A Taste of Summer

A beautiful start to the morning down at Findhorn Dunes.

 All quiet on the bird front however a fly-by Osprey and a few Juv Sandwich Terns were nice to see.
Plus the fantastic lighting made even the most common of birds look stunning.

Woodpigeon

Yellowhammer

As a post script to this entry, whilst in the garden tonight found a Garden Tiger Moth, stunning looking beastie!



 

Tiger Tiger!

Holidays are over!

Well the end of July means the end of my summer "down time" and I start preparing for the excitement of autumn and winter, possibly my favourite time up here on the Moray Coast.

Took Lynda across to Cromarty, to finally visit "the pantry" coffee shop and after a lovely coffee and slice of chocolate sponge we headed for the new RSPB hide at Udale Bay.

We were not disappointed, once again a hide with a "wow" factor.

Superb large viewing windows

Plenty of benches and opening windows.

The large viewing windows were excellent, but not suitable for digiscoping through, so my preference was for the opening windows.

Can't wait until the winter ducks, geese and waders pitch up!



First Pelagic of the season

And a cracking day out it proved to be.  Overcast so no glare to contend with, and the Minch almost flat calm.

Birds seen throughout the trip were; Gannet, Storm Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Bonxie, Tystie, Arctic Skua, Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffins, Raven and Hooded Crow in Stornoway, but highlight had to be a pod of about 50 Common Dolphin.  At one point the ferry was completely surrounded by these fantastic beasts.

Once again great company, many laughs and some brilliant birds.  Happy days and roll on the next trip in two weeks time!

Todays victims  clients, Roger and Lynne,

and no Roger I'm NOT having those optics on MY Blog! :-)

Stornoway Harbour

Common Dolphin, nice change from Bottle Nosed!

I hear the patter of tiny feet!

Before any of my family, or indeed Lynda, pass out reading the title, let me explain....... Philbert and Felicity our tame pheasants have had chicks! (ten to be exact)  Plus the Great Spotted Woodpecker has started bringing it's chick to the feeders as well.  Summer is well under way although by the rotten weather you would never know!

Felicity the proud mum, bringing her chicks to be fed

Young Great Spotted Woodpecker

This young woodpecker was drinking the water out of the cupped leaves on the beech hedge.  Never witnessed this behaviour before.



Tasty Tysties

Fantastic day tour today of  Moray, taking in seabird colonies, estuary, river, moor and Lochs.

Highlights included; Thousands of breeding Gannets and Kittiwakes, Black Guillemots feeding in the clear waters of the Moray Firth.  Osprey plunge diving and carrying off a huge salmon. Red Throated Divers in full breding plumage and of course the best bit was the company of newly crowned pensioner Richard and his polite wife Chris (yes Chris Fulmar does start FU!!)  Happy birthday Richard and remember the Ruby Murray Anniversary in October!

Tystie (Black Guillemot)

Kittiwakes

Gannet



Back to normal

Well the sweltering weather of the last few days has come to an end, and normal service was resumed to day, +12, overcast with a cool N/W wind.

With a free day I decided to recce Loch Mallachie on Speyside, a site I have driven past many times but never stopped in at.

It really is a beautiful walk down the edge of Loch Garten, through the Scottish Pine wood to Loch Mallachie itself.

Loch Mallachie, Speyside

Chaffinches were in full song throughout the wood as were Siskin calling and displaying in the treetops, Goldcrest, Coal Tit, great Spotted Woodpecker and Cuckoo were also close by.

For me though the stars of the show were the Large Red Darters, easily observed and photographed.



Large Red Darter

So a very pleasant morning, and Loch Mallachie is now on the Birding Ecosse Half day tour list.



It was indeed scorchio!!

Well the forecasters got it spot on, it was absolutely roasting on the west coast of Scotland today and no midges!

It was sad to find out the chick of the White Tailed Eagles we had set out to see had died in the spell of bad weather we had a few week ago, and no adults were to be seen.  However there were plenty of other star birds,  Black and Red Throated Divers and tysties by the bucket load.

A cracking 13 hour day in the field. 



Scorchio indeed!

Scorchio!

Tomorrows forecast  SCORCHIO!!   Plus the added bonus of low midge forecast means a day over to the West coast.  Bring on the Squeagles and tysties!





Guiding the guide

Yesterday I met up with fellow tour guide Peter Jones who had booked a holiday through Wild at Heart a local eco tour business, it seemed strange at first guiding a tour guide, but as he explained my local knowledge was what they were after.

A  highly diverse group there was a great atmosphere in the mini-bus throughout the trip.  First stop was a local loch in search of Red Throated Divers, it was then I realised these people were more than beginners when it came to photography, unfortunately, although the divers were showing well they were just too far off shore for decent shots.

Grouse put on a fine display and made up for the lack of Diver shots, the male and female closely guarding at least three young, next stop Eagle country.....

Or not as the case proved to be, it was a beautiful day for soaring eagles but alas none were to be seen but both Mountain and Brown hares, Red Deer and feral goats all gave the group plenty to snap at, with some amazing shots of boxing hares to be had.

All in all a cracking day, with glorious weather and a great deal of laughs, hopefully Peter and "wildwatch tours ltd" will return in the very near future.

Wildwatch Tours Ltd, having lunch

Today was a planned admin day, half day and full day tours have kept me extremely busy for the whole of May, so today articles for publcation had to written, e-mails replied to and grass to be cut.... this proved a distraction though as both Blackcap and Whitethroat were singing close by and I just had to try and get some pictures!  Not to worry at least I got half the garden cut :-)

  

Whitethroat

Blackcap



Sleepy Slavs

Another cracking half day tour in Speyside, Capercaillie first thing after setting out to pick up John, then a Short Eared Owl on the Grantown road, this bird was doing brief spurts of display flight, really nice to see.

After picking John up at the excellent Grant Ams Hotel (home of the BWWC) we had a late visit to the local Black Grouse lek, no males were present but one female was perched halfway up a tree near to the lek site.

Next a visit to the Grant Arms hotel own private hide for Slavonian Grebes, both birds were present, however the water level is mega high and looks like the nest site may be washed out, hopefully it is still early enough for them to retry.

Next was Findhorn Valley were we obtained good, but distant, views of Golden Eagle and Ring Ouzel.

A final stop off at a local loch provided good views of Red Grouse, and Red Throated Divers plus an added bonus of a Cuckoo perched on a telegraph wire.

All in all a very succesful morning.