Moysie's Birding Blog: Scotland

Thursday, 5 March 2015

Scotland - Days 2 and 3

Sorry for the delay on this post. I've got an exam this week, so have been preparing for that. Anyway, here is Day's 2 and 3....

Day 2 was a bit of a doss day, as we drove around looking for Crested Tits, not really knowing where to find our target bird, the Crested Tit. We knew they were at Loch Garten, but we didn't know where abouts on the reserve. We went for a pleasant stroll around the a part of woodland around the reserve but saw nothing - and I mean nothing, literally!

We popped in to Loch an Eilean as the last port of call for Cresties, and were given views of 2 birds, but you had to break your neck twice to see them as they were so high up! I think I will move on to a lot more productive Day 3....

Day 3!

Today was our first day out with our guide Stuart Benn, who we had been linked up with through the AFON Conference in Cambridge sometime last year by Dr Rob Lambert - an incredible man and birder!

We were going to meet him at The Forestry Commision Office in the middle of the Abernethy Forest for a big walk - and I mean big! We must have walked for about 5-6 miles - but it was worth it!

After about 3 miles, we started to get our first good views of Crested Tit, but unfortunately we only got the picture below. We then spotted 6 blobs in a distant moor. These turned out to be resting Black Grouse, a lifer for me. Here is a poor record shot of these birds...

We then got to the final point, where a pair of Golden Eagles breed. We had to wait 35 minutes before a bird put in a appearance. It was only a flyby, but you got decent views through a scope.

After trekking it back to the car - my hamstrings were so tight it was unreal (so unfit lol), we headed to our final destination. Stuart was going to show us where the Crested Tits were at the Loch Garten reserve. It was easy to locate thinking back, and we got stunning views of at least 2 birds on the feeders and also hopping around in front of us about 10 feet away!