Christine's walking & birds blog

The bird that flew up from the roadside as I drove along the A837 looked very much like a jay; there was nowhere to pull off the road, so I just stopped and clicked off a hasty shot through the windscreen. Enough of the bird can be seen in the pic to confirm ID.


The jay was very wary and soon flew off (past a telegraph post) to another tree (not many of them along this road, at least not the deciduous sort) when I clicked off another wild shot.


But I had to move on, and as there were no more trees, the jay flew off in earnest this time, along the road, over the moorland, and out of sight.

Last year I caught a glimpse of a jay in the forest at Rosehall, but this was quite a bit closer to home (well, in terms of roads it was, although as the jay flies there's actually not much in it); I think they are seen from time to time on the west side of the country this far north, but are still fairly uncommon.

As I drove on, two red grouse were flushed from the roadside, whirring away across the heather behind me and disappearing over a hillock.  Loch Craggie was still enough for a mesmerising reflection of the cleared forestry and quarry on the far side - where a couple of buzzards were sitting atop two conifers that have survived the harvest (not in picture).


I went for a short walk on this grey, cold day, seeing a goldcrest, six fly-over crossbills, and a pair of ravens. One raven flew over me a couple of times, making quite a noise with its wings - was this to scare me off? I've heard this once before, although on that occasion I put it down to the close proximity of a buzzard.


Driving back, I spotted crossbills again; five pictured here, and another bird across the road - perhaps they're the group I saw earlier.


As I watched them, a raucous screech issued from the forest - so that's where the jay went!

At Ardmair, with the light failing, one of the black shapes on the water wasn't the inevitable shag but a duck - the velvet scoter that was first reported here in early November, I think.


It's a poor shot (better ones can be seen on highlandbirds.scot) but, although it was pretty distant, this was the closest I've been to a velvet scoter. A nice end to the day.