Christine's walking & birds blog

A couple of male black grouse flew uphill through the trees, but didn't go far.


The female was on what looks like an alder tree (I forgot to check) further along the track. She picked a few catkins to eat and then she, too, flew off up the hill.



There is something a bit incongruous in the sight of these plump birds balancing on the tops of slender saplings and inching out along the thinnest of twigs.

The muddy end of Loch Glascarnoch held 16 whooper swans and four Canada geese. At the dam end, a dipper was the only sign of life around.


It had been a cold brightish morning and the rain began as we drove home - where it was already getting too dark to see if there was still a brambling in the scrum under the feeders.