October 2013 archive

Oct 08 2013

Highland Birding Holiday Day 1 : 8th October 2013

Highland Birding Holiday Day 1 : 8th October 2013

Crested Tit, Grantown-on-Spey

Crested Tit, Grantown-on-Spey

We arrived at the Grant Arms Hotel early afternoon on Monday the 7th October and we were pleased to find that our room was already prepared for us so we could check in early. We were pleased that we had been given quite a nice room on the first floor and, although it didn’t have much of a view, it was quite spacious and very comfortable. We got all out luggage in and sorted out and after that we took a walk around Grantown-on-Spey to get the lay of the land. In truth there aren’t a lot of attractions in the town with just the one pub and a couple of closed hotels but there is a post office, small supermarkets and a newsagents and bakers etc. so they do have all the essentials and we expected that we wouldn’t be going out much after dinner at the end of long birding days.

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Oct 06 2013

Loch of Strathbeg and Rattray Head : 6th October 2013

Loch of Strathbeg RSPB and Rattray Head : 6th October 2013

Our trip to the north of Scotland started off with a visit to family in New Deer and on one of these days we all took a family walk out to RSPB Loch of Strathbeg. It was a nice day and we started off at the visitor centre. The first thing we noticed was a pair of Swallows which seemed quite late in the year – perhaps they were migrating from further north ? From the hide we could see a few wading birds, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew and Redshank as well as some Mute and Whooper Swans. As we were leaving this hide a chap mentioned to us that he had just been to Rattray Head, just a few miles away, and he said that a Firecrest had been showing well in the lighthouse keeper’s garden but since we were with family we decided to continue with our visit to Loch of Strathbeg and see if we had time to go there after we had finished our walk.

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Oct 04 2013

Montrose Basin : 4th October 2013

Montrose Basin : 4th October 2013

Our annual visit to the family in Scotland saw us drop in on Montrose Basin Nature Reserve, a site we usually stop at for a break from driving and also because it can be really good for birds. Unfortunately we got there at high tide rather than a couple of hours before it so the shore birds had already moved on a bit. On the water we did get views of a number of Eider and off to the right hand side of the bay (from the reception hide) there were large numbers of Lapwing and Oystercatchers roosting on the shoreline. There were also large numbers of Cormorants and Herons. Continue reading