Christine's walking & birds blog

Greger spotted the soaring golden eagle as we set off across the dam.




At the same time I was aware of a chipping sort of call from below, and again it was Greger who saw movement along the waterline and pointed out the dipper.


The dipper was singing in a half-hearted sort of way. We've seen dippers here before in the winter but not for some time, so this was a welcome sighting.

Two goosanders went flying over the dam but we lost them, so we drove back to the other end of the loch and found them there. I snapped one from the lay-by with a pair of teal as a record shot, as they're the first goosanders I've seen on Loch Glascarnoch.


I would have walked down onto the exposed loch-bed to get slightly closer but two men arrived with a drone and beat me to it, and I didn't feel like competing with them. Also present was a female goldeneye - probably the one from two days ago as there'd been no sign of her this time at the dam end. Whooper swans were spread in pairs and groups along the shoreline, about nine or ten in all.

Hoodies and ravens were the only other birds seen in the area, but on the drive home we saw two buzzards.