Bill Neil

Scotland Holiday Day 10: Isle of May 7th June 2016

We had booked a trip out to the Isle of May with Anstruther Pleasure Cruises some time prior to our holiday. I had,  been on a couple of RIBs out to the island before but this makes photography a bit tricky when out at sea. This time we decided to go from the other side of the Firth of Forth from North Berwick which is a shorter journey. The only problem was that there was a thick fog and this meant that we did not see a great deal until we got to the island. In fact, even when we got to the island, parts of it were shrouded in fog.

However, we managed to find a couple of bits of it that were fog free and the longer we stayed there the more it cleared up until our retun when the fog had lifted altogether. This was a different way to travel to the island and on the face of it a little more genteel. However, I can imagine in heavier seas that ti could become a bit sickly. Plus the RIBs have the advantage of keeping you down at sea level where many of the birds live and that is more of a sensational experience.

Bird Sightings : Isle of May

Scotland Holiday Day 8: Ythan Estuary at Newburgh 5th June 2016

Again this was a family day but, again, we got some birding in. My family, despite living just a few miles alay from Newburgh, had never been to this part of the estuary and on a blazingly hot day they were captivated by it. We started off at the parking place at “The Inches” and somewhat surprisingly, as we pulled up there was Jim Almond, the “Shropshire Birder”. After our hellos he headed off to the golf course end of the estuary and we soon followed. We ran into a chap who said that he had met a photographer who had seen our main target – Elvis, the King Eider – half an hour before but now there was no sight of it.

As the family wandered off to admire the friendly seals that habituate this part of the estuary, we turned to tracking down the King Eider. Eventually we decided to go to where it had been recently reported; not at the mouth of the estuary but opposite the “tin hut” a shelter raised on the dunes. Sure enough we found someone with Jim who had located the bird and we got some reasonable views of it. There were also a multitude of Common Terns, fewer Sandwich Terns and even fewer again Little Terns. It was possible, however, to see all of them at once.

There were large numbers of Herring and Black-headed Gulls and a whole colony of Sand Martins who were nesting in holes in the dunes. A nice spot was a pair of Wigeon and, of course, there were hundreds of King Eider. We eventually called it a day when we nearly found ourselves cut off by the tide and we all collected again and went off to a restaurant for SUnday lunch. Afterwards some of the family went home but our car returned to Newburgh and the place was quite different with the tide in. We eventually managed to relocate the King Eider and this time we got good enough views that we could show non-birding family members this famous bird.

The Ythan estuary at Newburgh is a wonderful place, even without a King Eider, and we were happy to have introduced the family to it. They too were amazed that they had never heard of it.

Bird Sightings : Ythan Estuary at Newburgh

Scotland Holiday Day 7: Loch of Strathbeg 4th June 2016

At this stage of our holiday we were more oriented to family than birding but, of course, we always manage to find a way to introduce a little bit so we dragged the family to Loch of Strathbeg. The whole place is being done up but none of it was opened yet so there was no visitor centre or loos or shop or anything like that. Instead we had to settle for a walk down to the hide. The fields were choc a bloc with Skylarks but we also got Meadow Pipit, Tree and House Martins, Reed Bunting etc.

At the hide the4 pools were totally dried out. I don’t know if we have ever seen them full and certainly never joined up to form the one loch. There were Shelduck and Grey Heron, Pheasant and Oystercatcher roaming around though. There were also Swallows and Swifts and a single Buzzard.

All in all it was a nice day for a walk and we introduced the kids to some birds that they didn’t know of.

Bird Sightings : Loch of Strathbeg

Scotland Holiday Day 6:  Bullers of Buchan 3rd June 2016

We left Grantown rather regretting the missed birds, Crested Tit, Ptarmigan, Capercaillie, Black Grouse but we had got some nice birds and, indeed, a life tick so we couldn’t really complainn; especially since the weather had been so good almost all of the time. One great tick we got on our way was a pair of Hooded Crows in a garden.

I had recently discovered in a map a reference to the Bullers of Buchan which I had not heard of before and, since it was relatively near to New Deer which was our destination this day, was curious to see. It turned out to be the most amazing place. You walk from a small car park past a row of what used to be fishermens cottages before coming to the coast and discovering a series of very steep indentations inthe cliffs, some caused by the collapse of cave roofs. Inside these were nesting Kittiwake, Shags, Guillemots and Razorbills, all “year ticks” for us. Tehre was even a “year tick” Gannet and there was an Eider and Common and Herring Gulls.

Rock Dove, Swallows and Skylarks finished off the picture. There was so much to see and hear and it was a pleasure to discover a new seabird breeding site.

Bird Sightings : Bullers of Buchan

Scotland Holiday Day 5:  Anagach Forest, Loch Garten, Lochindorb and Nethy Bridge 2nd June 2016

I started off the day with a walk in Anagach Forest but didn’t get any Cresties. I did get a lot of pictures of Red Squirrels, some of which should be OK. I also got a couple of longer distance shots of a Willow Warbler singing.
I returned to the hotel where Anne was still in bed and we got round to having breakfast and made our plans for the day. Because this was our last full day at Grantown-on-Spey before we had to head off to New Deer, we didn’t want to go too far today because I had to get some time in Aviemore trying to buy a birthday present for Colin. We decided on RSPB Loch Garten on the grounds that we still had not seen an Osprey on our Scottish holiday. We went to the visitor centre at 10am and were pretty much the first people into the Osprey viewing centre. The female bird was showing well with one small chick and one very much larger chick. There was a third egg but it had not hatched out. The smaller chick was the third laid and the bigger the first laid, which explained the big difference in their sizes.

We went to the car park about a mile down the road and did the woodland walk that skirts Loch Garten (which has no life in or on it because it is too brackish) and then skirts Loch Mallachy. On Loch Mallachy we saw a female Goldeneye with her chicks. The reserve staff have put nest boxes in the trees for them. But that was it. The woods were not much better with lots of Chaffinches and some Coal Tits. Anne thought she had seen a Crossbill and I thought I heard the noise they make when they split a cone segment but since I didn’t actually see it, I couldn’t claim it.

We left there to try to buy a present at Aviemore. We took the back road to get to Colymbridge and then to Aviemore (I filmed this journey). We didn’t have any joy with presents so we returned to Grantown (which I also filmed) and eventually found a couple of useful books that would be good as presents.

With just a little time left and the weather starting to turn we decided to go up to Lochindorb for a last go at Divers and Ospreys. Nothing was showing which pretty well summed up the whole day. A lot of people we have been speaking to have been a little disappointed at what they have seen – or rather not seen – so we are not the only ones. I think the reason for this is that we are just a little later this year and a lot of the birds are on eggs so fewer are flying about. It would be good to compare the sightings of our previous spring visit with our previous autumn visit to see what that shows.

The afternoon was getting on and the weather was a bit gloomy so we decided to return to Grantown. I set the dashboard video recording again and off we went. As we were nearing the end of the small road from Lochindorb to the Old Military Road that leads back to Grantown, we suddenly saw a very interesting phenomenon. Two meadow Pipits flew in front of the car followed immediately by a much larger bird with long pointed wings and a long tail. Pretty much our first thought once this information had sunk in was that it looked like a Cuckoo. I do not have the software to examine the video in enough detail on my laptop but perhaps I can see something more detailed when I get home. It starts at about 8 minutes into GPO2067. Incredibly enough just after we had joined the main road and were heading back to Grantown (at 12 ½ minutes on the video) we witnessed exactly the same thing. Two Meadow Pipits rising up from the ground (on our left so they did not fly over the front of the car as they previous birds had) followed by a much larger bird with long pointed wings and a long tail. It was exactly the same. It is not possible to say if the one was chasing the two or whether they were all flushed at the same time so it looked that way. But it was a very intriguing sight.

We describesd this later in the day to our past guide, John Poyner, and he thought that it could easily have been Cuckoos. His other possibility was Merlin. I would have preferred the later because it would have been a holiday tick for us but I am sure that they were Cuckoos.

We met up with John Poyner for an evening of birding hoping to see at least Black Grouse, perhaps Owls and hopefully some other birds on the lochs. As it turned out the mist was so bad that neither Grouse nor Owls showed up and the whole evening was something of a wash out. We ended up at Nethy Bridge where we got nice views of Sand Martins but still it was very disappointing and our last day in Grantown on Spey.

Bird Sightings : Anagach Forest

Bird Sightings : Loch Garten

Bird Sightings : Lochindorb

Bird Sightings : Nethy Bridge (Wooden)

Scotland Holiday Day 4:  Strathdearn and Loch Ruthven, 1st June 2016

We started the day off going to the Findhorn Valley (actually Strathdearn) with the idea that we might see some Eagles. On our way down the valley a Roe Deer jumped out in front of our car from our right, turned and looked at us and then smartly jumped out of the way to our left. I was recording our drive from Grantown on Spey to the end of the valley so this should be recorded on the video.

We stopped at the Farr Road bridge where we got some nice Curlew singing and a couple of Common Terns. There were also good numbers of Sand Martins and Swallows and some Common Gulls. In the fields at the back there were numerous Woodpigeons, several Curlew and a family of Red-legged Partridge with chicks. In the field at the back were also numerous Hares and Rabbits.

We continued to the end of the public road and pulled into the usual layby. Several other birders turned up including John Poyner who had previously been our guide around the area. In the end there were about eight people all looking together in all directions for Eagles but apart from two or three sightings of black blobs that might have been Eagles, nothing more definite emerged. We did get around half a dozen Ravens playing around in the sky for quite some time and they might well have been one family. We were encouraged by this because Ravens can be precursors to Eagles. But not this time.

We did see a Buzzard a couple of times and also a Kestrel but that was it for the big birds. There were plenty of House Martins and a few Jackdaw. There were plenty of Red Deer up in the mountains and we also saw a small group of Mountain Deer. The day had turned into a beautiful one with a wonderful deep blue sky.

Our next port of call was the RSPB reserve at Loch Ruthven. The shortest way to get there from where we were was to take the Farr Road, a road only really usable in decent weather and pretty much single track. It ascends over the moors to Farr but we turned off before Farr and went down to Loch Ruthven. I filmed this journey as well which will be interesting to look at again.

We stopped at “The Steadings” hotel for a cup of tea and a sandwich, which was interesting if a bit like sitting in a stranger’s living room, before driving on to Loch Ruthven. Some of the books suggest that there is something there by way of “visitor experience” but there really is not. There are no loos, no café but there is one hide from which we managed to see two Slavonian Grebes and two Little Grebes. Apart from that there was nothing else much. It is usually punted as being good for Osprey and Red and Black-throated Divers but we didn’t see any and didn’t meet anyone who had, It was lovely in the sun but we felt a bit let down and didn’t really have the time to do the woodland walk there which is quite extensive.

We drove from Loch Ruthven nearly to Dores and then the road that goes through Culloden and past the scene of the battle. Eventually it joins the road from Nairn down to Grantown. Part of this was extraordinarily beautiful – at least in brilliant weather. I probably missed recording the best part of the journey but I got some of it before the memory card ran out. As we did this journey we came across three Red Kites on the Farr Road and a single Red Kite later on. Kestrel and Skylark were also very nice although we had to settle for switching the car off and just listening to the latter. It never did take flight.

When we joined the Old Military Road that runs down to Grantown we decided to drop in at Lochindorb since it is only a slight diversion off this road. We didn’t get any Divers or Ospreys but we did see and hear three Curlew displaying and challenging each other, their ascending, bubbling cries making a magical aural backdrop to the sun drenched loch. Like so many of the experiences of the day, a bit light on birds but full of fantastic scenery and atmosphere.

Bird Sightings : Grantown on Spey

Bird Sightings : Findhorn Valley

Bird Sightings : RSPB Loch Ruthven

Bird Sightings : Miscellaneous, Highlands

Bird Sightings : Lochindorb

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