Scotland Day 3

After seeing only the briefest of views of a Black Grouse the day before, I decided to get up early for the third day in a row (leaving my birder's wife in bed) on Sunday and made my way over to Tulloch Moor arriving there at 5:00am.  On the way over there, I got great views of several Roe Deer and 5 Red Deer (including a stag) as they crossed over the road in front of my car.

As I arrived, a tour

Crestie!

group were already onto a male Black Grouse who displayed nicely for about 15 minutes.  When he disappeared from view I decided to make my way over to the Caper watch and got onto a male Caper straightaway.  I was on a roll and decided to then leave the hide to go and search for Crested Tit and Scottish Crossbill.  A pair of Cresties were very obliging by appearing on the feeder in the car park straighaway and a brief walk round the shores of Loch Garten then got me onto a male Scottish Crossbill just above me on top of a pine feeding away on a cone.  Just as I got my scope onto it, it flew off and despite a 30 minute wait it did not reappear.  At this point it was 7:00am and I decided to make my way back to the B&B via a spot where I know there are Dippers and Otter and found both - What a morning!

Brown Hare

So, before breakfast I managed to see Black Grouse, Capercaillie, Crested Tit, Scottish Crossbill, Roe Deer, Red Deer, Red Squirrel, Otter along with Dipper, Meadow Pipits, Siskin, Coal Tits, Sparrowhawk, Goldeneye and a Tree Pipit.

Slavonian Grebe

After breakfast and making my birder's wife green with envy, we made our way over to the Findhorn Valley and spent several hours searching for Golden Eagle and were rewarded with a brief glimpse along with views of Raven, Kestrel, Buzzard and Peregrine.  The slopes of the valley held the usual Feral Goats, Brown Hare and a pair of Ring Ouzel and the car park at the end held Lee Evans (on one of his many Scottish Tours).

We decided then to go onto Loch Ruthven where
we saw splendid views of Slavonian and Little Grebes and our first Hooded Crow in the surrounding fields.  The way back to our B&B was made via Lochindorb (yet again), where we finally managed to see one Black Throated Diver along with a fishing Osprey.

Osprey