Scotland Days 2 and 3.

Saturday 27th May

Al and Dan broke themselves in the pub so never made it, and Andy opted for a lie in after a week of daft ‘o clock starts wit work, so Jono and I spent a few hours at dawn wandering the tracks of Anagach Forest. Beautiful but relatively birdless aside from a couple of singing male Redstarts and common woodland birds. Very lovely though, and a couple of Red Squirrels and several Brown Hares were nice to see; it always surprises me to see the latter species in the woods.

Anagach at dawn, always magically ancient

We then spent a couple of hours searching for crossbills at Carr Wood then also at Forest Lodge, although the weather deteriorated in the afternoon. Dan and Andy had now joined us, but Al wasn’t going to make it given his heroic attempt at alcoholic annihilation last night. We found quite a few Crossbill sp., both ‘normal billed’ and larger billed birds but nothing that was a clear cut Parrot. The larger billed birds called deeper to my ear and in the past we would have been satisfied they were Scottish Crossbills but these days who knows! No sound recording = no clear ID.

Any crossbill in Scotland is a Scottish Crossbill, isn't it?

An hour or so eagle searching was called off as the weather still wouldn’t play ball, but a male Wheatear next to the car kept me entertained and my first Cuckoo of the year sat on wires was nice to see, especially given their rarity at home now.

We returned to the house, ate chippy  and sat down. None of us head any real enthusiasm for an evening in a wildlife hide but we went anyway as Andy had pulled in a favour. Woodcocks displayed as we walked from the car to the somewhat dudey structure. But it was worth it when a female Pine Marten quickly appeared, only my second ever. Three Badgers also put in a show too. Great stuff.

Sunday 28th May

Another early one with Al. Good flight views of a male Capercaillie but still no views on the ground.

Caper evidence

We returned to the house, packed and headed to Cairngorm. The fenicular no longer works, a complete waste of money, but at least it keeps the numbers of people down. Dan headed off. The weather was good and so we walked about half way up, or three of us did as Jono had a change of heart midway up. Several Ring ouzels showed well, and a single Mountain Hare, but we failed to find and Ptarmigan despite hearing one. It didn’t help that news of a Rock Bunting on Scilly came through, somewhat distracting us. Thankfully that was quickly established as an escapee, but we headed down anyway as we had a long drive ahead.

Next stop was Killiecrankie, where two Wood Warblers trilled away. These are ace birds, but yet another bird that’s suffered massive declines so I rarely see. We left Andy and Al there and began our journey south, stopping at Musselburgh Lagoons so Jono could try for a tick.

The long staying male American White-winged Scoter was on show immediately thanks to a couple of birders, and after a while came in pretty close and showed well amongst a couple of hundred Velvet Scoter. Two male and a female Surf Scoter also showed reasonably and a single Common Scoter was present, along with a few Long-tailed ducks and Eiders.

 

American winger, by Andy butler

And that was that, a most excellent if somewhat hectic weekend. Next time maybe a more leisurely pace. Yeah right...