Wednesday, December 08, 2021
Today was mostly about raptors. After a short walk at the dam - a male stonechat the only bird seen - I was eating my sandwiches in the car when I spotted a distant raptor that seemed, on looking through the bins, to have a forked tail. I then lost it, but during a short walk up the thawing but still icy wind-farm road, I saw it again a bit closer as it headed south along the loch. I think I can put red kite on the Loch Glascarnoch list - if I can only find the Loch Glascarnoch list, which is probably on the back of an old envelope somewhere.
Further back along the road a small raptor was hovering - almost certainly a kestrel. The light was by now pretty atrocious and I began the drive home - pulling into a lay-by for a last scan of the high ground to the west. A golden eagle rose from a low hill-top and I sat in the car watching and snapping it; then a tourist pulled in and got out of his car, walking about and holding his smartphone up in all directions. There was no longer any point in trying to remain inconspicuous, and as I'd been twisting awkwardly and hurting my hips, I got out with some relief and leaned on the car to get a few shots. I'm always amazed at the different appearances an eagle's wings can take on, with shape and size seeming to vary so that you think you've got two separate birds - until the notches left by moulted flight feathers confirm it's one and the same.
I drove on, pulling in finally at the big lay-by at the northern end of the loch; but the water level is now very high and the only birds I could see were a pair of mallards. Turning the other way I scanned the moorland across the road and then the plantation a little way up the slope - where a solitary black grouse was sitting in a small birch tree.
The camera was flashing red because of the poor light. That's my excuse, anyway. Back in the village, a sparrowhawk flapped and glided across the road ahead, to give me my fifth raptor of the day.
// posted by Christine @ 1:51 PM 
