Scotland Holiday Day 3: Anagach Forest, Lochindorb, Carrbridge, Avielochan and Cairngorm, 31st May 2016

Scotland Holiday Day 3: Anagach Forest, Lochindorb, Carrbridge, Avielochan and Cairngorm, 31^st May 2016

I started off the day with an early walk from 5.45am – 7.15am in the Anagach Forest. This time the first animal I encountered was a Roe Deer and in the woods the bird feeders were dominated by Red Squirrels – I saw around six of them. Still no Crested Tits but a few birds in the woods and on the golf course next to it.
We decided to head to Lochindorb to look for Divers, one of my favourite birds. En route to Lochindorb , on the Old Military Road, we got Red Grouse and a very large flock of Common Gulls. At Lochindorb we got of a Black-throated Diver and also got Oystercatcher, Common Sandpiper and Buzzard.
We took a drive from Lochindorb to the little loch on the left of Loch Allan where we had previously seen Red-throated Divers but we had no luck. We continued down that road until we found the left turn cut through that leads to the road that runs past the other side of Lochindorb and ends up at Carrbridge. There we found a Siskin and Swallows and House Martins and a Dunnock but not much else.
At Avielochan we got just the one Slavonian Grebe but there were other attractions including Goldeneye, Little Grebe and some Common Gulls amongst the Herring Gulls. The bird feeders had plenty of Siskins and other finches and tits. Willow Warblers were singing all the time.
Our next port of call as we headed off for Cairngorm was Craigelachie Nature Trail at Aviemore. Unfortunately we didn’t get the Peregrines we expected but we did, at least, get Spotted Flycatcher.
At Cairgorm we eventually managed to meet up with John Poyner who was heading up a hotel sponsored couple of hours bird watching at Cairngorm. We got the funicular railway up (now about £12 concessions each!) and the last trip back is 4.30pm. Anyway we met up with him and some other hotel guests, one for whom said he had seen a Ptarmigan on the train up but he was the only one. John said he had heard at least one calling but we didn’t see anything except a very cute young Mountain Hare right in front of the viewing platform. When it came to birds, however it was more disappointing and a couple of Meadow Pipits was the lot. It was made all the more difficult by the fact that a heavy fog came down at the observation deck level and this came and went making viewing hard work.
This was slightly compensated for when we saw Ring Ouzel at the bottom. In fact a pair had taken to nesting in a tree in the formal garden at the back of the train station. We walked round there and got views of both a male and a female. I also got probably my first actual view this holiday of a Willow Warbler singing right in front of us.
We returned home via Loch Morlich which was very quite (no Divers) and Nethy Bridge (only a Grey Wagtail) and got home pretty tired. After dinner I sat down to write up the last three days of birding and was thoroughly beat at the end of it.

Bird Sightings : Anagach Forest

Bird Sightings : Lochindorb

Bird Sightings : Carrbridge

Bird Sightings : Avielochan

Bird Sightings : Craigelachie Nature Trail, Aviemore

Bird Sightings : Cairngorm