I spent the early part of Saturday night after a lovely evening meal chatting with the other guests on the Heatherlea "Birder's Blast" break, all of whom were from south of the border, though only Sue, a younger lady from Essex who had driven the whole way that day and arrived later was on her first trip to Scotland, the others all having visited before. We were also briefed by Mark Warren, our guide for the break on the plan for Sunday. We would also be sharing our itinerary for the day with another few birders who were on a different break guided by Scott O'Hara, whose mum I often chat to at Montrose Basin visitor centre. This also meant that there would be more room in our mini-bus as the group would be split between 2 buses.
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| Golden Eagle |
An early start before breakfast to try and get Black Grouse would kick-start our trip, hopefully giving me my first year-tick of the break. We headed out at 0700 for the short drive to the regular site that Heatherlea takes visitors to at nearby Dorback. Woodpigeon and Pheasant were seen en route. Views are rather distant so as not to disturb the birds and when we arrived there was no sign of any birds. A Red Grouse was almost overlooked, despite only being a very short distance in front of us, only being noticed once it called. After a short wait, the first male
Black Grouse appeared and was joined by another 4 which half-heartedly sparred as we watched. A Woodpigeon flew over and the local horses came to see us before we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. Roe Deer and Red Squirrel were both seen on the way back.
Birds were seen at the feeders outside the hotel as we ate breakfast - Coal Tit, Rook, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Starling, Siskin, Robin, Chaffinch, Feral Pigeon, Mistle Thrush and Goldfinch. As we were about to board the buses we were able to add Blue Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a few Yellowhammers. Our first stop of the main part of the day was at Loch Garten where we hoped to find Crested Tits. A Wren and a few Coal Tits were seen around the car park, but no Crested Tits. The feeders at the visitor's centre however did deliver with a few
Crested Tits visiting and at times giving us extended views. A Great Tit with a deformed beak - a lengthy lower mandible, showed briefly at the feeders also. On our way back to the mini-buses we added Goldcrest and a Treecreeper.
On our way to our next stop we stopped on a bridge over the Spey and managed to add an Oystercatcher, as well as Cormorant, Goosander, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Goldeneye and Wigeon before having to move on as a car had appeared behind us. Carrion Crow and our first Buzzard were seen before we stopped in Carrbridge for a visit to the toilets. There were a number of additions from the car park - Collared Dove, Greenfinch, Dunnock and House Sparrow. Our next stop was at another wood where we failed to see any Crossbills but did manage a brief view of another Crested Tit. Coal Tits and more Goldcrests were also seen.
After lunch we headed for Strathdearn, though the weather did not appear to be in our favour for seeing raptors. However, we hadn't gone too far in to the Glen before we saw our first raptor, though it was only a Kestrel. A small group of Greylags were seen in a field by the river. A stop at Garbole gave us a
Red Kite overhead as well as distant views of a Raven. A Buzzard circled over a nearby wood before another pair of ravens overflew. A Kestrel hunted and caught something before flying off to a fencepost to consume its catch. My photos of the birds showed streaks of snow against the birds wings making for an unusual look. A stop further on proved fruitless, though we did see Red Legged Partridges along the roadside with Pheasants. Red Deer were spotted on the hillsides. The wind was rather chilly and it was now snowing.
The conditions weren't great at the car park at Coignafearn but we did see more Red Deer, a pair of Rabbits and a few Feral Goats. I missed out on a Dipper that the others saw and eventually managed to see a Mountain Hare not too far up the hill behind us. A Raven displayed above the ridge desite the conditions. As we were about to leave, Mark suddenly spotted two
Golden Eagles gliding along the ridge to our right. A hasty exit from the buses was made and we were treated to some nice interaction between the two non-adult birds, not too high above the hill-top before they departed in different directions. We stopped for another Dipper which I managed to see this time and also a Red Legged Partridge stood atop a tree stump among Pheasants. A few Brown Hares were seen in fields as we left the Strath.
Our final stop was another woodland walk in the snow, but again this proved fruitless, so we headed back to the Hotel having managed just 42 species of bird including 4 year-ticks (in bold) as well as 7 species of mammal for the day. Not a bad start to the holiday.
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| Red Grouse |
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| Red Grouse |
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| Black Grouse |
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| Black Grouse |
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| Woodpigeon |
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| Wren |
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| Coal Tit |
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| Great Tit (with deformed lower mandible) |
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| Crested Tit |
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| Crested Tit |
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| Crested Tit |
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| Crested Tit |
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| Treecreeper |
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| Collared Dove |
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| Jackdaw |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Collared Dove |
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| House Sparrow |
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| Red Kite |
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| Red Kite |
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| Kestrel |
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| Kestrel |
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| Raven (& Sheep) |
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| Kestrel |
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| Raven |
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| Raven |
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| Raven |
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| Red Deer |
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| Mountain Hare |
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| Golden Eagle |
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| Golden Eagle |
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| Golden Eagle |
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| Dipper |
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| Red Legged Partridge |
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| Red Legged Partridge |
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| Brown Hare |
Species seen -
Black Grouse, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Cormorant,
Crested Tit, Dipper, Dunnock, Goldcrest,
Golden Eagle, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Greylag Goose, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Little Grebe, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Raven, Red Grouse,
Red Kite, Red Legged Partridge, Robin, Rook, Siskin, Starling, Treecreeper, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
