Scotland Day 2

Willow Warbler

We decided to get up early again on Saturday morning and whizzed over to Tulloch Moor to try and see Black Grouse lekking. After a half an hour wait and distant calls of a male, we decided to give up and drove the short distance to the Caper watch instead at Loch Garten.  I was not optimistic at seeing a Capercaillie as it was now 7:00am and due to the number of people leaving the car park as we arrived, I thought we had missed our opportunity.  However, after only being in the hide for five minutes a male came into view briefly.  This was just enough time for me to see it briefly and haul my birder's wife over to the scope for her to bag her first new species for the weekend.

We then legged it back over to Tulloch Moor to see if any Black Grouse were showing, bumping into a Warwickshire Birder (Dennis, who I always seem to bump into everywhere except for Warwickshire) on the way.  Unfortunately the Grouse were not showing but, while we waited, we were serenaded by Willow Warblers and Meadow Pipits and a distant Cuckoo.

Ptarmigan

After breakfast we made our way over to the Cairngorm again after receiving a tip-off that Ptarmigan were showing at the top cafe.  En route we stopped by another area I know about for lekking Black Grouse and saw a brief but highly unsatisfactory view of a solitary male.  We then proceeded to the Cairngorm, paid out the exortbitant day fee for the Funicular Railway and soon found ourselves at the viewing platform being buffetted by 30mph gusts.  I managed to see a couple of Ptarmigan distantly as they took to the wing briefly but other than that it was hopeless trying to keep bins still in those conditions, so we retreated to the cafe for a well deserved coffee and a cake.  After shifting seats several times, we managed to obtain a window seat and 15 minutes later I managed to pick out two Ptarmigan in the distance (just dots in my scope).  Again, this view was not very satisfactory but just as we were watching those two birds, I noticed something in the corner of my high and chanced upon two more of them just below the cafe.  My birder's wife was ecstatic, as Ptarmigan had always been high on her wanterd list and she had now bagged her 2nd new species for the day.  To top things off, we then glimpsed a male Merlin as he flew off in front of the train on the way down.

For lunch we decided to trek over to Insh Marshes, which, although very nice, with great views over the marshes from the nearest hide did not have very many birds. The highlight for the visit was seeing several Roe Deer wading across the floods.

As we had a  limited time in the afternoon before having to sign into our B&B, we decided to go up to Lochindorb again for the Black Throated Divers but again they were hiding.  However, we did manage to see a Red Grouse, making our day of birding a 4 Grouse day.