Christine's walking & birds blog

I heard the crossbill before I spotted her - and as she flew away Greger said there were two.

The only other birds we saw on our Silverbridge walk were coals tits, a buzzard, and a red kite. On the way home we pulled into a lay-by to have our coffee and buns, and Greger pointed out something many Scottish people delight in seeing - a giant Saltire in the sky. You'd think I couldn't miss it, but I did happen to be facing the other way at the time, watching a golden eagle soaring above a ridge - and there can't be any better excuse than that!

The snow has gone, and with it the stillness. There was some sunshine today as we walked on the edge of tawny moors and it remained dry, despite the threatening look of a dark cloud which was soon dispersed by the very strong westerly wind.

Two male black grouse rose suddenly from the side of the track, giving great views as they whirred off up the slope and took refuge among the trees. Two golden eagles were present, quartering the hillside and the ridge.

This one seems to have a full crop, although in another poor shot the bulge under its upper chest seems more like a soft loose lump of (mostly white) feathering.

We lost them for a while, and then Greger pointed out that one eagle had soared up to a great height and was being mobbed by two ravens. As we walked back to the car I looked back to see a smaller raptor hovering - probably a kestrel, although I couldn't be sure. But a pair of buzzards spotted along the road gave me a third new species for the year.

As it was mid-afternoon before I got out, Greger kindly dropped me at West Terrace, and I started my walk with a trudge across trampled snow to the spit. There I had the nice surprise of a male goldeneye on the river.

I couldn't see any purple sandpipers from the camp-site, but oystercatchers, ringed plovers, turnstones, and two curlews were present. A few days ago, two stonechats were here; but I couldn't spot them today.

Yesterday: The lay-by at the dam looked a bit too snowy so we carried on to Silverbridge.  It was beautiful - looked more Christmassy than Christmas did as we negotiated the river paths between two old bridges.

 
No crossbills or crested tits were seen, but a goldcrest was a first for the year; and as we drove away, a male goosander went flying upstream high above the river. It was very cold. On the way home we pulled into a lay-by above Loch Glascarnoch to scan for grouse, and the car showed a temperature of -9℃.

A snow shower caught me as I walked through the camp-site, but it had stopped by the time I reached the spit so I got the camera out. I had just counted 13 ringed plovers and four turnstones feeding there, when a dark shape appeared above the bank. That's a large wigeon, I thought - but it was the head of an otter. It gave me a long look and then proceeded to rub its nose in the snow; it left a spraint and then took to the water, swimming across the river to the golf-course spit and causing great consternation among the gulls there. 

On the BBC website today....

By the time we got there mid-morning, it had "warmed up" to -5℃, according to the car. It was a frozen landscape, crunchy underfoot with ice but not too slippery; and we went as far as the second gate. Across the loch is distant An Teallach. 

The only birds we saw were the bullfinches, which were now up the slope among conifers. We drove to the wind-farm road for coffee, looking across to our walk at the foot of the hill.On the way home we pulled in once or twice to scan for black grouse; there was nothing, but the cold was beginning to penetrate now and it was a relief to get back in the car. At the summit, the temperature dropped to -7℃, but it rose steadily as we descended to sea level. Back in the village we drove round to West Terrace, and I spotted a curlew down on the spit; so far, I've managed to spot a new bird for the year every day. I don't suppose that will last!

Yet another walk from the dam with fresh snow underfoot and a blue sky above brought just two coal tits and a great tit in the plantation, and 3+ reed buntings, one stonechat, one meadow pipit, and one robin in the messy little bay near the road. Various stems and stalks and sticks made it difficult to focus on the birds, but I managed slightly better pics than yesterday.

 

Following our tantalisingly brief sighting yesterday, I drove back to the dam today in hopes of seeing snow buntings again. I was unlucky, but I had a good walk and spotted my first bullfinches of the year - two males and two females, I think, foraging in and around the small trees just above the loch.

The male stonechat I saw yesterday was still present, and when it flew down to poke about in a messy area on the water's edge, I realised that there were at least three other birds there. These turned out to be reed buntings - not quite snow buntings, but still a very acceptable sighting for me this early in the year.