKES were around the cliffs and out to sea. There were also small numbers of PUFFINS and FULMARS.

 

 

 

A great spectacle.

 

After that we travelled to Spey Bay, one of the few places on the trip I had already been to. Spey Bay is an area where the river Spey enters the Moray Firth, creating an area of different water flows, and shingle islands. On one of the islands were a pair of COMMON TERNS and a couple of DUNLINS in summer plumage, with their black bellies.

And then an OSPREY appeared causing the whole area to erupt. In that explosion of birds four WHIMBREL were heard flying over us. The OSPREY hung around the area, and the birds got used to it. The OSPREY was often hovering in flight like a kestrel, looking for all the fish caught in the different currents.

A short while after leaving Spey Bay we stopped at an area of nest boxes in a small plantation. On one of those was a TREE SPARROW.

We then headed back to the hotel to finish the final day.

 

 

 

 

Day 6 - 13/7/2017 - BLACK GROUSE, DIPPER and SLAV GREBES.

With a decent trip list already, we were to further get more...
We went to Dorback, another area of rough grassland, pine trees and moor land. We went here to see BLACK GROUSE, but prospects weren't good. However soon after arriving we found a male that flew in before disappearing into some pines. Then another flew in to some rough grass, where it hid for a bit before emerging and giving fantastic views.

Stuffed BLACK GROUSE at the hotel

BLACK GROUSE country - again not the most distinctive of habitat

 

 

Afterwards we went to the Old Spey Bridge to look at the DIPPERS on the river.

 

 

After that we headed back to Inverlaidnan, the pine plantation from the first day where the minibus had got stuck. Again we looked for CAPERS, but this species turned out to be the bogey bird for the trip. We travelled over drier ground, but no birds were there. However we did get to see the briefest of GOSHAWKS, as it shot over the road.

In the afternoon we went to Loch Ruthven in a final attempt to find some SLAVONIAN GREBES. The Loch was a large lowland body of water, where we managed to connect with three SLAV GREBES, we finally connected with this bird this holiday. In the background a RED KITE was in flight over the hilltops with several seen further on in the day.

 





High Mountain Birds - PTARMIGAN, DOTTEREL and SNOW BUNTING

This is the day I've been waiting for, ever since booking the holiday way back in February, a chance to explore the highest region in the country and its special wildlife.
There are two ways to get to the summit: the first is to take the train up, the second is to walk. Obviously it would be idiotic to come all this way to take the train. Our group split 50-50 with the old and decrepit in the group opting for the train whilst myself and others walked.
From the Cairngorm car park the mountains seemed a daunting  prospect - I'm from East Anglia, where there are no hills, Facing up to the most mountainous region in the UK.
However, as the mountains were not particularly steep, the path was fairly gentle: there weren't too many steps and it wasn't too steep. There were two waterfalls to pass, stretching the legs a bit, but were fairly undemanding. Orchids lined the side of the path, before gently falling away as we went higher. The habitat ascended from heather moorland, to a grassland strewn with boulders. It was a well used path and there was a steady stream of people using the path. The trail was well maintained, marked by gravel, with occasional steps dug into the mountainside.

From a small rocky summit was where we encountered our first birds, with a party of five PTARMIGAN. From there the hilltop plateaued encountering more PTARMIGAN, this time a bird with chicks. These are related to RED GROUSE, except they inhabit a niche habitat, the high mountain tops.

We climbed higher and higher looking for more of our targeted birds, not stopping until we had found them all.
A PEREGRINE FALCON flew overhead, carrying some large prey, but no DOTTEREL. So we had a plan, and that was to spilt up 50 metres apart and to move over the desolate mountain top, until we found something, and we found something indeed.

 

Two DOTTEREL, changing to three, then to a maximum of four. From the different states of plumage there were two each of male and female. They were very plover like in the way they ran for a lot then would stop dead still then run again.

 

 

DOTTEREL are mountain plovers, where the sex roles are reversed. The female is the more bright and colourful, whilst the male looks after the chicks. The birds were very tame and didn't seem to notice us at all, they never moved away because of us.

And just as we were admiring them, a call came of...

SNOW BUNTING! - a black and white male BUNTING flew passed and landed not too far away. While we were looking at it the DOTTEREL actually came closer!



After admiring the DOTTEREL we went back to look for the BUNTING, but instead disturbed a female. Then we saw another bird running on the ground and discovered a fledged juvenile SNOW BUNTING, one of maybe ten nesting pairs in the country. We decided to keep away, to allow the birds some privacy.

DOTTEREL and SNOW BUNTING habitat 3800 feet up

Having seen all the species we wanted, we were allowed to go back down. As we did we saw more PTARMIGAN, they had the habit of exploding from the rocks when you were just about to step on them. We saw maybe twenty in total.
Walking back was fairly simple, everyone contented from the day we had experienced. When we talked about the at the end of the tour, this was most people's favourite day.
In the end, we had walked seven hours, at a distance of around eight miles and a height of around 3800 feet, not bad for non-mountaineers.

Day 5 - Ancient Caledonian Forests - 12/7/2017

The day started off with a quick look at Loch Garten to look for CRESTED TITS. The area is known for its Caledonian forests, in fact is the largest stand in the country. This is an entirely different type of woodland to the plantations that can be seen suffocating the highlands.
So what's the difference? Well, the pine plantations are ecologically dead, made up of foreign tree species that offer nothing to native wildlife. The pine plantaitions are grown so close together no light comes in. In a native caledonain Forest, the tree naturally grow  apart, and the light that comes in allows heather to grow underneath. Caledonain forests being full of native tree and plants are absolutely full of wildlife.
Any, after some searching we were able to encounter  CRESTED TIT, had good views, but soon had to move on

Loch Garten

Day 4 - Mull and back - 11/7/2017

Today was a more relaxed day as we had pin poited most of the species we wanted to see on Mull.
The first birds of the day were a WHITE TAILED EAGLE with its nest, which overlooked Craig Mure golf club.
Then we moved onto Loch Don, a shallow low land loch surrounded by rough grassland. A SHORT EARED OWL was found,  quartering the grassland behind it. At one point it lowered down, and it was met by another one - a potential nesting site.

Loch Don - FOXGLOVES are literally everywhere in Scotland

 

Also present were a REDSHANK, and a MERGANSER family, but not much else.

 

Further down the road a SNIPE was found.

We left Mull, and took the ferry to the mainland. The area was very beautiful, mountains and sea lochs.

 

At a place called Kilmalieu, high up in the hills was a party of WILD GOATS, animals with a mixture of different colours, some were black, others with more white. Nothing speaks of wilderness like WILD GOATS.

 

On Loch Linnhe, a large sea loch, and site of the second ferry crossing, a MANX SHEARWATER was found in flight and on the water, though distant.

 

At Creag Meagaidh, a national nature reserve, we had a quick look at the feeders there, where there were many SISKINS and LESSER REDPOLLS.

 

 

We returned back to our hotel and so finished our time on Mull.