Last Weekend

As my birder's wife was visiting her lovely God Mother last weekend, I decided to give them both some quality time together and ventured up north on my own instead.  My main aim for the weekend was to finally try and see some species that have eluded me previously (notably Capercaillie and Ptarmigan).

After a very long drive, I arrived at my first destination, the Glenshee Ski Resort, where I understood that I would be able to scope Ptarmigan from the car park.  I suppose, in theory you would be able to do that if you could see more than six feet in front of you - I arrived in a blizzard.  Fortunately, the storm cleared up pretty quickly and after getting my bearings, I had a wander up a nearby path encouraged by the sounds of Red Grouse all around me.  After a while I got my "eye in" and started to see the grouse but unfortunately, although very nice to see, they were the wrong type of grouse.  However, I was not about to give up and kept on scanning the ski slope above me and after about half and hour, finally clapped my eyes on my very first Ptarmigan.  I then saw another and then another and another, all within 100 metres from me - One of my bogey birds finally nailed, hurrah - I called my birder's wife as a celebration and decided to make a hasty exit from the area as it was far too cold for my liking.  After being taken on a 30 miles detour (because a road was closed), I finally arrived at Boat of Garten, checked in and ventured out into the field again.  A quick visit to the Loch Garten RSPB reserve gave me a Crested Tit and great views of male and female Crossbills.
The following day I dragged myself out of bed at 4:45am and made my way over to Loch Garten for the Caper Watch and after 2 hours of frustration, I finally obtained my first view of a Capercaillie (but just his head - not very satisfactory).  I then hightailed it to a nearby well known Black Grouse Lek and managed to see good views of a male performing 50 metres in front of me (and one other observer) before flying off.  No further sightings were then seen except for a female who flew into a nearby treetop to observe all her potential suitors.  After a large scottish breakfast, I decided to keep up the pace and ventured over to the Cairngorm and soon was put onto three Ptarmigan by some friendly birders, while having Ring Ouzels whirring round the car park.  The adrenalin by then had really kicked in and I decided to then venture up to Burghhead on the Moray Firth to try for another new species, White Billed Diver.  Unfortunately, as the weather up till then had been very unsettled, there was a lot of swell and besides numerous Long Tailed Duck, Guillemots, Razorbills, Common Scoter and the odd Sandwich Tern, I could not find any divers.  Fortunately, just as I was about to depart, some local birders arrived and within minutes had found two of the divers - new species number three.  As tiredness started to set in, I made my way back to Boat of Garten via Lochindorb (to see Black Throated Diver) and then collapsed into bed.

The following day, I decided to use the services of Steve Reddick of http://www.highlandwildlifesafaris.co.uk/ to drive me and another punter round to all the local sites (even though I had been to most of them already).  If you want to see most of the specialities (including Mammals) in a day on a multi habitat safari and you do not know the area then a day out with Steve is highly recommended.  His love and enthuisasm for wildlife is infectious and during the day we managed some superb views of Capercaillie, Black Throated Divers, Slavonian Grebes and an Otter munching away on a fish in Loch Morlich - The only downside was another early start of 4:15am.

On my last day, I decided to spend time in the Findhorn Valley on a search for raptors and after 4 hours had managed to clock Kestrel, Buzzard, Peregrine and 2 Golden Eagle.  Other highlights included Ring Ouzel and this youngster.

The long journey home with a slight detour via Loch Leven brought me another new species in the form of a Blue Winged Teal (another species that has eluded me several times in the past).